{"id":16109,"date":"2014-05-27T21:10:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T04:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devwww.3cloudsolutions.com\/post\/does-self-service-bi-work-2\/"},"modified":"2024-01-04T08:21:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T16:21:23","slug":"does-self-service-bi-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/resources\/does-self-service-bi-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Self-Service BI Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Self-service BI is a relatively new idea and one might rightly ask, \u201cDoes self-service BI work at all?\u201d The quick and hopeful answer is \u201cOf course, it must<\/span> work! All my software vendors are pitching self-service platforms to me\u2014this is the future!\u201d Yet sometimes software inventions get ahead of their markets\u2019 needs. Early adopters aren\u2019t always rewarded.\u00a0 Is this the case with self-service BI?<\/p>\n

What is software?<\/h2>\n

Consultants are well known for initially answering every question with a single pat answer: \u201cIt depends.\u201d Before you click away from this article, I do have a better answer than that!\u00a0 But in a sense, the success of your self-service BI program does depend\u2014on your expectations. What do you expect self-service BI to provide to your organization?<\/p>\n

\"SoftwareThe software industry delivers amazing innovations.\u00a0 Great software is sometimes indiscernible from magic.\u00a0 So much so that we\u2019ve come to expect magical results from our software programs. But often software is merely a tool to help us do more efficiently what we once did without it. In data analytics, are there really<\/em> things we can do with software that were\u00a0impossible<\/em> with paper and pencil (even if it might have taken 100 times more people and far more time)?<\/p>\n

Expectations<\/h3>\n

When BI software is viewed as a tool to provide task efficiency within one\u2019s own sphere of experience, it begs the question whether a self-service BI tool can truly enable every end user to be his or her own data warehouse designer, data scientist, data visualization guru and statistician. Or is that too much to expect?<\/p>\n

In the case of self-service BI, the tools are much more approachable and require far less technical expertise to use than the tools we used 10 years ago. It\u2019s game-changing that today we have tools that the average person\u2014with only basic computer skills\u2014can\u00a0use to gain insights from their data. \u00a0This is an amazing, often inspiring part of self-service BI. Most every decision can now be based on statistical rather than anecdotal data, and that’s powerful.<\/p>\n

But we have to keep our expectations in check.\u00a0 Intuitive software makes self-service users more productive.\u00a0 It enables them to \u201cdo analytics\u201d in an hour rather than not having enough time to analyze data at all before making many decisions.\u00a0 It helps them meet their routine needs without queuing up for IT or data scientist assistance.\u00a0 This pervasiveness and accessibility of data is the highly visible impact of the self-service BI revolution.<\/p>\n

Complex problems are still complex<\/h3>\n

This is where we get back to expectations. Data modeling can be complex. Many data modeling problems do indeed exceed the skill capabilities of many self-service users.\u00a0 Self-Service BI tools make manipulating software simpler, but so far have done little to make complex data relationships and statistical problems easier to understand and model in a digital\"ManWithMaze\" format. Data cleansing, statistical methods and process automation are other areas where self-service users may at times need the help of others with advanced skills.<\/p>\n

Data science and computer science experts who spend 4-6 university years followed by a lifetime learning how to solve complex data problems will remain in high demand for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 In fact, such individuals are only seeing more demand for their skills as data analytics techniques become more widely used.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h4>\n

Having helped design dozens of BI initiatives that included self-service components, I\u2019ve seen first-hand that self-service BI really is worth investing in\u2014for most organizations.\u00a0 Line employees and managers won\u2019t remain competitive with their peers forever if they don\u2019t increasingly use data as part of their decision-making process.<\/p>\n

Does that mean every user can meet all of his or her data analysis needs without the assistance of specialists and experts?<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Usually not, and this is where current expectations of self-service BI technologies are still not perfectly aligned with business and human resources realities.\u00a0 Software is getting easier to use, but the data problems and business questions we use software to solve aren\u2019t getting easier.<\/p>\n

Effective business intelligence initiatives will continue to be a partnership between end-users, subject-matter experts and data experts over the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Self-service BI technologies are improving this partnership by helping users do more and reduce decision cycle times. Data experts are enabled by self-service too\u2014now able to focus less time on routine tasks and creating final reports, and more time improving the quality and comprehensiveness of the data their end-users use. But the partnership is evolving through self-service\u2014not being dissolved by it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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