The work of data engineers is extremely technical. They are responsible for designing and maintaining the architecture of data systems, which incorporates concepts ranging from analytic infrastructures to data warehouses. A data engineer needs to have a solid understanding of commonly used scripting languages and is expected to support the steady evolution of improved Data Quality, […]
Fundamentals of Data Virtualization
Organizations are increasingly employing innovative technology called “data virtualization” (DV) to tackle high volumes of data from varied sources. Data virtualization is widely used in enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and sales force automation (SFA) systems to collect and aggregate multi-source data. From multi-sourced data acquisition to advanced analytics, this technology seems […]
The FAAR Framework for Consuming Insights from Data and Analytics
Faced with overwhelming amounts of data, organizations across the world are looking at leveraging data and analytics (D&A) to derive insights to increase revenue, reduce costs, and mitigate risks. McKinsey found that insight-driven companies report EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increases of up to 25% [1]. According to Forrester, organizations that use data and insights […]
Business Intelligence and Analytics Trends in 2024
As organizations continue to generate massive amounts of data from various sources, the need for effective data analytics and business intelligence (BI) solutions has never been more pressing. Here are some general trends for data analytics and BI: Use of Advanced Algorithms in Data Analysis Advancements in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are […]
How to Become a Citizen Data Scientist
The job responsibilities of a citizen data scientist include dealing with new data, using automated tools to process big data, and creating additional models to gain additional insights. Their primary job is not to make predictions directly from big data, or develop prescriptive analytics, but to build models and use tools that accomplish those goals. […]
Three Key Commandments of Effective Dashboards
A dashboard is a visual snapshot of business performance using KPIs (key performance indicators) to help users make smarter, data-driven decisions. An effective dashboard simplifies the visual representation of complex data and helps stakeholders understand, analyze, and present key insights at a glance. At the core, the objective of a dashboard is to make complex […]
Data Visualization Tools
From social media interactions to online purchases, online activity leaves behind a trail of valuable information. However, this abundance of data presents a unique challenge for businesses and organizations: How can they make sense of this vast sea of information and use it to their advantage? This is where data analysis and data visualization tools […]
Fundamentals of Document Databases
A document database (sometimes referred to as a “document store” or a “document-oriented database”), is a NoSQL or non-relational database. However, document databases use an index to associate “keys” with “documents,” making them more efficient at retrieving data. Unlike relational databases, document databases are not structured with a format of rows and columns, but scale […]
How to Bring Workforce Data into the BI Equation
In the current economic environment, employee productivity, efficiency, and well-being have become even more critical to organizational success, mandating that leaders spend more time understanding and deriving insights from employees’ digital footprints and data. But too often, businesses make strategic decisions without factoring in workforce data. This can result in costly mistakes such as unnecessary […]
Data Visualization Best Practices
Good data visualizations boost business data literacy by presenting well-thought-out dashboards or reports that show data assets for quicker and more straightforward consumption. Following data visualization best practices leads to positive outcomes for organizations. These benefits include reducing the time and costs of questions data consumers ask by answering them up front in the data visualizations. Additionally, good visualizations increase consistency […]