In today's data-driven world, organizations are inundated with information from diverse sources. Effectively harnessing this data can be a daunting task, leading many organizations to turn to data warehousing solutions. But what exactly is a Data Warehouse, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of adopting one?

Your reports are on the struggle bus. Your data is all over the place. Everyone is complaining that they can’t get the reports they need, or spend too much valuable time getting mediocre reports. You and your staff are spending way too much time battling data systems that should be making your life easier instead of harder. Are you fishing around for days just trying to get the right information?

There is no denying the power and versatility that Artificial Intelligence software and technology has achieved over just the last few years. In such a short time, the advances that we have made with machine learning algorithms have evolved from what were once clunky chat bots into conversation generative AIs so convincing that one of Google’s own engineers was sure that it was sentient.

The Data Portal. We at Inciter hear this term all the time, but what does it actually mean? Usually, it is brought up in search for some elusive solution to a data collection and reporting problem, “We need a data portal.” Unfortunately, this term doesn’t actually refer to a defined process, or a specific technology. Each case is different, but after examining our clients’ specific needs, and asking the right questions, we discovered a common thread.

Your reports are on the struggle bus. Your data is all over the place. Everyone is complaining that they can’t get the reports they need, or spend too much valuable time getting mediocre reports. You and your staff are spending way too much time battling data systems that should be making your life easier instead of harder. Are you fishing around for days just trying to get the right information? Answering 20 questions a day from people who can’t get the data they need? Spending hours (or days, or weeks) cleaning and merging the same data over and over in various spreadsheets?

Every professional field has its own language. When we started working with fundraising data, I had to figure out what caging was. (In case you aren’t a fundraiser, it doesn’t involve chickens.) I bet you didn’t know that a diplopodologist is someone who studies millipedes. And why would you? That’s not information you need to do your job. (Although we do love learning about other people’s jobs from Allie Ward at Ologies). When it comes to data - talking about data, thinking about data, working with data - no-data folks sometimes get intimidated. Yet, if you want to work with data engineers, data analysts, programmers, or other specialists from the data world, we need to find some shared language to get onto the same page when collaborating on projects.

Data engineers have amazing skills and a unique perspective on getting the most out of your data. But sometimes it can be hard to work with them. They speak their own language, do their own magic, and look at the world differently. They may have completed their degrees at Hogwarts (just kidding, they probably studied at a non-magical university) but they weren’t born and raised on Mars - that’s just an urban myth. (Nor, to put another urban myth to rest, are they secretly robots.) When you have mountains of data to crunch, a data engineer, aka Data Wizard, might be just what you need. At Inciter, we have Data Wizards - data engineers, analysts, and other data specialists - as part of our team.

If you don’t have a clear vision for your data, using free software can be more costly than the paid system you initially considered and decided against. You need to take into account all the short and long term costs of your data management system to free yourself from headaches down the road.

Spreadsheets… People either love them or hate them. It often depends on familiarity with the spreadsheet software and how they are being shared or distributed. Social solutions recently published an article with 10 reasons to break free from spreadsheets. While we help lots of clients do exactly that, it is not always the best solution. There are times when using spreadsheets or spreadsheet-like tools (think Google Sheets, Airtable, Smartsheets, etc.) can make a lot of sense. The flexibility that these spreadsheets and spreadsheet-like tools offer is invaluable and you should always have at least one of these in your data toolbox.