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Consider the time and effort involved in the ‘old world’ of Business Intelligence data preparation! How on earth did we ever get anything done? Armies of data analysts and IT staff slaving over data, compiling, analyzing, graphing, charting, taking requests from managers and users and engaging in an endless exchange and interaction to assure that the requirements are understood and met. By the time the Data Analysis was delivered, it was old, sometimes incomplete and perhaps delivered in a form that might be misinterpreted by its audience.
During the ‘bad old days’ of Data Analysis, it was not unusual for analysts and IT staff to spend 70% or 80% of their time on the project, and during that time, all other projects were set aside. So, what was the cost of data preparation and analysis? The staffing and resources, the time spent in understanding requirements and then diving into the data (often stored in disparate systems, spreadsheets and data warehouses).
But, today’s Business Intelligence gathering and Data Analysis tools are light years ahead of the old days and these tools allow business users to engage in advanced data discovery, self-serve data prep, self-serve data visualization and plug n’ play predictive analysis, using data from integrated systems and smart technology that offers recommendations for data visualization and techniques that will help the user gather, prepare and analyze data and share and visualize it in a way that is meaningful to them.
Self-serve data preparation and analysis saves money and time. Analysts and IT staff can be called upon to analyze data when a project is complex or requires a professional approach but, on an everyday basis, business users can dive in and do the work themselves without spending hours or days on a report or analysis. They can use the data resulting from this analysis to make decisions and move the organisation forward without the cost, time and resources required in the old Data Analysis environment.
Imagine what your team (business users, analysts and IT) can do with that extra time and budget! Imagine how much more productive they can be by simply letting these innovative BI tools do the legwork. The cost of data preparation and analysis has always been a cost that was born by organizations because the enterprise needed answers to crucial questions. But, that cost is significantly diminished by the new crop of self-serve Business Intelligence tools. Your data analysts spend at least half of every day (sometimes the entire day) working on analytical projects. With one project backed up behind another, their most critical skills and effort cannot be put to good use or focused on the most critical projects. But, if your business users are able to leverage easy-to-use self-serve tools, your data analysts can focus on the most complex and critical projects!
Automate the data cleansing process, and prepare data quickly and easily. Make it available to your organization and take the most time-consuming work out of the hands of your analysts so that they can do the most important work for your organization. By automating the data prep process, and opening up the BI tools to your business users, you can achieve your goals, decrease your expenses and improve the accuracy and clarity of your data.