Organizations are always looking at new ways to fully derive value from data analytics. Business users need to become self-reliant data explorers and IT departments need to empower them by providing the right tools and environment for fast, easy and wide-ranging data access, according to experts.
In a recent DBTA webinar, Vijay Anand, senior director of product marketing at MicroStrategy, discussed what to look for in a data discovery tool to make better decisions , offered tips on how IT teams can collaborate with departmental business teams to better streamline information in the analytics process, and reviewed best practices to achieve governance and yet offer “managed” self-service to business users.
The old model for analytics offered one way to deploy analytics, Anand explained: IT had to build a centralized semantic layer prior to allowing business users adopt BI. “IT controlled analytics, they would build reports and dashboards and flood it out to the masses,” Anand said.
But, the role of BI has changed exponentially in a short time as business users become more involved with the process. “There’s a growing trend that business users are becoming more sophisticated because they need to,” Anand said. “Self-service really has become that much more dominating in the world of analytics.”
However, to make insightful decisions on their own, Anand noted, business users demand instant access to data from multiple enterprise sources. According to Anand, MicroStrategy offers a platform that can assist business users in their quest to independently access data and work together to simplify the data pipeline.
“The ideal scenario is that everyone in your organization is able to look at certified information, connect to the same data sources, and are essentially able to have a sort of standardization within the organization,” Anand said.
To view a replay of this webinar, "How to Successfully Deliver Self Service Analytics & Data Discovery to Decentralized Teams,” go here.