GoodData Spectrum Brings Us Closer to “Analytics Everywhere”

Analytics has a problem: It’s stuck at an adoption rate of just 21%. It’s not that people aren’t aware of the value of analytics, they’ve been hearing that message for years. They’ve been bombarded with massive amounts of data that, while valuable, is presented in overwhelming and complex dashboards and reports that make it essentially impossible for your typical user to derive any actual insight.

Think about when you request an Uber — it analyzes the possible distances and routes, compares that information with the cars available, and sends your information to the drivers that best meet your criteria. As the user, all you see is that your driver will arrive at your location within five minutes. If Uber used analytics in the same way most companies do, you would be presented with a dashboard that shows every available car in the greater metro area, and it’s up to you to figure out which car will arrive in the fastest and most efficient manner.

While this is an extreme example, most companies today are using a one-size-fits-all dashboard where everyone gets the same data and experience, regardless of job function or personalization needs, in a messy, confusing interface. I’ve seen several different approaches to using analytics — an IT-driven approach with dashboards on every desk, a self-service option where users are responsible for leaving their workflow to look at a second pane of glass, and lastly, one that requires everyone to essentially act as a data scientist — but so far none of these approaches have provided users with clear actions to take. With GoodData Spectrum we’re revolutionizing the way everyone works with analytics.

We’re meeting the need for a completely seamless and intuitive user interface that’s necessary as analytics become more pervasive. Over the next seven years, Nucleus Research predicts that 90% of business users will interact with analytics at least once per day but only 15% will realize it. GoodData Spectrum gets us closer to this goal by streamlining the user experience in such a way that the user doesn’t even realize that they’re using analytics.

There’s no need to go to a second pane of glass, and there’s no need to do any extra analysis or contextualization. Instead, each user is presented with granular, actionable insights that are tailored to their business needs and delivered in a simple, easy-to-understand format:

• GoodData.UI enables building of custom applications from thousands of ready-made, commercial, open-source and custom components. Data visualizations can be embedded and customized in a few lines of code, no iFrames involved.
• KPI Dashboards arm users to track KPI changes over time, comparing current values to previous periods. Users can also set alerts and be notified when KPIs reach a certain threshold. Interactive dashboards can be saved and published to other users, and embedded into Web applications.
• Analytic Designer allows business users to easily explore curated datasets and discover new insights. Using pre-packaged or custom visualizations and automated actions, no training is needed to support strategic decision-making and publishing.

I’ve always had this vision of pervasive analytics, and it was never really there. In the past, we’ve always hit a limit, because the analytics was either too difficult to use or not in the right context. By providing contextual and personalized analytics right where people work, we’re making analytics easier to use; we’re now getting to the point when every single decision, every single step can be made and supported by data. With GoodData Spectrum, data-driven critical business decision making is finally possible and we are getting closer to a world with analytics everywhere.