Why Self-Service Analytics is the IKEA of Data Exploration

Furnishing a home can be a daunting task, especially if you’re living in a place with a few funny angles and oddly shaped nooks. IKEA, the furniture retailer known for their DIY kits, can provide you with some great easy-to-assemble pieces to fill your space, but for unique layouts, prefab furniture isn’t always going to be a perfect fit. These are the times when bringing in a custom or niche-focused solution delivers the perfect fit. When you finally have all your furniture, the result will be a blend of unique and off-the-shelf pieces that all work beautifully together.Similarly, every organization functions better when they have the right mix of IKEA-like DIY data analytics tools, such as self-service BI software, and custom solutions like AI-guided analytics that are capable of exploring complex data and discovering insight hiding in unusual places.

Data exploration requires more than one tool

The applications used every day to run businesses create and capture thousands of data points every second. As a result, there is a deep treasure trove of information buried in these systems…but not a lot of resources or skills to analyze it all.

Fortunately, there has been a ton of innovation in the BI technology space, making it easier for data consumers to now create their own reports and dashboards. This means they can get answers to some of their recurring questions without waiting for an inundated data scientist or analyst to find space in their project queue. In other words, they’ve now got their very own IKEA of business analytics at their fingertips.

What’s also great about self-serve analytics is that it allows consumers to create their own reports within the boundaries set by experts. When data analysts are freed from creating and maintaining BI dashboards and spreadsheets for data consumers, they’re able to use their time and skills towards putting the correct guardrails in the self-serve software. This will minimize problems that come from using the wrong data, but it does limit the scope of inquiry…and that means some insights go unseen.

This leads us to the custom solution that complements self-serve data work: AI-guided analytics. Platforms like Virtualitics give analysts the ability to dive deeper into data and find insights that will set your business apart. Deep exploration of complex data does require advanced analytic skills, but by leveraging AI-powered Intelligent Exploration solutions, data analysts can become stronger strategic advisors.