Data Analysis Whitepaper

SIMPLIFY DATA
ANALYTICS
FOR ANALYSTS
Introduction
Generating useful data analytics involves multiple time-consuming and tedious steps, including:

• Accessing usable data that can help business users make informed decisions.
• Running complex queries against different database platforms to obtain useful datasets.
• Creating data reports that are readily understood by disparate audiences within your enterprise.
• Formulating visual representations of the data that can convey information quickly and easily.

Business Analysts (BAs) and Data Analysts (DAs) are two job roles that have these responsibilities
and challenges. Both of these groups have to deal with large volumes of data and often look at the
same data. The difference between the two is what type of analysis they do.

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The Analyst Role
BAs act as a liaison between the business of an enterprise and IT. They access data to analyze
the business needs of their clients and stakeholders to help identify business problems and propose
solutions. DAs are highly trained individuals who specialize in collecting, shaping, and analyzing
data from a number of different resources. They are also responsible for data integrity.

While it’s a given that DAs must be well versed in SQL and relational database technology,
BAs also need these skills to be effective. Both roles must be able to:

• Connect easily to data sources • Build reports

• Build and execute SQL queries • Create charts and graphs
• Import and export data • Move the data between systems
• Edit the data • Collaborate and share with others
• Create and share datasets

With the advent of larger and larger databases, their collective tasks are made even more
challenging. Big data by its very nature is complex because of its size and diverse data types
across businesses. Both groups have to:

• Quickly handle large amounts of data accurately

• Process the raw data fully to get the most out of it
• Deliver the data in visual charts so it can be easily understood and used
• Choose the best tools available to handle, analyze and process the big data

Today’s database environments are growing exponentially in volume, velocity, and variety, making DAs’
and BAs’ roles a greater challenge and even more time-consuming. In addition, there is an expectation
that they must work seamlessly across disparate systems.

Another concern for these two Analyst groups is data integrity – as data volumes increase, computing
statistics and predictive analytics models on a data sample can significantly reduce accuracy.

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Data Manipulation
Analysts may use a variety of techniques to create the reports that they must generate for the business.
This can involve managing individual files of data, or using a graphical user interface tool to connect
to data and databases. Both types of Analysts need to manipulate these files, their data sets, and SQL
query results, in order to facilitate analysis and decision-making.

Using a high-end technical tool for these fundamental tasks can be time-consuming and cost-prohibitive.
The excessive license cost and time spent to use a more complex product can be avoided by selecting
the right tool. For the Analyst groups this paper is focused on, their tool of choice should allow them to
create visualizations and dashboards of the data sets, mine the data, and share the results with others.

DAs and BAs need to be able to connect to and access data from a wide range of sources in order to
facilitate their analysis. That means the tool they use must be platform agnostic. It must be able to access
flat files, like Excel or delimited files, as well as table data in a relational database, “big data” stores,
and cloud database environments.

Not being able to connect to all of these sources will have a negative impact on the accuracy of
the analysis and the available sample size. An effective tool would allow these groups to access the
data without having to upgrade their technical skills.

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Running SQL queries is such a fundamental function
of both DAs and BAs, so they need a tool that can
extract relevant information by pre-defining which
information they want. The tool should provide
assistance with creating the query code by suggesting
options for autocompletion. Analysts also need the
capability of joining multiple tables. If the tool does not
allow access to multiple sources, or has limitations in
what it can define, the data analysis is flawed.

DAs and BAs are most comfortable working in an environment where the data is displayed in a data grid
or a spreadsheet layout, or provides a one-click-export of the data to Excel. This enables easy viewing and
modification that will increase productivity, reduce time spent converting the data to a more user-friendly
format, and accelerate analysis.

A benefit to having your data in a data grid or spreadsheet format is that you then have many options to
begin data analysis with queries, reports, and data view forms. By having the data in a data grid, DAs and
BAs can do a deeper dive analysis than possible using another format.

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Data Visualization
For Analysts that are new to the role or used to only working with spreadsheets, it may be a new experience
to apply data visualization techniques in a drag-and-drop interface. Effective data visualization can add significant
business value by more easily sharing data in a way that tells a story or communicates a message for more
effective decision-making.

Because of the way the human brain processes information, using charts or graphs to help visualize large
amounts of complex data is much easier than mining through rows and rows of data in spreadsheets or reports.
Data visualizations are a quick, easy way to convey concepts in a universal manner. By presenting the data
in a pictorial or graphic format, decision makers can see analytics presented visually, so they can grasp difficult
concepts or identify new patterns. A tool that helps you do that can prove invaluable and simplify your job.

Whether you’re a DA or a BA, you need a tool that can pull query results into worksheets to create
visualizations of the data. The tool should have the capability to create dashboards by dragging in
visualizations from many worksheets, so you can save and share them with decision makers and customers.
In this way, they can easily navigate and interact with the data, adding customized views that clearly display
useful information. With the visualization capability, Analysts can identify patterns and trends to find opportunities
for further analysis. It will also help decision makers improve their ability to make decisions, limit risk and
solve challenging problems.

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The Right Tool for the Job
Analysts, whether they are DAs or BAs, must have easy connectivity, simple query creation and execution,
table relationship diagramming, and data visual analytics. If the tool incorporates a table data editor, Analysts
can edit the result-set of an executed query on a table using a convenient GUI. This makes it easier to
manipulate and modify the data along with adding/deleting rows using a familiar Excel-like grid.

The tool should also have an import/export feature that allows data of different formats to be imported and
exported to and from databases, tables, objects and files. Since one common analyst task is sending data to
Excel for reporting, this needs to be a basic supported functionality.

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A visual query builder is also a helpful feature because it allows you to select database tables directly
from the GUI, and then specify columns to retrieve, join, sort, and filter in a grid format. In addition to
selecting tables and adding query parameters, the visual query builder should generate a complete SQL
statement that can be easily viewed, copied, and executed from the builder’s dialog window.

And the tool must allow Analysts to easily and quickly access, manage, and visually analyze data on all
major DBMS platforms (relational, NoSQL and cloud) from a single interface. To be effective, it must
support all major database vendors and possess the ability to work with all supported platforms from a
single license and from all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

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Summing It Up
The bottom line is that Analysts need a suitable tool to help them work more efficiently while producing
useful results that help the business meet its goals. And this tool must increase productivity without
increasing costs.

The ideal tool for a small to medium-sized business and larger enterprise is one that tackles the most
basic and common tasks so Analysts can focus on higher-value data analysis. Whether navigating
databases, creating SQL statements, manipulating the data, or generating reports and visualizations,
the right tool is one which makes the Analysts’ job easier.

With the right tool to expedite queries and enhance presentation of their analysis, both DAs and BAs
can spend more time on their actual job – analytics. A more effective tool will accelerate their collection
of data – regardless of how big and diverse the data sources are – and allow them to concentrate on
drawing conclusions. It will also aid in more effectively sharing and communicating their findings so that
business decision makers can make more informed decisions and reduce risk.

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