Alteryx

Opmerkingen: Alteryx can do so much more than I use it for, so I believe the only case where Alteryx wouldn't be needed is when a department/team had a full development team to prep data pre-analysis or already has a central data store fully stood up and standardized. Alteryx works extremely well with a multitude of BI and database solutions and would be a great fit for any team trying to speed up the typical daily grind of data prep and ETL so their analytics and data team can be more agile, accurate, and automated.

Pluspunten: Data ingestion: Alteryx is capable of connecting with a multitude of data sources from SQL databases to cloud-hosted solutions like Salesforce, Tableau, or Google Analytics. Also supports OleDB & ODBC connections. Dynamic data munging: Alteryx has a great variety of processing tools to clean and prep data including: dedupe, formulas, joins, union, sort... Performing these functions really quickly on even moderately equipped laptops or desktops. It's dynamic in that it can easily handle changes in data by allowing extra columns to flow through. Macros: have a process that you are consistently running in separate workflows? Build a MACRO, be it a batch or iterative, Alteryx can do it. I've built 40-50 macros and use at least 4+ in every workflow I design so data is handled the same way in every workflow for consistency and cutting down on copy/pastes.

Minpunten: I've had issues with the scheduler tool getting frozen or stuck in previous versions. For about the last 2-3 months the latest software version has been much more reliable. Previously I had to restart the Alteryx service on my machine at least once a week, which meant my workflows weren't running while the service had been stuck and data wasn't moving. Some of the connectors, like the Tableau Online connector, should become supported by Alteryx. The online community is fantastic and has created a ton of useful macros and it would be great if Alteryx would adopt, support, and enhance some of the most widely used and useful.

Opmerkingen: As an analyst in the Finance dept of a large financial institution, my work is largely cyclical in nature. I need to produce the same output on a monthly basis and a lot of my processes require several manual steps which can take hours. With Alteryx Designer, I have been able to convert many of these processes to automated workflows which can achieve the same results in literally seconds. With the power of automation, I have more time for analyzing results instead of spending a great deal of time generating reports.

Pluspunten: Alteryx Designer is a very intuitive way to map out a process in a step by step visual workflow which can be then executed with the click of a button. Tedious manual tasks can be automated with ease. Traditionally, programming required drawing out ones algorithm in a flowchart and then having to translate that into computer code. With Alteryx, the flowchart itself is the code. It features a vast array of icons called tools, each of which has a specific function such as importing data, filtering based on criteria, summarizing, merging information and so forth. You simply drag and drop each tool into the work area for each step in your process and then click the play button. It's like having a robot to whom you can describe your work and then have it do it for you in a fraction of the time.

Minpunten: Alteryx Designer is excellent for data mining/wrangling for eventual output to be used for reporting but it's internal report generation and presentation tools are not as robust as others when it comes to publishing a polished presentation. I prefer to use Designer to produce my final data result set and export to Excel where I can then take advantage of Microsoft Office formatting and presentation options.