In this section we are going to outline the important ones: There are certain features that are part and parcel of every self-service BI tool regardless of brand. Top Common Features of Self-Service BI Tools User access can be adjusted through the BI platform by the admin Need a data governance policies to address concerns about data modelling and storage as well as user accesses User access need to be adjusted by IT / data specialist Requires IT and data team’s involvement to ensure data is processed and stored in a secure manner Usually have predictive capabilities to forecast trends in the future Answers user’s questions about past and present events Data can be used on various formats from multiple data sources
Data needs to be structured before being used Any user can generate reports on demand in real-time Access restricted to data and IT Teams and hence real-time reporting is limited Does not require extensive maintaining as infra is cloud-based and managed by the BI provider One time implementation with minimal infra requirement
Legacy deployment needs many components to be setup and maintained Requires constant involvement of IT staff with different specialities Table 1:Traditional BI VS Self-service BI Self-service reporting is supposed to make it possible for everyone in the organization to analyse the data they need normally using a drag and drop feature.įor a more in-depth comparison, let’s compare traditional and self-service BI by looking at the 5 key areas: Infra set-up, agility, data structure, reporting and data governance.