Getting Past Data Silos: GoodData Unifies Data Sources for All-Data Insight

With the abundance of new data sources available for analysis, ‘All-Data’ enterprises can now identify relationships in unified data sources that can lead to revenue-generating or cost-saving opportunities. What sorts of untapped data types are we talking about? GoodData takes a look...

The GoodData Open Analytics Platform was designed from the start to access all your data from every data source: from SaaS to on premise, from structured to unstructured. As they saying goes, “We’ve never met a data source we couldn’t analyze.” By combining traditional BI data sources with both Big Data and once-overlooked data sources, GoodData cloud-based BI is creating the next-generation of business advantage—Unified Data.

In a recent Forrester report on Big Data, researchers indicate business success hinges on new innovations in analytics. “It’s not about the size of the data. It’s about finding ways to make the most of the data that is available.” Forrester also cites that the most innovative companies are looking for ways to “get past data silos.” GoodData helps you do both.

Unified Data Means Increased Insight

With the abundance of new data sources available for analysis, you can now identify relationships in your data that can lead to revenue-generating or cost-saving opportunities. What sorts of untapped data types are we talking about? Let’s take a look:

• Traditional Data: Key operational metrics

OK, this one you’ve probably already got. The BI value prop has traditionally focused on providing executives and management an up-to-date picture of key operational metrics. And most companies who are benefiting from BI today take this approach. By tracking popular key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales or inventory count and analyzing them via dashboards and reports, corporations can gain insight to help improve processes or get ahead of the competition. Yet still even today, many firms complain about inaccessible or insufficient data according to Forrester, saying things like: “I know we have this data; why can’t I get to it?” or “I have access to all of the data I could ever wish for — but it’s delivered in different formats by different systems, and I have no idea how it all fits together.” GoodData unifies data sources into one Cloud BI platform. But traditional operational and financial data is just the start; there’s more to mine!

• Big Data: It’s messy, but critical

You’ve heard a lot about Big Data lately. And you may be accessing it more and more for insight; yet it can be unwieldy. Technical-only definitions about Big Data, like its volume and velocity don’t cut it anymore. Forrester defines Big Data as “the practices and technology that close the gap between the data available and the ability to turn that data into business insight.” We’ve got you covered. By unifying data sources in one cloud-based Business Intelligence platform, GoodData solutions allow you to discover insight from both structured and unstructured data.

At GoodData, we agree with Brian Hopkins who recently published Top Five Strategic Big Data Questions when he states, “Big data is less likely to be found in neat rows and columns, with cells containing high-quality, well-documented values.”

“While laggards obsess over quality and conformed dimension, leaders find innovative ways around the messiness.”

• New Data: It’s a continual journey

“Between two otherwise evenly matched competitors, the firm that exploits more available data for business insight will have a competitive advantage,” says Hopkins. “This makes Big Data critical to your success.” And the way both Forrester and GoodData defines new data sources implies a continuing journey.

“Between two evenly matched competitors, the firm that exploits more available data will have competitive advantage.”

“Just as we got a handle on web data, along came social, then mobile. Next up is the Internet of Things,” says Hopkins. As types of available data sources continue to expand, companies are realizing data’s scale and speed can quickly exceed their current solutions and are searching for alternatives. 41% of decision-makers using homegrown BI applications say the reason they continue to use these apps is because corporate solutions don’t have all the data they need.

GoodData’s unified data approach to BI is helping fuel the rise of ‘All-Data’ organizations who benefit from not only having all the data they need, but from discovering increased business insight unearthed in relationships between data types.

• Small Data: It’s good for growth

One new type of data source is being referred to as “small data.” And as Micah Solomon of Forbes describes, it enables businesses to deliver “a customer experience that is exactly right for a specific customer, not something aimed vaguely at what you think customers are like in general.”

Powerful stuff, this “small data.” But what is it? “Small Data is the details that allow you to custom-fit your customer service to the particular customer you’re serving,” says Solomon. “Far more than the much-hyped Big Data, small data gives you the power to improve your customer service and to stimulate and support successful business expansion.”

For instance, your business strategy can be deeply impacted by insight gained through transactional data. And Forrester research agrees, showing that 66% of business decision-makers in a recent survey find transactional data from corporate line-of-business apps to be ‘important or very important’ to their firms’ overall business strategy.

GoodData enables you to analyze such sources as LOB apps to discover new relationships and insight, using not a collection of data mining and visualization tools, but one easy to use, easy to integrate cloud-based BI platform.

“Before GoodData, organizations struggled to keep pace with ever-changing data sources and business requirements,” says GoodData Product Marketing Manager Stephanie Burton. “The constant updates and additions created integration nightmares for IT using traditional BI tools - resulting in poor adoption among their business users because of concerns around data accuracy. Now our customers seamlessly manage thousands of analytics projects combining all of their source data systems. With the release of our Data Integration Service Console we’ve made the platform even easier to manage.

So, contact us. Let’s explore your various data sources and show you how GoodData can unify them and help turn your business into an ‘All-Data’ enterprise.