We have witnessed over the last few decades an explosive amount of growth in the data being collected by today's organizations. The number of systems and tools used to store this data have also been growing and so has the complexity involved in maintaining this environment. This complexity will likely grow worse if organizations do not take steps to address it.
Another concern is the shrinking pool of data analytics talent. The number of individuals capable of supporting a complex, enterprise-grade data environment are finite and in very high demand. If you include the fact that economic conditions are leading to more and more budget cuts, we find ourselves with supply and demand trends going in two very opposite directions.
These conditions will lead to continuous cost increases and also require greater and greater effort to extract meaningful value from data. This runs counter to the Chief Data Officer’s idea of building a data-driven company. The longer it takes, the slower the decision making, the slower the decision making, the less agile the company becomes.
The term “self-service access” has been used quite a lot lately. A number of software companies have claimed that their technology can address this problem. However, the software industry has shown a knack for developing tools that require extensive training and therefore can’t really be called self-service.
Take for example Microsoft Power BI which Microsoft calls a “Self Service Analytics” solution. It is a very powerful tool but also very complex and is not for the faint of heart. Their product can takes weeks to master. All you have to do is Google “Power BI Certification” to get a feel for the effort involved to learn their product.
A 20-step process to enable customizable self-service business intelligence using Microsoft Power BI
Not to pick on Microsoft as they are not alone in their approach. They, like many others, have designed their solutions to handle an infinite number of scenarios. This combines to create a very powerful toolset but with great power also comes with great complexity.
Most data consumers are looking for trend charts and tables. They want things simple. They need fast answers and with minimal effort. Having to submit a request to someone who is the resident business intelligence expert and wait for a response is NOT called self-service! What organizations really need is self-service access for the non-technical data consumer - and not just for the experts.
This is where Process Tempo can help. We have created a platform designed to allow a small number of data analysts to establish workspaces that allow a much larger pool of data consumers to access information on-demand. The data regardless of source is presented consistently and with terms the data consumer (the business) would understand. In addition, we have added features such as our Dashboard Builder to allow non-technical users to create and design their own dashboards with minimal training required. This means these users no longer have to submit a request to the experts. Instead, they can dive right in and create their own data masterpieces whenever they want.
An example of a Process Tempo Dashboard created without requiring extensive training.
True self-service is when a non-technical user can access the information they need on-demand and in a safe and controlled environment without having to require expert analytics knowledge.
The combined set of features in the Process Tempo platform can enable one or two full-time data analysts to establish a true self-service capability that can support the needs of 1,000s of users. Other analytics solutions (such as Microsoft's Power BI) cannot match this ratio making Process Tempo one of the most cost effective and scalable analytics solution on the market today. If you are concerned about growing costs then check us out.
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