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The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

perceptualedge.com

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Re: The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

#3

Post by calinet6 »

For advanced analytics and true sensemaking, much of this might be true. You need a human to really deeply understand data and find what it really means.

However, let's apply the pareto principle. 80% of the needs are served by 20% of the effort. I think for most (let's say 80%) of what most (about 80%) of companies really need, a computer can get at least most of the way there, with much less time and effort than a human.

For example, sure, you need a human to really understand your web analytics. However, to understand it at a basic level, pull out clusters of interesting patterns, and discover anomalies and outliers that you wouldn't have gone looking for otherwise, the computer can get the average intelligent person (not an analyst) most of the way there, and certainly can provide a great deal of value for generally much less cost than a human analyst on salary.

Plus, this frees analysts up for work that truly needs their expertise. As many data folks will tell you, it'd be great if everything they did was using their full skill set to the fullest; but often they spend half their day pulling reports that a computer truly could have done for the requester without any intervention, if designed correctly (not easy, mind).

So, it's not about computers replacing humans entirely. It's about reducing waste, finding ways to cover common cases and repeated work easily, and freeing up human minds for what they're really good at and needed for.

Re: The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

#4

Post by tuna-piano »

The opinion piece doesn't give much concrete for me to go on, but I'm not sure I agree. Of course terms like "self-service" have many meanings, but I've seen it used successfully by people with a range of data skills. Some examples:

1. Previously, static reports delivered weekly are replaced with daily-updated interactive tools in Tableau (or similar), which allow business users to drill down and filter things.

2. Previous reports that would be custom SQL reports are replaced with reports built by a business user (or a power Tableau user) - with much quicker turnaround and better results.

And of course, Excel, the most widely used self-service BI tool is used successfully every day by almost every business in the world. It's use has it's problems, but overall it's extremely valuable... and it's definitely self-service and definitely BI.

Re: The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

#5

Post by locusm »

calinet6 wrote: post #3

For advanced analytics and true sensemaking, much of this might be true. You need a human to really deeply understand data and find what it really means. However, let's apply the pareto principle. 80% of the needs are served by 20% of the effort. I think for most (let's say 80%) of what most (about 80%) of companies really need, a computer can get at least most of the way there, with much less time and effort than a…

Web analytics is a poor example, most web analytics solutions are single source and a well understood domain. I think the article is referring more to a typical BI scenario where you might be consolidating data from multiple sources into a data warehouse and have (had) typical BI processes in place like ETL etc. We've been through self service BI before except it was more like a "self service covert BI" thing where silo upon silo of Excel spreadsheets existed in secret locations to those in the "know".

Re: The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

#6

Post by nwenzel »

When companies want self-service BI, what they really want is, zero-code-required tools that a BI developer/analyst can use to build on-demand standard reports for business users with predefined click-through paths.

And yes, software makers exaggerate in their advertising.

As compared to the author's other posts, this one seems hurried and maybe a little grumpy. But, still makes an important point.

Re: The Myth of Self-Service Analytics

#9

Post by fiatjaf »

fiatjaf wrote: post #8

Since in Brazil we have 0 self-service gas stations, should I understand that Brazilians do not have the skill necessary to pump gas?

If I find a country in which most car owners repair their own cars, instead of delegating it to specialised mechanics, will you take back everything you said?
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