Intuitive SQL editors – How is ad-hoc reporting a cut above the rest?

1.7 Mb! That is the amount of data you create the second you click to open this blog post. The volume of data is exploding exponentially every year, and people have only started to appreciate and value the "new gold."

If utilized efficiently, whether existing or real-time, data can offer many growth opportunities to organizations or individual professionals to edify their current practices and processes, resulting in enhanced growth, profits, efficiency, and business intelligence. In this era of the fast-paced industrial revolution, one can't afford to fail to leverage data to their advantage.

It can be overwhelming trying to generate massive data through various processes implemented within the organization and even more staggering turning these data into a core element of your business. It becomes impossible to provide the correct solutions without a clear strategy for analyzing the collected data. 

Data analytics tools and dashboards are the go-to options and serve as a quick fix, but what if you don't have the resources to convert your data into formats needed by the tools or the skills and expertise to use the tools effectively? Furthermore, the differences between today's storage options and those available five or ten years ago are truly astounding, and the advancements are equally so.

Do we really need to replace the traditional approach?

Comparing the modern and traditional methods of managing data in layman's language would be equivalent to comparing fax machines to telegram. For many years, it allowed people and businesses to send scanned documents from one phone number to another. The recipient would be delighted to see a printed copy of the document emerge from their machine. This was accomplished through the transmission of audio frequency tones, which were deciphered at the other end. However, the invention of email, the internet, and technological advances have rendered fax machines obsolete. This is an evolutionary example of how advancements in science and technology render traditional methods futile.

The traditional route to collecting, analyzing, and maintaining the data aren't being completely replaced and remain fundamental in some instances. This is because the data is tidy and answers vital business questions. That said, technological advancements have simply lost their purpose being slow, prone to human error, limitations on manipulation, and unilateral.

Acquiring the storage in the traditional way involved a lot of evaluating, choosing, procuring, installing, validating, implementing, and training which was a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. This approach demands a lot of commitment, is usually contractual, and has lengthy locking periods. Furthermore, these storage systems are highly rigid and completely inflexible. They could not be used to the whim of the organizational needs with respect to the expanding storage needs, which resulted in constant periodic investments into purchasing extra storage, which again is a costly affair both in terms of finance and time.

Traditional reports are used for recurring business information. The information can be specific to fixed questions and performance indicators or interests of businesses which are created at a predetermined frequency. The frequency can be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually by data science experts, analysts, or statisticians. This data, in turn, is distributed amongst the relevant stakeholders. These reports are specific and can't be altered to respond to potential business challenges with possible alternate solutions.

Where are we transitioning – Cloud computing?

Businesses these days are choosing a multi-cloud approach making the cloud mainstream with the vast majority of individuals and organizations already on it. It might not be wrong to assume that 90-92% of businesses have already chosen cloud computing over traditional practices. Cloud computing is nothing but a hub where you can store and/or access databases, apps, services, and various other computing services like networking, analytics, software, and gaining business intelligence through these over the internet.

Five reasons stated by Forbes why more businesses are choosing Cloud and which stand true are as follows:

1. The Cloud offers better insights from big data.

2. The Cloud is flexible and scalable.

3. The Cloud drives collaboration efficiency.

4. The Cloud ensures business continuity and disaster recovery.

5. Cloud computing is simple and cost-effective.

Apart from the above, a few other advantages may include the speed at which the huge amount of data and other resources can be provisioned with just a few clicks. Cloud services offer policies and controls to help protect data, apps, and other infrastructure from potential threats.

What Is Ad Hoc Reporting? What is SQL, and why do a lot of existing applications fail to perform on Cloud?

The term ad hoc in Latin means "for this," and American English describes this as something that has been instantly curated on the fly for a specific and immediate purpose with no due planning. Cloud computing enables ad hoc reporting. They are essentially built-in real-time with no pre-built template. In simple terms, it is extempore. Ad hoc reporting provides individuals and businesses with hyper-convergence and hyperscale computing.

Whilst ad hoc reporting and ad hoc analysis might often be confused, they are sequential processes of business intelligence. They not only aim to answer a specific question, but with an ad hoc analysis, you can go beyond this and generate objective pieces of evidence in the form of a detailed report and discover insights into possible business solutions and new growth opportunities. The outcomes of ad hoc analysis are generally in the form of reports, data summaries, or a statistical model.

Importance of ad-hoc reporting:

As stated above, the benefits of Cloud computing stand true for ad hoc reporting. This is true as the Cloud is one of the sources that enables ad hoc reporting, thereby offering timely delivery of critical information, flexibility, cost-savings, collaborative information sharing, and agile decision-making.

These ad hoc reports are developed through SQL (Structured Query Language), which lets us access and manipulate information available in the databases. However, many challenges are faced when running an ad hoc SQL against an Oracle Fusion Cloud database due to a lack of ad hoc query tools. And as a result, consultants, developers, and SQL professionals have to resort to Oracle BI, which is highly inefficient. 

Why? 

Because the user interface is dreary for creating queries and the time taken is exceptionally lengthy, which no longer stands true to call it "ad hoc" reporting. Furthermore, the results are limited, resulting in too much effort and time for half the amount of work and tiring down the employees.

How can AirQuery help?

AirQuery's Intuitive SQL Editor is a state-of-the-art technology that assists in running ad hoc SQLs against an Oracle Fusion Cloud database. Its development-friendly user interface can type SQL and retrieve results in a jiffy!

Using our SQL Editor, you can centrally maintain, distribute, and reuse scripts as SQL Models. These models can also be used to provide reports that semantic data models are unable to without even having to bother about the version controls. The one-click execution is only one of its unique features, followed by assisting you in organizing and storing your queries and keeping your personal systems all neat and tidy.

Like this wasn't a treat, it further helps you automate operations that otherwise might be mundane and recurring such as the creation of recurring reports and refreshing the dashboard periodically.

AirQuery's SQL editor can also create new objects in the database by helping you execute DDL & DML scripts that can be used for data transformation. We have also gone a step ahead and added colors so you can highlight the errors and make the content more readable. The User Interface (UI) is organized and easy to operate, with everything accessible for you to plunge deep into the data and breeze through it.

AirQuery's SQL editor's hassle-free export enables you to save your SQL results in excel, which can further be used for analysis. These are also harmless to your system!

Vacationing in Greece? Celebrating Thanksgiving away from home? Our SQL editor is a browser-based tool that enables it to be used from anywhere and on any computer. AirQuery DirectSQL reports feature is integrated with SQL Editor to test queries before developing a report.

Our intuitive SQL editor plays a vital role in assisting customers in migrating their data smoothly and seamlessly from legacy ERP to Oracle Cloud by enabling them to effectively manage and utilize this data to get answers to critical business questions.

Who can really use AirQuery's Intuitive SQL Editor? 

Regardless of what sphere of the industrial sector you may belong to, AirQuery's Intuitive SQL Editor can help you with immediate answers to critical aspects of your business without having to depend on the IT department or possess any special skills and training. Furthermore, the collaborative approach can help various functions access the ad hoc reports generated or results of data analysis simultaneously, making the process so much faster. To quote a few critical domains where it may be put to use. 

1. AirQuery's Intuitive SQL Editor in Sales

It aids in preparing ad hoc reports and analysis in an organization with a high volume of sales, locally and in export, where it might be challenging to gauge the area-wise performance of a product or service. It also helps observe market trends or response to a new product and many more.

2. Retail

To maximize the overall effectiveness of the online store or physical locations, it's critical to track sales volumes on a regular basis in the retail industry. Specific weeks where the sales volume was lower than usual could be identified using an ad hoc report. One can edit these reports using the SQL editor to look for possible solutions.

3. Manufacturing

Real-time data provided by ad hoc reporting can be extremely useful. The ability to generate them at a whim can help look for possible changes that can be done to maximize production, look for departments with low productivity and the reason behind the shortfall, and what corrective as well as preventive actions can be taken.

4. Healthcare

Trends can be observed in healthcare facilities where the number of patients with a particular disease can be massive in any specific season, which can help the hospital proactively prepare certain supplies. The primary benefit of ERP for healthcare is the simplification of multiple diagnostic systems, electronic medical records, and patient communication systems. Additionally, ERP provides medical organizations with real-time access to patient demands, data, and test results to ensure the best results. Data analysis tools have revolutionized the healthcare sector.

5. Marketing

Organizations these days invest a lot of time and money in marketing their products and services, campaigns, blogs, events, seminars, exhibitions, etc. As crucial as it is to conduct them, it is equally important to analyze each of these to understand the marketing efforts. The visual representation of data and immediate reports can help measure the success of such promotional activities and help with the optimum utilization of available resources.

 6. Education

Education remains the apex of all technological advances and developments. Hence, it is crucial to gauge the quality of education being imparted and how efficiently students are able to pick the best from them. Having this tool enables teachers and professors to assess individual performances and see how their growth is progressing. If negative trends can be found in any student, they can further look into the reasons and correct them to ensure individual development.

7. Client services

Customer satisfaction remains fundamental to any association, whether offering products or services, and enough emphasis can never be given to organizations constantly delivering a great user experience. Hence, it becomes crucial that data be collected through complaints and feedback, which can further be managed through cloud SQL editors to point at the root causes and devise a business strategy to curtail them.

These are but a few applications and the list is extensive as enough can't be put into words on how data has transfigured our existing knowledge, skills, and access to information. 

There can be some challenges while using such platforms. Although the use of data has become a required practice for contemporary businesses, there is still a significant knowledge gap for average users, making it more challenging and nerve-wracking to use data for execution.

The Lack of data governance renders large volumes of data futile, unusable, and prone to threat, and hence is essential having an appropriate system that is easy and has required features that can be used without complication.

Privation of education is another roadblock, entrepreneurs have been exposed to the fact that data literacy is the key to triumph, and no organization can afford to be lost behind on this. However, they are completely paralyzed when it comes to recruiting masses who are confident working with data, even when there are tools available that are self-driven and need general data knowledge. Therefore, the youth must be trained, empowered, and motivated to shift toward this technology.

Inadequate strategic planning is another bummer when it comes to the inefficient implementation of Data science programs. Organizations usually don't lay out a clear strategy on organizational structure and the appropriate tools that shall be needed for a concerned department and hence end up implementing a misfit which doesn't add much value and results in misuse or incomplete use of data. Some of the critical aspects that should be considered before choosing an appropriate tool include but are not limited to the following:

• Access to multiple data sources
• An interactive user-interface
• Artificial intelligence features
• Collaborative dashboard
• Data visualization proficiencies
• Basic and advanced features for analysis

Design, build and manage data through our robust yet flexible pipelines. At AirQuery, we have invested our knowledge, skills, time, and efforts in creating a platform where overwhelming amounts of data scattered in the Cloud can be sourced, stored, analyzed, edited, exported, and presented adequately. Our robust data operations framework is, in a way, foundational to organizational success. 

Our integrated data warehouses have been tested to ensure your business information remains secure and redundant. We have over 150+ data connectors to ensure that we cover all your cloud-based data sources.

Our centrally managed data model helps you set up schematic layers, supports data stewardship, and ensures data governance and security. When put to the correct use and utilized to its potential, data can be a real game changer for your business.

At AirQuery, you are not paralyzed by a system or software; you can break free and manage your data from any location. Additionally, because of its advanced data mobility features, it allows you to share your dashboard, prepare, present, and share your reports, graphs, and other summaries.

Amidst tons of similar SQL editors, AirQuery has made a successful effort to deliver to you a tool that has been customized to suit the needs of end-users with an interface that shall enable self-service with basic eligibility criteria and technical knowledge to use it successfully. 

Data is only getting increasingly important as technology in every sector revolves around it, and society at large is creating an enormous amount of data. Turning data into actionable information is the only way for businesses and hence requires a strong foundation with the correct tools to enable more efficient decision-making. Breakthroughs in this branch will most likely lead to exciting discoveries in the coming years.

Want to know more about how Airquery can potentially help your business not just grow but also keep it organized? To request a demo of the AirQuery solution, visit: https://www.airquery.com/free-trial