Company attacks the problem of “bad data = bad BI” with integrated data profiling, cleansing and standardization tools
SAN DIEGO – Business analytics software developer Halo Business Intelligence (Halo BI) today announced the release of a new version of its self-titled business intelligence platform that includes integrated data quality tools to flag, correct and eliminate bad, erroneous or missing information within its data warehouse and analysis system. The company will begin rolling out the enhancements to existing customers at the end of this month; new customers can expect deployment in early April.
“Dirty data is a one of the leading contributors to failed business intelligence projects,” said Halo BI CTO Steve Mills. “It’s all too common to see businesses with main line-of-business systems where 40% or more of the data is incomplete, inaccurate or missing. Sometimes the problems are so big that the organization simply won’t attempt to analyze the data because no one would trust the results,” he said.
For companies who decide to forge ahead, correcting the problem data can be an expensive and time-consuming task requiring thousands of man hours and expensive data cleaning tools. On average, for every dollar an organization spends on business intelligence, it will spend four dollars to clean and prepare the data for analysis.
To overcome the problem Halo BI took a new approach. Rather than the standard method of attempting to correct the data in each of the systems that feeds the BI platform, Halo BI imports the data into its warehouse, called Halo Source, makes the corrections there and leaves the original data untouched. As new data is brought into Halo Source that is corrected as well. Because the data analyzed and corrected within a BI warehouse only a subset of all the data enterprise systems collect, the data quality process is drastically simplified while the results are dramatically improved.
Halo Source integrated data quality tools include:
- Data Profiling – Data structure identification and pattern analysis to capture statistics and flag data quality issues
- Data Parsing and Cleansing – Parsing of data fields and formatting for consistent layout and modification to meet industry standards (e.g., US Zip Code formats), or specific business rules
- Data Monitoring – As new data is added to Halo Source data it is monitored for errors and passed through the parsing and cleaning tools if necessary.
- Data Enrichment – Adding new information such as geocodes, images, hyperlinks to documents, etc. to data for the purpose of mapping, cataloging, cross-referencing and other business process requirements.
Along with the rest of the BI transformation process, Halo Source also self-documents the quality process steps and data changes allowing staff to monitor, track and share workflows with colleagues.
“Until now business intelligence providers have addressed the issue of data quality by deferring to expensive third party tools, applying time-consuming raw manpower, or worse, simply ignoring it,” Mills said. “By building the data quality tools directly into Halo BI we’re eliminating the issue and delivering accurate information that people can trust and a lower overall cost.”
More information on the Halo Business Intelligence data quality tools, as well as other standard features such as vendor-neutral data aggregation, analytics, dashboarding, collaboration and mobile BI, visit the Halo BI website at http://halobi.com/, email info@halobi.com or telephone (858) 565-4238.
About Halo Business Intelligence
Halo Business Intelligence is a global provider of information discovery and business intelligence systems tailored for small and mid-sized enterprises. Developed to leverage common business software systems and open technologies, Halo BI frees non-technical users to do their own data-mining, analysis and reporting without relying on IT staff or proprietary applications. A web-based platform, Halo BI can be accessed via any device – desktop, laptop or mobile – with nothing more than a web browser. Founded in 2008, Halo BI is headquartered in San Diego, California, and maintains corporate offices in North America, EMEA and the Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, contact Halo BI at tel: (858) 565-4238, email: info@halobi.com, web: www.halobi.com
Media Contact: Sage Osterfeld, tel: (858) 565-4238 x110, email sage@halobi.com