“My enterprise BI system is great but my team still works with spreadsheets on their PCs to analyze data and create reports. Clearly it’s not meeting all of the team’s needs.”

Everyone I know who has access to an enterprise BI system still has a need to process and analyze subsets of their data independently on their desktops from time to time. This is usually accomplished through querying and extracting the data required, and then working with it in Excel or another desktop tool.

Whether or not it was part of the original BI plan, it appears that companies are accepting this practice and expecting it to continue for the foreseeable future; this, despite issues around control, audit trail, data integrity and spreadsheet governance that end-user computing usually falls short on.

So, how then, can we securely give end-users access and permission to analyze data on their own PCs without worrying about governance and control? How can we address the need for “self-service BI” and maintain data integrity and quality assurance.

That’s where FreeSight comes in. As an alternative to spreadsheets, it bridges the functionality gaps between BI and most desktop tools – giving more power and flexibility to end-users, while ensuring control and data integrity for IT and governance purposes. FreeSight won’t replace spreadsheets on one side or BI tools on the other. Instead, it works with both types of systems as the “in-between” tool – supporting the strengths of, and minimizing the risks of both.

It performs manual tasks that are error-prone, onerous or complicated to do in spreadsheets quickly and easily, while providing flexibility and quick turn-around on ad-hoc queries and new reports. Data integration, data cleansing, data analysis, reporting and other tasks are often converted from hours to complete, to minutes.

Every action taken in FreeSight is completely transparent and visible in an audit-trail-like workflow. Every data edit is highlighted, every formula identifiable, and every link back to your source data is clearly available. Data integrity and process control is assured.

Download our free 30-day trial and see for yourself.