Advanced analytics requires focus on data quality

There are many new methods of business intelligence usage entering the corporate playbook. These advanced tactics could exert different information management demands than their predecessors, meaning companies will have to learn to deal with their data resources in new ways. According to Techgoondu, self-service is one of these trends.

In an effort to liberate analytics from the IT department, many software providers have taken to offering self-service business intelligence solutions. These perform analytical operations like their traditional peers but are meant for direct usage by business sector workers instead of tech experts.

Techgoondu noted that giving every user access to business intelligence could speed analytic insights but leaves companies vulnerable to data quality problems. The source noted that new analytics users may not put their faith in the technology if it consistently returns bad results, a real danger if information integrity is poor.

InformationWeek's recent survey of business intelligence users found that many are still grappling with quality issues. The survey was generally positive about continued analytics usage in 2013, but found that data quality problems are the single largest barrier to business intelligence usage. More than 40 percent of respondents expressed concern in this area.