Case Study: Harley-Davidson Motor Company achieves IT-business collaboration and faster analytics delivery with Alteryx

Harley-Davidson’s Way to Get the IT Department Onboard with Alteryx

Harley‑Davidson needed to scale its analytics when a vendor‑supplied Ridership file far exceeded the capacity of Microsoft Access. Analysts brought in Alteryx to handle large, fast‑moving requests, but IT pushed back over investments, data security, governance, and loss of control. Communication gaps—different language, styles, and frames of reference—plus rising analytical complexity and limited IT capacity created friction and led analysts to purchase Alteryx licenses before IT approval.

To bridge the divide the team changed its approach: they simplified language, quantified workload and time‑savings, emphasized speed, iteration and improvisation, used storytelling for decision‑makers, and adopted Agile practices so business and IT worked side‑by‑side. They built a formal data management process and ran joint user‑acceptance tests (analysts supplying data, IT validating ETL). Within about a year this produced a true analytics–IT partnership, faster delivery of insights, improved governance, and reduced conflict.

Harley-Davidson Motor Company

Mike Kinde

Advanced Analytics Lead