Word of the Day: self-service business intelligence (BI)

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |May 17, 2018

self-service business intelligence (BI) Self-service business intelligence (SSBI) is an approach to data analytics that enables business users to access and work with corporate data even though they do not have a background in statistical analysis, business intelligence (BI) or data mining. Allowing end users to make decisions based on their own queries and analyses frees up the organization's business intelligence and information technology (IT) teams from creating the majority of reports and allows those teams to focus on other tasks that will help the organization reach its goals. Because self-service BI software is used by people who may not be tech-savvy, it is imperative that the user interface (UI) for BI software be intuitive, with a dashboard and navigation that is user friendly. Ideally, training should be provided to help users understand what data is available and how that information can be queried to make data-driven decisions to solve business problems, but once the IT department has set up the data warehouse and data marts that support the business intelligence system, business users should be able to query the data and create personalized reports with very little effort. While self-service BI encourages users to base decisions upon data instead of intuition, the flexibility it provides can cause unnecessary confusion if there is not a data governance policy in place. Among other things, the policy should define what the key metrics for determining success are, what processes should be followed to create and share reports, what privileges are necessary for accessing confidential data and how data quality, security and privacy will be maintained. Quote of the Day "Whereas guided discovery tools operate with a preset collection of data and metrics, self-service BI tools enable business users to add data and define new metrics when performing analysis without IT intervention." - Rick Sherman   Trending Terms statistical analysis data mining data mart embedded BI data governance Qlik   Learning Center Seven good data visualization practices for visual integrity With more users involved in the BI and analytics process, it's imperative that they follow good data visualization design practices to ensure that the data being presented can be interpreted accurately. These steps can help maintain visual integrity in charts and other infographics. Self-service BI best practices: 5 dos and don'ts In this SearchCIO video, Wayfair's Nathan Kollett enumerates the dos and don't's that make up self-service BI best practices. Get the most out of your data, reap the benefits of BI tools What do you do with all that enterprise data? Crunch, examine, explore, and contextualize the numbers, and experience the business benefits of BI tools. New Qlik CEO Mike Capone outlines his business strategy New Qlik CEO Mike Capone says the company has to tout its success stories more to stay relevant in a competitive self-service analytics market. Expert: For BI, you must know the data integration process Cloud, self-service and architecture are the focus as consultant Rick Sherman reviews pressing trends of the day. Top of all is the data integration process. Writing for Business The user-training for the new business intelligence software was extensive, in the hopes that employees would be __________ by the change. A. unphased B. unfazed Answer   Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.