As businesses moved from simple data availability to deep analysis, analysis tools and their capabilities evolved.
The first analytics toolkits were based on semantic models from business intelligence software. They helped ensure effective management, data analysis, and consistency across tools. One drawback was the unavailability of timely reports. Business decision makers were not always confident that the results matched their original request. Technically, these models are used mostly locally, making them cost inefficient. In addition, the data often ended up isolated in disparate repositories.
Subsequently, an evolution in self-service tools made data analytics available to a wider audience. These tools promoted the proliferation of data analytics because they did not require special skills to operate. Desktop business analytics has gained popularity over the past few years, especially when working in the cloud. Business users are enthusiastically exploring a wide variety of data assets. The ease of use is appealing, while combining data from different sources and creating a “single version of reliable data” is becoming increasingly challenging. Desktop data analytics can’t always scale for use across large groups. There is also the risk of inconsistent definitions.
More recently, analytics tools are enabling broader transformation of business insights by automatically updating and automating data discovery, cleansing and publishing processes. Business users can work on any device with context, get real-time information, and achieve results.
Today, most of the work is still done by humans, but automation is gaining traction. Data from existing sources can easily be combined. The consumer performs queries, then analyzes the results, interacting with visual representations of the data, and creates models to predict future trends or conclusions. All of this happens under the direction and control of humans at a deep granular level. Incorporating data collection, data discovery, and machine learning provides the end user with more options and happens faster than before.