All About Data
Data is defined as “A collection of facts, such as numbers, words, measurements, observations or just description of things.” Everyone has to deal with data in their daily jobs – whether it’s analyzing why something happened or looking at the results – data plays a huge part in our lives and we can all agree that gleaning insights from data is not as straightforward as it sounds.
Whether it is a missing piece of information, a redundant data point, wrong or mischaracterized information, foreign/Latin characters, an error in calculations, or something as simple as an extra space or a change in case – your data may be wrong. Before you can even start your analyses, you must solidify your data – and that means you have to clean it. But here is the problem – cleaning data is tiring; it takes a lot of time, and it involves repeating a similar process multiple times which gets boring – fast.
Even after one has gone through the extensive process of quality-checking data it is still prone to error.
How to solve data issue?
In the world where we are proceeding towards higher and more advanced technologies a fix for this situation is expected too. One method of dealing with such a situation is creating automations: pieces which re-run our processes on our behalf and removes the manual intervention. Coding these processes takes time – and the more complicated and nuanced the data- the longer the coding time. Even then coding can’t readily be changed, and its opacity is siloes it in the exclusive domain of coders, data developers, and data engineers mostly. However, the end user isn’t restricted to just those with advanced knowledge – complicated data is used by everyone from Accounting, Tax, HR to Admin and Marketing. We all need to understand our own data – quickly… Enter Alteryx!
What is Alteryx? Why should I care?
Alteryx has APA (Analytics Process Automation) technology which allows anyone across the organization to easily share data, automate tedious and complex processes, and turn data into results. The results are delivered faster and more efficiently and are less prone to error.
- No coding Knowledge required: just drag and drop tool
Alteryx has a code free interface i.e. you can simply drag and drop and connect tools on the canvas to create your automation process. The process owner can see what’ happening to her data as it moves through the workflow.
- Easy identification of error. Error visibility and guided solution available based on tool
The data can be easily validated by looking at small samples of data at each step in the workflow this way one can ensure that the tools used are processing the data the way intended. As the automation is packaged into small groups of tools it is easy to troubleshoot as well as explain to a coworker looking at the flowchart and trying to understand the process.
- Less RUN time for large files and it can handle large files proficiently
Do you have a large file? No problem – the only limits to Alteryx’s handling are your system’s memory. No problem with millions or tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of records. Alteryx can connect to a large variety of data sources directly e.g. Snowflake, Redshift, Hive, MongoDB, Oracle, Tableau, Excel, Salesforce to name a few. It can connect through standard input tools or ODBC and even has a built in Rest API Tool.
- No duplication of work
The process created can be easily saved and reused with updated input files. The process can be repeated over and over eliminating without the need to start a new workflow each time.
Alteryx is not restricted to cleaning and organizing the data. Its packages feature many other tools to help you get the most of your data. It can also be used for visualization, predictive modelling and has a machine leaning toolset. Do you like to Code? Alteryx has a built-in Python tool so you can port your code directly in.
DynPro & Alteryx
DynPro has been a part of IT industry for more than 25 years now and believes in the capabilities offered by Alteryx and shares its vision. DynPro believes that Alteryx can transform the way data is handled and that it can efficiently increase the company’s as well as employee’s efficiency and hence has partnered with Alteryx in spreading its capabilities across its huge client base.
We at DynPro have an efficient team of certified Alteryx developers to help the companies onboard the new tool and incorporate it in their ecosystem.
DynPro has designed the onboarding of Alteryx into 3 parts-
- Training and Developing the skills of the employees within firm
- Helping budding developers by shadowing and optimizing their workflows
- Developing complex use cases for the teams to introduce Alteryx functionalities
DynPro & Clients
We recently introduced Alteryx to our clients. The ask was to educate non-technical, business users to use Alteryx. The teams we focused on were accountants and tax professionals – swimming in huge amounts of data with monthly deadlines and no help. Their data is highly confidential and needs to be accurate in order to deliver sensitive information correctly.
Employees were a little reluctant going over a new tool but the sheer ease, accuracy and quickness with which Alteryx solved the issues took everyone by surprise.
By the end of first workshop everyone in the team had Alteryx installed on their systems with a basic workflow built on their own.
Many employees started incorporating Alteryx workflows in their daily works and we heard feedback like-
“If it wasn’t for Alteryx we wouldn’t have begun this project at all”
– Airbnb Employee
Not only did the employees feel confident exploring Alteryx and adopting it in their business processes – but they internally shared tips on how to make their workflows more efficient and helpful. The best part was that the process owner had vision into how they were controlling their data and solving their problem. It wasn’t a black box of code requiring deep knowledge of coding or SQL to gain a cursory understanding of.
Alteryx is the future of how data is handled and to enables every employee to deliver more efficient and meaningful insights.
About the author
Snigdha Srivastava is 7 years experienced senior Data Analyst who has been instrumental in delivering Data Analytics Solutions across industries for Dynpro.
DynPro is a voice of experience in world-class IT Solutions. We are firmly rooted in technology and our expert IT professionals deliver tailored IT solutions to solve your business challenges. For over 24 years, DynPro has supported organizations across the globe while focusing on the right people, processes and technologies, our solutions are focused on delivering the digital core for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small and mid-size companies. The core practice areas include Process Transformation, Data and Integration and Automation and Advanced Analytics.