Companies are overwhelmingly choosing a new breed of data-discovery and interactive-analysis platforms. In fact, they’re choosing these platforms even when they’re not the most appropriate tools for the job at hand and despite lingering concerns about how to govern data across the enterprise.
What’s at stake in this transition is not just the survival of well-known, IT-centric BI platforms. Companies will inevitably have to reconcile why they have separate system-of-record reporting platforms and data-discovery platforms because “no single vendor fully addresses both [needs].”
The complaints about traditional BI software are well-known: It’s slow and rigid. Creating reports is time-consuming, and it places a burden on IT teams.
Perhaps when there was no other choice, it made sense to invest in these tools, but in today’s world, what are they good for?
Self-Service Tools: Increasingly the Shape of Things to Come
Self-service tools may be much more flexible and easy to use—but not all of them are created equal, and many come with limitations.
Current business demand is for tools that are:
- User-friendly
- Intuitive
- Interactive
- Allow users to access or extend not just IT-curated data sources, but also non-traditional ones
But while most solutions are good at the user-friendly aspects, the technology can run into trouble when it comes to the extension of data access: some of the newer tools fail to provide “the accuracy and scalability” of traditional BI.
Dashboard Users Are Confident in Leveraging Business Data
So what is the ROI from creating a dashboard? Respondents to a survey last year rate their level of confidence that their data analysis has led to measurable improvements in revenue and efficiency. These superior capabilities facilitate data analysis, enabling middle-market companies and SMBs to make better decisions faster.
Consider the case of Fred Ferber, the owner and CEO of Ferber Industries and the SMB-focused software firm, Conveyorware. When he needed to handle rapid growth, he turned to self-service tools to consolidate his business data.
This allowed Ferber to identify which products were selling, item return and repair rates, and optimize inventory levels to boost customer satisfaction. In addition, the software enabled him to track and analyze employee hours and costs.
“As I look back,” Ferber says, “our system’s ability to commingle data provided me with the most valuable information: This was data from which you could inform business decisions. The intelligence was essential to maintaining profitability, superior customer service, and satisfaction.”
When you feel tied into “old data” and static processes, bring us into your strategic conversations.
As an experienced analytics thought partner, we’ll give you new insights into your internal processes and buyer discovery trends, measure progress toward a set of quantitative goals, flag shifts in your markets or financial operations, and increase your customer experiences to a higher level of satisfaction.
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