Following on to our Top 10 Why InetSoft list, here’s another list. People who are new to data mashup software often ask for a quick explanation of why they should care about them, or what are the top benefits to using them. Here are the top 3 business benefits plus a point to make about the kind of solution to consider, naturally favoring our approach…
1. Data mashups solve a fundamental information management problem that all enterprises face: how to provide business intelligence reporting across all the multitudes of different types of data sources, internal, external and user-generated ones.
2. When the tool is easy enough to use, it enables maximum self-service, since end users can pick and choose data from any data source, not having to know the details of the underlying sources. Even more empowering is being able to import their own “spreadmarts” or Excel data files to mash up with other enterprise data, and then share both the data and any resulting dashboards and reports in the BI environment.
3. The data mashup software also makes a very good complement to a data warehouse environment. It can handle transient data access needs, for those projects that are hot now, but the data won’t be needed in the future, so it shouldn’t go into the data warehouse. And it’s good for prototyping the adoption of new data sources, before deciding which data exactly needs to have formal ETL processes built.
4. Including data mashup technology in a BI app that has the visualization layer is better than just providing a data virtualization solution that then needs to be coupled with a BI front-end. The end-goal of any mashup is always to visualize the results, so why purchase two separate business intelligence solutions to achieve that goal?
