Yellowfin CEO to tell BBBT that BI consumers don’t want self service Data Discovery

Glen Rabie – CEO of global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor, Yellowfin – is set to tell the Boulder BI Brain Trust (BBBT) that self-service Data Discovery benefits neither business analysts nor BI consumers.

Rabie will brief the BBBT, the world’s largest association of independent BI analysts, on Friday, October 31 – Halloween 2014.

Raid said that the prospect of presenting on Halloween was not nearly as scary as the misnomer that widespread self-service Data Discovery was a desirable outcome for BI implementations.

“For sometime now, many voices within the BI industry have been advocating the concept of self-service Data Discovery – enabling a wide range of people to independently perform sophisticated data analysis and deliver insights based on that analysis,” said Rabie. “But in reality, that doesn’t suit the needs of business users or business analysts.

“BI consumers, or business users, don’t want to spend time discovering their data and unearthing new questions to ask of it. They want fast, trustworthy facts on which they can act. On the other hand, trained business analysts don’t want masses of relatively untrained casual users distributing and acting on information based on incorrect conclusions drawn from inaccurate data analysis.”

Rabie explained that organizations needed to have a very clear understanding of the desired outcomes they wanted to achieve as a result of leveraging BI technology, as well as the roles that each type of user should play in the decision-making process.

“You need to start by giving analysts the tools required to quickly find great insights and then communicate that information in the most intuitive way possible,” said Rabie. “Similarly, you want to give business users the assistance they need to understand the business implications of those great insights, share that knowledge quickly, and act accordingly.”

Rabie’s BBBT presentation will also focus on the pitfalls of desktop-based data analysis, compared to web-based data analysis, as well as the role of storytelling in reporting and analytics.

A podcast summarizing the presentation will be available at the BBBT podcasts page, and a video of the presentation will be available at the BBBT videos page.

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About the BBBT

The Boulder Business Intelligence Brain Trust has served the BI industry since 2006. It is a consortium of over 165 industry analysts, experts, and practitioners from around the world. BBBT hosts BI industry vendors who provide extended, interactive briefings, streamed live as webinars exclusively to BBBT members. It’s a reciprocal arrangement, the members receive the latest information on current and planned BI tools and technologies, and the vendors get valuable feedback on their offerings, marketing, and messaging.

About Yellowfin

Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Communications Manager on +61 (0)3 8617 4954, +61 (0)431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

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