F.A.Q

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it do?

It reduces the complexity of managing your data.

It does by:

  • Providing a software as a service data platform, removing the need for you to build your own;
  • Giving you a web based app, so you can easily find your data via our data catalog, see the way we change your data via business rules and preview the data before you consume it.
  • Automating the refresh of your data whenever you need it to be updated;
  • Removing the need for a team of data engineers to create complex code to make the data look the way you need it to;
  • Removing the need for a technical team of experts to manage your data platform.

How does it work?

You subscribe as an AgileData.io customer and select a suitable t-shirt pricing option.

We collect your data from your data factories into AgileData.io.

We run a remote 1 hour workshop with you or your key business users to gather your data requirements, using our magical business discovery approach.

We enter the results of the discovery workshop into AgileData.io.

We define data change and validation rules in AgileData.io based on a common business rules format.

AgileData.io automagically creates your data warehouse and populates it with your data.

You consume the data via your favourite visualisation or analytical tools.

Can I subscribe to it right now?

Why yes you can.

If you are keen on making some magic happen then please get in touch

What does it compare to?

We like to think of AgileData.io as the equivalent of Gmail, Salesforce, Shopify, WordPress or Xero, but for data.

Years ago you used to have to rely on your IT teams to create your Email, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), eCommerce Stores, Websites and Financial Management systems.  Today you subscribe to software as a solution options to provide these capabilities on demand.

AgileData.io provides these capabilities for your data.

Is it only for business and data analysts?

No.

While we have developed AgileData.io with empowering business and data analyst’s firmly in mind, we know that other data savvy people will also be able to make data magic happen by using it.

We think the data engineers, ETL developers, database administrators and data warehouse modellers of old will be able to deliver data much faster using it, however, we are not convinced we can teach old dogs new tricks.

Can I use it just to document modelled events?

Yes.

You are more than welcome to use AgileData.io to define in your modelled events and export a data model which can be handed over to your IT team for implementation.

We know AgileData.io will be faster to implement your data repository than your IT team, but we also understand that sometimes it takes small steps to move through your organisations governance and change process(es) and we are happy to add value wherever we can.

Aren't data warehouses dead?

The emergence of data visualisation and wrangling tools like Tableau and Trifacta or the big data solutions like Hadoop and MapR have some people predicting the demise of the data warehouse.

And while the data warehouses of old, where they required 5 years to build, cost millions upfront, involved multiple vendors, consultants, IT people and technologies should be long gone, we millions there is still a need for a modern agile data warehouse.

We see the data visualisation and big data solutions providing a great capability for data savvy people to create insight, but we also see them create data silos and multiple versions of the truth, both problems that data warehousing solved many years ago.

So we believe the ability to create a modern and agile data warehouse, without the delays and cost that come with a IT focussed solution provides the best of both worlds.

Is it a BI or Visualisation tool?

No.

AgileData.io takes your data and creates a modern data warehouse for you.  You still need a BI or Visualisation tool like Google Data Studio, PowerBI or Tableau to visualise the data.

AgileData.io will automagically make the data available to those tools, in the format those tools require, to streamline the process and get information to you and your users faster.

Is it an ETL tool?

Not in the traditional sense.

ETL or ELT tools like DBT, Talend, Informatica, Data Stage or SSIS require a large amount of technical expertise to create a data warehouse, AgileData.io does not.

They also do not provide a methodology to help you gather data requirements from your users, or to model the data, they rely on you to make that up from scratch.  AgileData.io comes with a way of working which allows you to easily capture data requirements and automated the build of your data directly from those requirements.

Is it a data warehouse automation tool?

While AgileData.io automates the creation of a data warehouse, it is designed for a completely different audience compared to the traditional data warehouse automation tools.

Data Warehouse Automation tools like DBT, Wherescape, Varigence and TimeXtender are focussed on automating your ETL or ELT code.  They require a data modeller to define the data model upfront and then they automate the process of creating the code to populate it.  They do not provide a way of working on how to gather requirements from users and how to define the data model based on those requirements, they leave it to you and your IT teams.

AgileData.io provides an automation engine, like those tools, but it is hidden under the covers.  The focus is not on how to automate code, but how to remove the need to create a data model or code completely.  Business and Data Analysts enter requirements into AgileData.io and the data model and data warehouse are generated automatically.  They do not have to rely on IT or data teams to deliver valuable data.

Is it a big data solution?

While AgileData.io can scale to large volumes of data, it is not designed to manage large volumes of unstructured data, like Big Data solutions are.

AgileData.io is designed to manage structured data from your Sales, Financial and Operational systems and data from your semi-structured csv and excel files.

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