You might be asking yourself how business intelligence could be possible without the help of the I.T. department. You’re not alone. But if you look at how the BI world is evolving around us, you might start to wonder if it could be possible. Read on for a hot take.
In the hustling, bustling world of analytics, reporting and all the things that go with it, we can easily find ourselves groveling at the mercy of a short-handed I.T. department, waiting for a developer to meet with us and build our interactive visuals and reports. We find ourselves standing outside the castle moat, under attack by a fierce dragon but unable to scurry to safety because the drawbridge is currently withdrawn. The gatekeepers of the data and models do not have time for us this day and so we must fend for ourselves and fight back the dragon of missing insight until the bridge is lowered and our access to the kingdom of dashboards and reporting is restored. Okay, I know – besides the long sentence, it’s a goofy metaphor about timely access to the important data that drives business decisions and delivers insights. But we’ve all been there and that dragon seems awfully real then. However, those days may be nearing their end.
As we look towards the BI horizon, it seems more and more likely that in the near future, we won’t need the I.T. department to customize our dashboards and build our reports. Don’t misunderstand, it’s highly improbable the I.T. department is going anywhere. On the other hand, as we review the BI tooling and trends of today, it seems very probable that the I.T. department might become more of an optional piece of our BI process. For instance, BARC says this: ”The ever-growing demand is a result of business users’ need for more flexibility and self-reliance in reporting and analysis…At its heart lies the notion of user independence and self-sufficiency when it comes to the use of corporate information, which leads to a decentralization of BI in the organization.” You read that right – user independence and self-sufficiency are driving modern BI trends. Sign. Me. Up. In that same vein, G2.com issues this prediction regarding self-service trends: “In 2021, we expect to see the next step of this development, moving from an era of self-service to all-service analytics.” In case you live under a rock, I would note that we’re halfway through 2021, and apparently closer than ever to living our best BI life! Insert happy dance here.
It’s an amazing time to be in the data analytics field. With the availability of better tooling and training, low code products, self-service tools, smarter services and powerful visual platforms, it seems the best is yet to come. Empowered by these new trends, processes and tools we will begin to see a new transformative reality for business intelligence set in. That is, as we start slaying these dragons ourselves, we might start asking – why can’t the I.T. department be optional? At least, for BI.
