One of the biggest buzz words in IT trends over the past few years has been Self-Service Business Intelligence. While it may not be new, especially to the data scientists in your organization, it is still a hot topic which comes up in many customer conversations.
Self-Service BI allows for IT departments to put data analytics and its visualization into the hands of end users. This democratization of data allows your employees to create on-demand queries to address their current business needs. Previously, IT departments focused on creating production reporting for users to consume. These reports were inflexible, costly to change, and focused on data the IT department thought end users wanted. Self-Service BI solves these problems by enabling IT to create interactive dashboards that end users can use to view real-time, relevant data.
Prior to Self-Service BI, the tool of choice for many end users was Excel. In fact, a Forrester study found that 88% of nontechnical office workers rely exclusively or heavily on spreadsheets for their reporting and analysis needs. While a great tool, Excel is not an optimal solution. Spreadsheets do not offer real-time data, are difficult to publish within teams and require manual manipulation that is prone to user error. How many times has your organization looked at data in a presentation and spent more time discussing the integrity of the data versus the results the data was illustrating?
Like with any new tool, an adoption plan is critical to Self-Service BI success. End users can be slow to adapt and are reluctant to change from their current way of retrieving their favourite report. Research from Inside Analysis found that among businesses implementing self-service BI, 73% said the tools required more training than expected. The key to enabling empowering users to successfully use BI is not only give them the know-how to service themselves but also knowledge on how to interpret the data.
Self Service Business Intelligence is a trend that is here to stay. Giving business decision makers the power to make informed choices based on real time, pertinent data is likely to become something that companies consider critical to their success.
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