Review on Good Data

Yesterday, Fern Halper posted a short review about Good Data. The review focuses on the collaborative aspects of the service, and does a good job of explaining what we’re trying to do.

I’d like to continue from here and talk a little about why collaboration is a good thing.

Good Data aims to provide two main things: visibility and alignment. Visibility is the act of analyzing data and extracting answers to relevant business questions. These answers can then determine a course of action based on facts. By continuing to monitor the data, a company can benchmark its progress and (hopefully) improve performance. By and large, this is the aim and the promise of all BI software vendors worth considering, and the manner of doing it (MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP, blah, blah, blah), while important, is really just a way to answer “how” to provide visibility. Alignment, on the other hand, deals with having all stakeholders working effectively as a team. This means that all stakeholders should be able to see the past performance, agree about the present, and create and work toward common goals for the future.

Collaboration is a special ingredient that can greatly enhance the effectiveness of both visibility and alignment.

Visibility
Similar to Wikipedia entries, Good Data users can collaborate on the report definition process. Any perceived errors can be corrected by an appropriate person, and the history is available so that others can see the progress and even contribute to the final report. This adds a layer of validation to the answers. Unlike individual data silos, everything is centrally located and available for all to see. Further, other users can leave comments and annotations on the reports for additional clarification or alternate interpretation.

Alignment
The result is that stakeholders are empowered to be active participants, whether by creating reports or by offering interpretation. If an instinct seems contradictory, they have the means to participate and verify the report. In this way, results are disseminated throughout the organization, consensus is ultimately achieved, benchmarks are set, and future goals can be created and effectively measured.

So… I invite everyone interested in visibility and alignment to check out the Good Data demo. In just a few short weeks, we will launch a newer beta version that will allow you to upload your own data project and collaborate with your colleagues. Stay with us… it’s coming!

To finish, I thought I would post this picture. To me, this picture shows that when you have visibility and alignment, it can be a beautiful thing.

Georgetown on the Potomac