Uncovering the Data Analytics Iceberg: Takeaways from the BI & Analytics track at Foundations 2024
CData Foundations 2024 is wrapped up, and we had the pleasure of connecting with business intelligence (BI) and data analytics professionals on the newest trends and key data themes in their day-to-day roles. One of the standout themes of the BI & Reporting track this year was the importance of the right tools to connect the data that powers the great dashboards and reports you want to build.
Shubham Malpani, Associate Director of BI & Analytics at Kiwi Partners, put it perfectly. The reality of BI and analytics often follows this model: only about 20% of the time is spent doing what we really get excited about—building engaging dashboards, finding insights, and sharing stories with data. The other 80%? It's what Dan Contestable from Advantage Investigations aptly called "plumbing"—wrangling data, cleaning it, and ensuring that everything connects properly. It's not the glamorous part of the job, but it's absolutely essential to create impactful analytics.
The "BI & Analytics Data Iceberg" illustrates how getting to the important reports and dashboards you want actually takes a lot of hidden work most people don’t see.
This "plumbing" is the hard, invisible work that lays the foundation for great business intelligence. Without the right data connections in place, analysts are left piecing together information manually, wasting time, and often dealing with outdated or incomplete datasets.
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That's when Shubham, Dan, and many other data professionals like them discovered CData. By adopting the Connect Cloud platform, they were able to build a solution to help eliminate this plumbing problem by making the data connections seamless so that they can focus more of their time on what truly matters: driving business impact through real insights into what is happening.
Building a strong data foundation for AI
Another major highlight from the track was the discussion around preparing for AI-driven analytics. Our speakers emphasized that having a strong data foundation—one that allows you to access real-time data, integrate diverse sources effortlessly, and scale as needs grow—is key to staying ready for the future. By reducing the time spent managing data logistics, businesses can position themselves to take full advantage of AI opportunities as they arise.
Spreadsheets: a natural tool to understand and get a feel for data
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In our third and final session, Nathan Thompson from Scorpion defended spreadsheets as an important tool for data analytics for most people to explore, understand, and learn about data. Even at a company with an advanced data strategy and full BI platforms, he knew his users still needed to work with data in spreadsheets. During this session, we introduced our new product, CData Connect Spreadsheets, which was launched during the conference. This free offering is a game-changing way to work with any and all of your data in spreadsheets, refreshing with live changes and updating sources without ever leaving Excel or Google Sheets. Check it out and start working with all the live data you want right from within your spreadsheets.
Focusing on what matters in BI and analytics
All three sessions touched on the challenge of data plumbing tasks that BI and analytics leaders often run into. Still, it doesn't have to be a blocker to delivering the analytics and intelligence you want. In the sessions, speakers dove into how CData Connect Cloud has made this part of their job so much easier, providing effortless, real-time access to data from over 250 sources. By automating connectivity and reducing manual integration work, CData empowers analysts to spend less time wrangling data and more time delivering insights that drive business growth. At Kiwi Partners, what used to take at least 4-5 hours per project of manually building data connections has turned into a predictable less than one hour to set up and go, allowing them to scale impact by taking on more projects than ever before.
Whether you're working on BI dashboards, exploring advanced AI capabilities, or simply trying to streamline your analytics processes, CData can help you build a robust data foundation that supports your goals.
Watch the sessions and learn more
If you're looking to reduce the "data plumbing" in your analytics projects or want to see how others are tackling these challenges, we encourage you to watch the session recordings and continue the conversation with us. Together, we can make sure that your data foundation is ready for whatever comes next.
Catch all the sessions from the BI & Reporting track here:
Ready to transform your data journey?
If you're ready to take the next step in transforming your data journey, learn more about how CData can simplify your data connections, reduce the burden of manual data work, and help you build a foundation for future success. Visit CData Connect Cloud to see how we can help you unlock the full potential of your BI and analytics initiatives or check out CData Connect Spreadsheets for seamless data connections in Excel and Google Sheets without ever leaving your spreadsheet.
