When people outside the profession talk about data science and analysis, they are often imagining BI and data visualization. It’s a question of Tableau vs PowerBi vs Domo vs Birst vs whatever else.
And data viz is important in conveying meaning to business users. But I think we jump way too quickly to tech shopping for BI tools without laying the proper data warehousing foundations. The popular BI tools try to do an end-round to this issue by allowing direct connection to data sources, and serving as surrogate data warehousing and ETL tools. This is an okay intermediate step, but the true goal should be a single source of truth – not in terms of report or chart, but in terms of data sources. And that is best accomplished with a singular data platform – be it warehouse or lake that these BI tools sit on top of.
Some of the biggest sources of misalignment across teams comes from inconsistent use of data across the org. Your numbers don’t match mine. By using managed, singular data sources of truth for things like bookings, pipeline, and accounts, you immediately establish more credibility with your analysis. Because your numbers don’t feel pulled out of thin air.
I think the reason most companies don’t do this is because it requires cross team collaboration, and a strong business systems team owner coordinating it all. It’s also because “data warehouse” is such a scary term to most business users, who’d be just as happy running salesforce reports than dip a toe into a more complicated, but far more powerful solution.
This shift to embracing singular data sources across the organization is challenging because it’s so rarely seen executed well, and I think many are skeptical investing more time into what they view as a pipe dream. Having worked in orgs with excellent data platforms, and others without a clue, I understand the friction to get those in the second group to the first. But know it is possible. You’ve just got to be willing to tackle the hard part of cross team collaboration to make it happen.