Self-Service Business Intelligence Trend

Since workers and business units demand more control over data analysis to immediately get an idea of all business processes, there is a rise in self-service Business Intelligence tools to meet the demand. The self-service BI allows end users to create their own analytical reports, freeing up the IT staffers. Functional workers can make faster, better decisions because they no longer have to wait during long reporting backlogs. At the same time, technical teams become freed from the burden of satisfying end user report requests, so they can focus their efforts on more strategic IT initiatives. In addition, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company Gartner argues that “self-service BI and analytics requires a centralized tem working in collaboration with a finite number of decentralized teams. IT leaders should create a two-tier organizational model where the business intelligence competency center collaborates with decentralized teams.”

Because self-service BI software is used by people who may not be tech-savvy, it is important for the user interface to be accessible and intuitive. Moreover, self-service BI capabilities should be built with a business focus from the start. However, IT-team must introduce the business workers to this environment, having conducted some training and provided a metadata dictionary.

App-Based Approach in Self-Service BI

Implementing an app-based approach to self-service BI can be a win-win situation for everyone involved as this approach is the most effective way to give business professionals necessary tools to satisfy their own day-to-day needs.

Nowadays, any company can empower workers with faster, easier, more interactive ways to get information and to process it. According to Gartner, “By 2017, most business users and analysts in organizations will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis”. Also, Forrester Research notes that “BI self-service will close the business and technology gap in 2015”. In a word, self-service BI apps can help boost productivity, optimize business performance, improve the professional level of employees and maximize return on investment.