Everyone over the age of five knows about social networks and social media. No matter which platform you prefer and how you choose to share your thoughts and ideas, you are no doubt engaged in the networking world. When it comes to business intelligence and analytics, there is no reason you can’t employ the same techniques to share, collaborate, create and innovate.
When your business users are asked to take on yet another responsibility, they are likely to balk. Most companies are short-handed and expect more of their team members than ever before. There are a lot of good reasons to initiate data democratization and engage in digital transformation to modernize and improve the enterprise and to improve results. If the business can encourage data sharing and collaboration, it can also improve the shared knowledge of the team and create accountability and empowerment. In so doing, the business can leverage the knowledge and skill of each team member and ensure that every business user is working to their full potential with the all the information they need to solve problems and to capitalize on opportunities.
Now that you (and your team) have access to analytics tools, you want to make the best use of these tools. You want to share analysis with others, use that analysis to explain concepts and conclusions in a presentation, and clearly see the root cause of a problem, the opportunity you can leverage and the trends and patterns you need to understand in order to do your job.
So, you want to use a business intelligence solution but you don’t want to have to customize, spend a lot of money and end up with a solution that is restrictive and does not meet your needs? I don’t blame you.
When your business begins the process of choosing or changing business intelligence tools and business intelligence services, it is easy to get confused! There are many choices in the market and not all of them are created equal. A business intelligence company offering solutions, features and functionality for advanced analytics must be suitable for your requirements or your initiative will not succeed.
Don’t let business analytics intimidate you! Whether you are a small, medium or large enterprise; whether you have an unlimited budget or a tight budget, whether you have a team of analysts and data scientists or one individual struggling to provide the data your team needs to make decisions – you CAN and MUST embrace data analytics.
We all know the frustration of seeing something you really like, something you really need and then finding out that the price is not as low as you thought. Whether it is an item of clothing or those concert tickets with all the service fees added on, you know what I am talking about.
Today’s businesses and business users are more demanding than ever. No one has patience these days for tools, applications or products that offer no value or are frustrating or restrictive. So, when you hear the term ‘self-serve business intelligence’, you had better be sure you know whether the claim is valid before you choose a product.
Data preparation tools come in many shapes and sizes and not all are equal. If your business is interested in implementing a self-serve environment where its business users can become a greater asset to the organization, and use data preparation for analytics, you definitely need to consider ease-of-use for your users and flexibility, sophisticated functionality and mobile accessibility for the good of the organization.
