Defining data access policy, creating powerful data dashboards and SQL charts, and connecting to several data sources can be easier with a self-service ad hoc report builder. The tool is a self-service business intelligence platform that can be practical to BI analysts who want more independence from your enterprise’s IT department. Without it, business analysts will remain dependent on IT for secured access to the data. Once implemented, they can connect quickly to the data sources that they need to start building or writing SQL queries, dashboards, charts, and reports and share them with other stakeholders in the business. This way, the ad hoc report building tool helps save time and improves productivity.
You should find it easy to use, too, as long as you keep the following points in mind while working with ad hoc report builder tool:
- Prevent unauthorized access – The ad hoc report builder may be an efficient self-service business intelligence tool, but you will still need to work a bit with your IT team to create a secure data access control policy. Once that policy is implemented, you and other business analysts should be able to access the data directly.
- The tool is flexible – Once you have access to data, you can start using the ad hoc report builder tool to connect to a data source and write the SQL queries. A visual SQL query builder lets you build SQL queries without writing a line of code, making it practical for users with little to no SQL knowledge. Database data is easily managed with an advanced SQL editor, and views and table data browser.
- Powerful dashboards allow you analyze and visualize data with ease – Ad hoc data charts, dashboards, and reports can be built right away once the queries are ready and the results have been analyzed. Various charts (i.e. line, pie, area, bar, maps, and data grids) can be built from the platform with just a few clicks.
- Collaborate with other users – The ad hoc report builder lets you share the reports and the d3 based charts with other business analysts and stakeholders in the company.
- Automate reports – You can schedule reports to activate at regular intervals and have the results delivered to your email in formats like HTML, Excel, or PDF.
