Going Beyond BI: Activating Analytics

Data volume has surged as businesses transition online, necessitating new capabilities and collaboration to harness this potential for revenue growth and risk reduction. Despite advances in data warehouses, lakes, and lakehouses, these platforms remain inaccessible to non-technical users, who are essential for turning data insights into actionable outcomes. The focus should be on enabling data activation, where data directly informs operations, bypassing static reports to drive business outcomes. The challenge lies in quantifying the return on investment for data teams, whose work supports organizational infrastructure but lacks direct revenue correlation. Self-serve platforms like Sigma offer spreadsheet-like interfaces for business decisions, while the Composable Customer Data Platform (CDP) acts as an activation layer, integrating data warehouses with business tools for seamless data flow. This integration, exemplified by platforms like Sigma and Hightouch, enables rapid transition from insights to action, illustrating the evolving landscape of analytics and data activation.