Motivation Initiated by recently graduated statisticians a push for R is noticeable. Nice development tools and more so shiny web-based reports attract interest from management.
Implementation From a company perspective some technical foundation for R has to be provided beyond user’s desktop systems, for instance dedicated server(s) and maybe some High Performance Cluster - and all to interact nicely with each other.
Maintenance The R ecosystem evolves at a good pace. When to centrally install which R version, which packages can raise a number of issues.
Infrastructure Besides R and shiny servers we found generally web portals were appreciated by users. For R code development a central git repository server seems indispensable nowadays, best with facilities for continuous integration and a server for locally developed packages.
Community In a company spread out across many time zones electronic support for discussions about R helps a lot to keep the ball rolling and advance usage. This is no substitute for local meetings that easily can span across department boundaries.
Similarly training in R benefits from a two-pronged strategy:
- electronic
via self-paced online courses
- local classroom
for dedicated topics
- peer communication
