4 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Alexa For Business Intelligence
“Alexa, what were our sales for Black Friday?”
Traditionally, analytics and insights data has been delivered to users via Graphical User Interface (GUI). There are a number of powerful tools that support a GUI driven model. Tableau, Looker, Periscope Data, Mode Analytics, and others are focused on delivering visual representations of data in the form of reports, dashboards, and other visual formats.
However, many companies are now recognizing that graphical interfaces like visualizations, reports, and dashboards are not the only answer. Nir Eyal wrote a post called “Die Dashboards Die! Why Conversations Will Reinvent Software” which highlighted that dashboards, even well-designed ones, have intrinsic deficiencies. As a result, this has caused a sense of “dashboard fatigue” in many enterprises.
Moving Beyond Reporting Dashboards
Basically, the traditional information delivery model has become over-reliant on dashboard centric approaches for communicating information. Communicating business information should not be siloed in any one system or dependent on dashboards. Instead, information should be available to those that need it in a manner that is most convenient. Conversational assistants, or voice assistants like Alexa, will play an important role in socializing information across an organization.
It is time to welcome voice assistants, like Alexa, to the team!
Four Reasons To Consider Alexa For BI
Here are 4 reasons why conversational assistants like Alexa can be part of powering your next generation BI efforts:
- A conversational assistant like Alexa allows a user to ask a collection of questions. For example, “Alexa, what were our total sales this month”. There was no need to log into a dashboard or ask someone to send a report to get an answer. Just ask Alexa. This lowers barriers and friction, allowing your users to consult the conversational assistant at their convenience.
- Alexa assumes responsibility for obtaining and delivering information on the users' behalf. This unlocks valuable cycles for people to more efficiently consume information. This will free time so they can collectively (or individually) make decisions and take action. Again, this lowers barriers to information and offers convenience
- Alexa does not sleep (unless you ask :)). That means 24/7 availability. For the C-Suite exec, this means they don’t have to log into a dashboard or wait for reports to be distributed. They can ask their conversational assistant to get the basic reporting done, leaving the deeper analysis work to others.
- Lastly, the conversational assistants like Alexa don’t have to be great conversationalists. Like a drill sergeant, users can bark commands to the assistant which is dutifully fulfilling. The assistant won’t be offended, it just knows it needs to get the job done as it is being asked to be done.
To be clear, we are not advocating that dashboards should be banished, to the contrary, they serve an important role, especially those that are well conceived and designed. However, if dashboards are the only method your teams have to explore data they will be doomed to suffer dashboard fatigue. Make sure you are not declaring victory with your dashboard deployment. Dashboards should not be the only method your team uses to consume important business information.
Teams that can focus on learning and action are more productive and passionate about their contributions and an Alexa conversational assistant can serve as a valuable contributor to the team to make that a reality.
How To Get Started: Business Intelligence And Data Analytics with Alexa
Having proven expertise at your side can go a long way in helping you achieve success using data to power an Alexa Business Intelligence solution. The team Openbridge has the experience and expertise to fuse strategy with technology in delivering Alexa for voice-enabled business analytics.
Interested in having us create an Alexa powered Business Intelligence analytics stack? We are looking for companies interested in piloting beta solutions for an Alexa powered Business Intelligence analytics stack.
Want to discuss how we can make this a reality for your organization?
Reach out and let's get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Alexa powered Business Intelligence work?
Once your Alexa solution is live, you launch Alexa via voice command. You can then retrieve insights by asking Alexa about the data you have linked to it. Normally, this will be a collection of KPIs that you have in a dashboard. Alexa receives your requests and routes to your private Alexa analytics stack to retrieve the needed information. Alexa converts the response data into an audio to played back by your Echo, Echo Plus. Echo Dot or via the Alexa app on your phone.
Is a BI solution like Tableau or Power BI required?
No, there are no requirements for you to have a BI solution in place to support Alexa powered Business Intelligence
Can Alexa be private?
Yes, you can limit Alexa and make it privately accessible ONLY to your organization. This is done through Alexa for Business enabled skills.
Can use authorizations with Alexa?
Yes, you can have Alexa ask for a password or pin before she will answer any questions. Here is a simple example dialogue:
- You: “Alexa, what are the latest sales numbers for Chicago?”
- Alexa: “Hello, before I can share the latest sales numbers for Chicago, can you tell me your access PIN?”
- You: “3212”
- Alexa: “Thank you, the latest sales numbers for Chicago are…..”
Are there limits on the numbers or type of questions I can ask?
No, not really. There are no practical limitations on the Alexa side per se. The underlying data and the ability to query it will be the main limiting factor. We can review your current environment and provide recommendations on how best to create a roadmap to implement Alexa powered Business Intelligence.
Is an Alexa solution like this only apply to analytics use cases?
No, this model can apply to a number of other use cases. Reach out and we would be happy to discuss further.
DWant to discuss Alexa business intelligence for your organization? Need a platform and team of experts to kickstart your data and analytic efforts? We can help! Getting traction adopting new technologies, especially if it means your team is working in different and unfamiliar ways, can be a roadblock for success. This is especially true in a self-service only world. If you want to discuss a proof-of-concept, pilot, project or any other effort, the Openbridge platform and team of data experts are ready to help.
Reach out to us at hello@openbridge.com. Prefer to talk to someone? Set up a call with our team of data experts.
Visit us at www.openbridge.com to learn how we are helping other companies with their data efforts.
