Businesses that consistently use their data to inform decisions get a major competitive edge. But there’s a catch: great data lives in obscure databases, often accessible only through a data query language like SQL. Until recently, if you needed insights from your data, you had to go through a busy, expensive analyst. In an average case scenario, this might leave you stuck in a 40-email chain specifying exactly what you need to know.

 

Over the past few years this problem, and the fact that every modern company now stores volumes of useful data, has led to an explosion of self-service data analytics apps. These apps bring the power of data directly to less-technical users. Now, instead of asking your analyst how many sales you’ve made since the latest ad campaign, anyone on your team can get the answer themselves. The trick to making this business insights dream a reality for your team is to pick a modern analytics app that lets non-technical users easily perform the two main functions of an analyst:

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1. Retrieve data

2. Visualize it to generate insights.

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All self-service business analytics apps include some way for users to retrieve data, but they vary in how much SQL knowledge the user must have. Some apps (like Mode or Tableau) aren’t made to simplify the database querying process at all, and require SQL expertise to use effectively. ReportView, by contrast, has been developed specifically to make data retrieval easy for non-technical users. All the SQL magic happens behind the scenes, in record time—you just click on the information you want, and the app answers your questions. And for more SQL-savvy users, it leaves open the option to enter custom SQL queries.

 

Often, it’s impossible to see patterns in data presented as raw numbers. For these cases, a great business intelligence app should be able to turn data into charts and graphs. Many apps have this functionality, but each one has its tradeoffs. Tableau is expensive and heavy-duty. Excel allows users to create basic data visualizations, but its charts are ugly and it doesn’t integrate with SQL. Newer, cloud-based tools like ReportView tend to excel at data visualization. ReportView specifically has put a lot of emphasis on making visualization quick and flexible, allowing users to choose from a range of the most useful chart types, and modify them using a simple point-and-click interface.