Self-Service BI: Benefits of User-driven Business Intelligence

Self-service BI is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to access and explore data sets even if they do not have a background in Business Intelligence or related functions. Self-service business intelligence empowers teams like product developers, sales, finance, marketing, operations, and more to answer data questions, with governance supported by IT and business intelligence (BI) analysts. Self-service BI tools allow users to filter, sort, analyze and visualize data without involving an organization's BI and IT teams.

Let's have a look at some of the benefits of self-service BI:

Answer critical questions in seconds

Gone are the days of asking for a critical KPI and having to wait hours, if not days, for the busy IT department to pull the report. Self-service BI puts the user in charge of the data.

Combine multiple data sources

Comprehensive business intelligence often requires combining multiple data sources and performing cross-database queries. From online to offline data, a self-service BI setup will enable you to aggregate and analyze every type of data available in one central place.

Democratizing data

The entire team no longer needs to rely on a data analyst poring over spreadsheets, looking for clues to improve services. Self-service BI tools provide information for everyone involved in the project in an easy-to-share format.

Free up the IT department

Old data, or different data structures, often bring the IT department back into the picture to clean up the data to make it functional. Across industries, the vast minority of users get their reports within one and three days of the initial request. With the fast pace of today's business environment, a day-long wait can render the initial question moot.

Data visualization is key

When it comes to data visualization, simplicity and clear data presented will increase the level of audience engagement. The use of dashboards has become indispensable to filter and manage the vast amounts of data that modern companies generate.