Prepare your Business for the Future with Augmented Analytics
The first time the internet was used was in the year 1975, following which the use of the world wide web began in 1990. And thus began our journey towards the era of data. Today, we are flooded with data which is now referred to as Big Data, due to its vast, complex and fast-moving nature.
Traditional business intelligence solutions are no more valid. At such a time it has become essential to handle such large amounts of data effectively to stay on top of your competitors. A business that can uncover the insights hiding in its data will be able to thrive in the market in the future.
So what is the solution to handling such a mass amount of data? How to uncover insights from this data? How to identify solutions that meet your ever-changing data needs? This is where augmented analytics comes into the picture. This article will tell you why your business needs to implement augmented analytics to thrive in the future and become successful in the market.
What is Augmented Analytics?
Before you begin considering augmented analytics, it is imperative to understand the concept of it. Gartner defines augmented analytics as a method that uses machine learning or artificial intelligence technologies for automating data preparation and sharing and discovering insights.
To put it, augmented analytics makes use of machine learning to interpret and interact with data as humans do, although on a large scale. It can prepare and analyze data to extract insights that can be shared within the organization to formulate strategy and business plans that are optimal for the company.
So now that the concept of augmented analytics is covered, you would want to start looking for the best analytical tools for businesses in the market. Various organizations are probably already looking for software with augmented capabilities, but before we dwell more in-depth into this topic, it is essential to understand the scope and how this software will benefit your business.
Scope of Augmented Analytics
We have established so far that augmented analytics is a technique that will be useful shortly. However, you must be wondering if this will be useful for your business and how. Read the following to understand the scope of augmented analytics.
Cloud-Based Deployments
Business intelligence platforms paired with modern analytics would be an ideal combination for future cloud-based deployments. This will ensure delivery at a much faster pace by using far fewer resources which would be beneficial for an organization.
Sharing Enriched Analytics
Many organizations are required to share and provide access to curated external and internal data to users. This can be done by sharing the prepared data via the cloud with other businesses. This helps to enrich your analytics and allows you to integrate and share it with data and analysis of other organizations, thereby improving it for mutual benefits.
Easy-to-Use Interface
With recent developments, augmented analytical tools for businesses have become easy to use. They provide a more intuitive and interactive user interface that is elegant and more user-friendly.
Democratizing Data Discovery
Once the data is prepared, augmented analytics can detect signals that affect business models. However, the less tech-savvy data scientists may not be that skilled at looking for the essential data. Augmented analytics makes it easier for even the technologically challenged scientists to determine the required algorithms and then write and use the right code to yield results. To summarize, augmented analytics democratizes the insights, allowing it to become more accessible for business users to extract complex insights and helping them save valuable time and effort.
How Will Your Organization Benefit From Using Analytical Business Tools?
Before we cover the type of tools available in the market, you need to understand how your business will benefit from using them. Read the following benefits of augmented analytical tools.
Reduces Efforts
A report by The Data Warehousing Institute discovered that 65% of their respondents spend between 41 to 80 per cent of their time on data preparation. An analyst or data scientist ends up spending around 1669 out of 2087 work hours in a year preparing the data for interpretation. This is how much an average organization ends up wasting their time and efforts over handling data. Since augmented data preparation cuts down your efforts of manual data preparation, it is no wonder that preparing your business for augmented analytics has become more important, especially now.
Allows You to Ask Questions Faster
Augmented analytics has a Natural Language Query (NLQ) that will enable you to ask questions faster. Without having to learn SQL, NLQ helps you to ask queries in plain English. Another benefit of NLQ is that you do not need to be a computer geek or well-versed with SQL. Hence, it becomes more accessible to an average business user saving the time of your analytics staff.
Helps You Choose The Right Path
The best thing about NLG (Natural Language Generation, the same technology used in NLQ) is that it doesn’t just interpret questions asked in English but also responds with answers in English. Some business tools offer the NLG feature that can search your data and explain insights in a narrative format.
Accelerates Data Preparation and Discovery
Data preparation is a tedious and complicated process. Even the most established data scientists have a tough time combing through millions of records and could take several months. As discussed above, augmented tools not only help reduce efforts but could help you prepare heaps of data sooner than expected, thus accelerating business processes. With the help of machine learning, augmented analytics takes a look at all combinations of data to determine where similar items that are not the same should be grouped.
Track Results and Provide Conclusions
After all the efforts of your data scientist, you manage to sort your data and then can obtain valuable insights by your analysts, all of it would be meaningless without being able to take any concrete action. This is where analytical tools come into the picture, and it not only helps provide conclusions but also helps to track results.
Apart from this, there are many other benefits to implementing augmented analytics in your business. However, making the switch is a long process, and you need to start preparing your business eventually for the future with augmented analytics. While doing so, you must be thinking about what tools are available and which one is best suited for your business. Read the following to find out the augmented analytics tools in the market.
Augmented Analytics Tools
This concept is still relatively new, and there is tremendous scope in its development. However, many companies are working towards developing these tools and businesses need to be aware of them to prepare for the future.
TIBCO Spotfire
TIBCO Spotfire is a platform that offers a complete analytics solution in the market. This software is powered by a built-in artificial intelligence engine that makes it quick and straightforward for everyone to visualize discoveries in data. It offers several features such as predictive applications, dashboard metrics, visual analytics, dynamic real-time analytics applications, and predictive, location and streaming analytics. They even offer a free 30-day trial to experience the full capability of Spotfire Analytics,
Sisense
Sisense is a cloud-native data and analytics platform that uses the most modern technologies to enable scalability, faster delivery without compromising on reliability. Businesses can manage a highly performant and future-ready analytics software that is designed to scale.
MicroStrategy
Microstrategy is a mobility and analytics platform that empowers businesses to deliver precise and trusted insights. This business tool brings all your data together and makes it available for everyone to use. It helps provide personalized reports in many of its users with self-service analytics. This transaction-enabled application accelerates workflows by allowing quick build, test, and deployment.
Tableau
Tableau is the future of analytics and can harness the power of data through its analytics platform. It helps to convert your data into insights that drive action. It has visual, interactive analysis and is powered by the company’s patented VizQL technology. It provides powerful analytics that allows the user to ask more profound questions that deliver more meaningful insights,
Power BI
Power BI is a data visualization product by Microsoft that offers interactive insights and business intelligence techniques with an interface that is easy to understand. An average business user can implement this software to create their own reports and dashboards. The key features of this product are that it helps transform data into amazing visuals that are shareable with employees. It visually studies and explores data all in one view. With its built-in governance and security, this software is scalable across your entire organization. It even allows collaboration and sharing of customized dashboards and interactive reports that help organizations to make more informed and beneficial decisions.
Qlik Analytics Platform
In the age of data, the Qlik software allows businesses to manage their data end-to-end through its analytics platform that is built to help transform the way your organization functions. With its machine learning and business intelligence technologies, this software helps make faster, smarter and bolder data discoveries. It combines all the data and makes it ready for analysis by anyone and everyone to freely explore. This software helps you bring analytics into every business decision by making this platform shareable with your team. Make better and more informed decisions by implementing this software in your organization.
IBM
IBM is a renowned and trustworthy company that provides two products which include IBM Cognos Analytics and Watson Analytics. The differences between the two software are not very significant. However, the following are the features where these two software works the best.
Watson Analytics
Watson Analytics is a business tool that explores data while focusing on discovery and insight. It looks at a large amount of data while trying to discover how the data is related and what can be used from it. It can look at data in multiple ways to assess its relevancy with efficiency. It is also good for looking at data that has no boundaries. The data tools and algorithms of this tool are designed to find associations and relevancy and then allows the user to assess the value of the data.
Cognos Analytics
The Cognos Analytics tool mainly focuses on using systems of record data. Many companies and organizations make use of this concept for managing the enterprise on a regular basis. Most of the data is collected from ERP and this platform represents the work the organization and its people do. The main feature of this application is that the data and its use tends to be structured. It’s data mainly is extracted from the data warehouse where the transaction data has been processed and organized for the purpose of analysis and reporting. It focuses strongly on trends, exceptions, deviations from the plan or the past and drives data-based decision making.
The market is cut-throat and in order to survive it, your competitors are probably already looking for augmented analytics business tools. Then at such a time, the question is not whether you should or shouldn’t adopt augmented analytics. The main question here is when should you start?
While we have mentioned the top business intelligence tools above it is imperative to remember that the scope of augmented analytics is wide and the market is flooded with different tools for different purposes. The best way to proceed with preparing your business for the future with augmented analytics is to conduct thorough market research and even consider hiring a consulting partner who will guide you properly through this journey.
Remember, augmented analytics is still an evolving field and while most companies might not be using this software still for the end-to-end process, but starting with it one piece at a time. At such a time it is important to at least begin implementing this process in your business model in order to understand the significant benefits of it for your organization.
