In the same way, not all explorers look, act, or think the same; maps aren’t always identical either. In fact, maps can come in all forms and fashions. Extending far beyond the traditional notion of what most of us think of when we think of a map. The reality is that a map provides context about a location. It can give valuable insights into how to get there. Just like data.
In recent years, many field service management organizations have elected to utilize data and allowed their findings to steward them to success. Only the savviest quickly realized that data’s influence shouldn’t be contained in a silo. They also learned that expanding that influence enterprise-wide had to be done efficiently. Fortunately for these businesses, that’s now possible with the help of self-service analytics. Read on to learn more about what self-service analytics are and why they matter to organizations like yours.
Self-service analytics fall under the business intelligence umbrella, a term used to describe the collection and exploration of business data. What makes self-service analytics so unique is that this tactic levels the playing field regarding analysis. In traditional business intelligence, gathering data requires a dedicated IT resource to obtain the data and deliver it. With self-service analytics, stakeholders now have the ability to review and receive that same data on their own. Not having to use the IT department.
This is accomplished through an analytics platform that pulls data from disparate sources into one. Simplifying and enabling ubiquitous access for all. The best of these platforms are so easy to use. Even those with little to no background in analytics or statistics can glean meaningful insights.
In organizations with a traditional business intelligence structure in place, there’s bound to be some lag between the request of data from IT and IT delivering that data to the stakeholder. That’s certainly not a knock on the IT department, but the nature of the beast for a department that supports an entire organization. With self-service analytics, the stakeholder has instant access to the data they need.
We touched on the fact that self-service analytics can free up time for stakeholders requesting data from IT, but what about employees within the IT department? Robust self-service analytics platforms require minimal IT implementation or ongoing maintenance. With many organizations experiencing a shortage of qualified IT professionals, any steps you can take to reduce dependency on that department is to your advantage.
One of the most significant problems with using disparate data sources—in addition to access—is that the data can arrive in wildly different formats and at different frequencies. It’s easy to see how these discrepancies can cause confusion. Especially among non-technical professionals who are given data that seems incongruous. Self-service analytics eliminates that ambiguity, acting as a single source of truth for data that your people can always understand—and trust.
There’s no doubt that self-service analytics can improve field service management organizations. And we like to think the software solution from EnSight+ can do the same. We encourage you to book a demo today and see our customizable field service software for yourself.
All monitored by you, in real time. Are you ready to take control?