In what Variety called “groundbreaking” Netflix recently announced two exclusive content deals, the first with Imax and the Weinstein Co. to fund and simultaneously release a sequel to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and a four picture deal with Adam Sandler. Similarly HBO has been making its content available on-demand and viewable on tablets, smart phones and other devices. Traditional ways of producing, distributing and consuming content are changing rapidly in the entertainment industry, and the same is true with self-service business intelligence (BI) and reporting.
What Does the Term Self-Service BI Really Mean?
There is no avoiding the fact that self-service business intelligence is here to stay. Recent market studies have shown that a majority of users (55%) are using self-service tools. Projections indicate that this trend will continue to increase. Just as in the entertainment industry, disruptive technologies are giving users power to explore BI data and reports when and where they want to, in order to make informed business decisions.
Challenges for Effective BI
Decisions that need to be made at the business level require access to data and reports that have traditionally gone through a request to IT or technology experts for data retrieval, before being presented to business users in a format that they could understand.
Today’s self-service BI uses new technologies to resolve ad-hoc reporting and data requests from business users. Tools which are able to be utilized on the user side now allow them access to data in real-time. But self-service BI is more than that. It also involves the technology that keeps the specialized details like sources of data, formatting, security and protocols transparent to users. This reduces the need for IT experts to create, customize and consume reports.
There Be Sharks in These Waters
Conceptually, the idea that business users can get real-time access to whatever data they need whenever they need it is a great one. In practice it can get messy. There is a need to protect data integrity to ensure that the data remains accurate. This means data governance. Without data governance, business users can revert back to a “spreadsheet culture” where pockets of outdated data get reused. This can lead to decisions made on old or even bad data. Self-service BI can only work in conjunction with checks and balances set up by the IT department so that data integrity remains intact.
There is No Self-Service in a Vacuum
There is no truly self-service BI, even though we would like to think that is the case. An extensive network of technology and technology experts needs to be in place in order for business users to access the data they need, when they need it. A good relationship between IT experts and business users is a fundamental necessity for this. End users most likely do not understand data sources, while at the same time IT does not know the best report and dashboard formats for business users. This is why a self-service data discovery tool delivers a better user experience in applications today. Users expect to be able to access reports, data and other information inside of the application they are utilizing and without having to work with a developer or data warehouse administrator. They expect rich visualizations and mash-up reports that allow for iterative exploration within of the application they use on a daily basis.
Just as we can stream movies on Netflix, or download a bestseller within seconds onto our Kindle, data has become just another element of content for immediate consumption. Businesses that continue to lock up their data away from end users will fall behind in the race to mine business intelligence.
