Brian Holak – As data preparation tools become increasingly self-service-oriented and cloud-based, more enterprise users are employing them — and recognizing their importance in their organizations’ business intelligence strategies.

That’s according to Dresner Advisory Services’ 2019 Data Preparation Market Study. In the survey, 63% of all 350 respondents said data preparation is either “critical” or “very important.” About 87% said data preparation is at least “important.”

“Data prep has long been identified as an essential process of analysis,” said Jim Ericson, vice president and research director at Dresner Advisory Services and co-author of the study, released Feb. 28. “Although it’s not really glamorous, it has gotten a lot of prioritization. It’s a really high priority among users.” Read more:

RB Note: On a personal note this is absolutely the biggest impediment to simplifying BI. Getting data to align correctly so it is useful to the casual user is often a huge time drain. Of course once it is done it’s all good but getting there can be a challenge.