Self-Service BI

Tableau is one of the new In-Memory tools that enable self-service BI. And it's catching on.

Tableau Desktop is used to connect to data, conduct analysis and build interactive dashboards.

Tableau Reader is like Adobe Reader - it's free and let's users filter and interact with reports if you don't have Server.

Tableau Server manages user access, data sources and connections, and serves up the reports.

Self Service BI

BI Has Hit the Wall

why self service bi?

So far, business intelligence vendors have focused too much on putting spreadsheets on steroids and not enough on closing the loop between visual displays and analysis.

The point is that if you are still running your business on questions you planned on answering last year or last month, you are probably going to quickly fall behind companies that are able to poke, probe and explore their options based on more visual and interactive forms of analysis.

~~ Dan Woods

Self-service BI is defined as the facilities within the BI environment that enable BI users to become more self-reliant and less dependent on the IT organization. These facilities focus on four main objectives:

• easy access to source data for reporting and analysis;
• easy-to-use BI tools and improved support for data analysis;
• fast-to-deploy and easy-to-manage data warehouse options such as appliances and cloud computing;
• and simpler and customizable end-user interfaces.

... When Thornton May was interviewing people for his book “The New Know”, he asked a prominent venture capitalist known for his 360-degree view of the technology industry what he thought of when he heard the phrase business intelligence. His response was “big software, little analysis.” Sadly, his response rings true.

In the 1990s, the data warehousing industry, which had become lackluster due to its many failures and the inability of thought leaders and vendors to tell us anything new and worthwhile, promoted the term business intelligence (BI) as its new rallying cry. It was used as a marketing campaign to rekindle interest in old technologies, but did little to change the course of events. The industry continued to focus on building the infrastructure of data rather than the tools and methods that are needed to actually use data.

~~ Stephen Few

Stephen Few. 2011. BI Has Hit the Wall. Perceptual Edge. http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=820

Claudia Imhoff & Colin White. 2011. Self-Service Business Intelligence: Empowering Users to Generate Insights. TDWI Best Practices Report, Third Quarter.

THE BIG BUILD

Traditional Tech-Centric BI

• Data preparation and Governance
• Build BI Stack
• Build all Analysis
• Managed Reporting

Technical people are also responsible for maintenance and change. Lots of change. Change that they are not able to respond to in a timely manner. Nor are they able to anticipate all of the potential needs of the Business.

As a result, they have little time for documentation and are not available to support analysts in a DBA capacity:

• complex queries
• data quality
• investigating new connections/source systems

While Tech is doing this...

but we need the right tools to do the job right

Considerations in Selecting a Self-Service BI Tool

(or DIY - do it yourself BI)

Claudia Imhoff & Colin White. 2011. Self-Service Business Intelligence: Empowering Users to Generate Insights. TDWI Best Practices Report, Third Quarter.

Analysts are being asked to RAPIDLY provide insight into ever changing Business challenges

Instead, Self-Service BI could look like this

Even with access to Data Warehouses, Data Marts and Data Sources, analysts are spending approximately 75% of their time wrangling the data into an analysis ready state.

Data Warehouse solutions need to be fast to deploy, flexible, and easy to use. In many organizations new data source systems are being added faster than legacy systems are retired and IT has struggled to keep the pace. Data warehouses can also become too complex or the information may become out of date. This leads to lowered use by analysts who will always find a way to get the data they need.

E-Bay has been dealing with this challenge on a large scale since 2001. In 2010, they adopted a Self-Service BI model by creating a Data Hub, using HADOOP to query their big data and Tableau to analyze it.

In-Memory visual analytic tools crunch the data right on your computer - using your RAM rather than on the disk where the data resides. This means SPEED. Instant Insight.

Data is imported into the workbook and compressed by Tableau's Data Engine at a ratio of 10 to 1. Tableau can handle BIG DATA.

IT

wrangle the data

In-Memory means you don't need to build the whole STACK

• Enable Analysts to conduct analysis
• Data preparation and governance

Show Me

switches between chart types instantly

letting the data tell us the story

Rapid Insight

Rapid insight is not only achieved through Tableau's speed of analysis and visual display. With Server, rapid insight is achieved through the sharing of data sources.

Tableau Server enables the creation of a data center or hub where analyst can access multitudes of data sources and each others reports. This transparency puts an end to data and reporting silo's that cause much confusion and wasted time.

Why Tableau Server for Self-Serve BI?

think of all the data sources that analysts of different departments connect to

for the report users...

That means more time spent investigating and getting to the story

or being able to respond to more requests

or connecting to data they could never get before

or....

... AND this is a no brainer for IT

Server can be implemented in 1/2 a day

that would be installing, set-up, creating user groups, assigning user access and adding some data connections

That means an exponential reduction in

Time To Insight!

IT claims Server requires about 1 hour per month for maintenance

Cost

Benefit

127 % ROI

These are Implementation Costs - annual fees are approximately 20%.

http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1C97EUX&ct=121001&st=sb

it gets considerably cheaper with more users

http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1C97EUX&ct=121001&st=sb

Recommendations for Self-Service BI

to Tableau or not to Tableau?

Claudia Imhoff & Colin White. 2011. Self-Service Business Intelligence: Empowering Users to Generate Insights. TDWI Best Practices Report, Third Quarter.

respond to business now = respond to customers sooner

save time = save $$$

mobile

cloud

no more big builds = $$$

interactivity = real time story

127% ROI

collaboration

SEE your data

Excel-like

rapid insight

let the data tell the story

industry leading

quality

economic

sharing = transparency

easy

1 million records in 6 seconds

Its a revolution