Today, one of the chief goals of nearly all organisations is to enable data-driven decisions and actions. Firms want to achieve the objective with “right data, for the right user, at the right time”. This characterises business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing since their beginnings.
Businesses also want to enable users to push beyond canned reports and limited spreadsheet views. Companies want advanced data visualisations and analytics; then, users can accelerate discovery of valuable insights and apply them for business advantage. Only in recent years have BI tools become easy enough for business users to deploy and implement without considerable handholding by IT Developers and Data Analysts.
Analytic database platforms that are specifically designed to support data discovery and advanced analytics are also now easier to deploy, load with data, and use. Offering flexible data visualisation, dashboard based information views, analytics and more.
Business Intelligence for All Stakeholders
Decision makers at all levels of organisations are demanding tools that will allow them to access, analyse, transform, and share information without having to wait for IT Developers to do it for them. They also need analytic platforms that can support their independence by serving up data and fielding ad hoc queries rather than as part of scheduled batch query and reporting activities supervised by IT.
Flexible, Modifiable BI Tools
PDC’s research finds that reducing dependence on IT and increasing users’ self-reliance with BI and analytics is important to a wide majority of those surveyed. BI, data discovery, data visualisation, and visual analytics tools are addressing self-service demands. Features and functions in these tools can enable users to reach beyond canned reports and spreadsheets to build visualisations and interact with data at deeper levels for exploration and discovery.