Perhaps a decade ago, the term “data-driven” went unnoticed.
Over the years and, especially with the technological boost gained during the pandemic, the impact of data management on companies has been a determining factor for decision-making. This practically underutilized asset has gained strength, leading industries to seek the best alternatives to analyze, visualize, share, and take better advantage of all the data that is generated daily.
With the popularization of Business Intelligence and Data Science, hand in hand with Artificial Intelligence and the increase in computational capacity, data storage, and processing have become accessible, giving way to data culture. Companies that know how to manage their data have a massive competitive advantage, making them better at overcoming challenges and planning for the future.
Encouraging the use of data by employees and executives makes these resources more autonomous and simplifies processes. Access to clean, analytics-ready data prompts users to ask questions, interpret the results, and communicate to whoever is needed by promoting innovation and creativity. It is a change of mindset that brings countless benefits.
Having the right tools that focus on this migration to data culture is extremely important. The volume of data, the frequency of consultations, accessibility, and security, among other factors, must be determined. Each company has different requirements that make this process unique. Some organizations already have their data warehouses or data lakes, as well as ETL processes that have prepared the data for further analysis. However, some organizations have not started this process, and a survey from scratch is necessary to start this cycle.
There is a variety of software that makes this process possible, from programming languages such as Python and R to powerful analysis tools such as Tableau. The latter has been gaining market share and has positioned itself at the top of its category. It manages well-structured data governance, easy to maintain, and has a complete package of programs that accompany the user from the ETL process to the publication of datasets and dashboards in the cloud. Here is a brief description of these programs:
Tableau Prep:
Data cleaning tool. It offers the option of combining several data sources, flows can be generated for their transformation.
Tableau Desktop:
A robust desktop tool for data analysis. Connection to different sources, option to publish dashboards and stories in the cloud. Greater author experience.
Tableau Online:
A cloud hosted analytics platform with most of the features found in Tableau Desktop. It is intended for publishing dashboards. Removes the need for user configuration.
Tableau Server:
Analysis and collaboration tool on the web. Manages access control to information and constitutes a central repository for users. It is scalable and secure.
Tableau Reader y Tableau Viewer:
Tools for sharing content crafted in Tableau Desktop. It was Tableau's first solution for sharing interactive content.
Tableau Public:
Free storage in the cloud is of public use for users. It's not recommended for handling sensitive information.
Directing a company to be data-driven is a joint effort of all the areas involved in order to ensure success. In conjunction with a team of professionals who lead the process based on the needs of the organization. Given this great leap, the fruits of this effort will be undeniable, improving the productivity of its users and decisions made based on facts, learning from the past to improve the future.
