DataSelf
User-centric Business Intelligence Tools Turn Data into Insights

Despite all the hype about “easy” data analysis, business users still have trouble turning data into insight. But one electrical-engineer-turned-entrepreneur has been on a mission to fix the problem by simplifying users’ work — and he’s found a key.
The idea of simplifying the analytics task captivated DataSelf CEO Joni (pron. Johnny) Girardi’s imagination a long time ago. Girardi and his small team of experts at DataSelf provide easy-to-use analytics and business intelligence solutions to medium-sized businesses. “With over 14 years of experience in this arena, we believe in delivering best-practice analytics, reporting and ultra-light data warehousing solutions tailored to our client’s needs,” says Girardi.
CIOs are concerned about the time required to learn the nuances of the latest business analytics tools, he pointed out. “It often brings more trouble than it’s worth,” he said. “Preparing data, connecting to data sources, analyzing it, and developing business insights requires lots of time and money.”

DataSelf helps overcome that hurdle, partly with its more than 5000 reports and KPI templates—all ready to use. These templates plug into popular mid-market ERP and CRM systems such as Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage Pro, Sage ERP X3, and Sage CRM.
Another critical factor is the Tableau visualization engine—renowned for its intuitive operation. “It connects to our data drive train,” explains Girardi.

DataSelf simplifies and amplifies BI with Tableau and Microsoft BI technologies through the robust Ultralight Data Warehouse and the DataSelf no-programming ETL system. The Microsoft SQL Server is a centralized repository that simplifies users’ access to data and improves query performance. It easily combines the data sources such as ERP, CRM, ecommerce, and inventory controls.

DataSelf's applications’ automatic connection to Sage ERP and CRM adds extensive reporting agility and depth.“Our key advantage is that business users take care of 70 percent of their reporting needs with no expert assistance,” says Girardi. “With ease-of-use and automatic data transformation procedures, labor associated with reporting goes down by over 80 percent, while it provides users with detailed insights via email, desktop, and web, and even to mobile devices.”
Sawstop, a maker of table saws, got full benefit from DataSelf’s enterprise-level data analysis solutions. The company’s existing reporting tool had limitations, such as when users tried to define an account by specialist. Instead of the expensive and cumbersome process Sawstop users had known, DataSelf impressed them with its simplicity.

Our key advantage is that business users take care of 70 percent of their reporting needs with no expert assistance

“The tool provided exceptional ROI,” said Sawstop VP and co-founder David Fulmer. “It dramatically reduced overhead by allowing users to quickly identify and target under-performing regions and accounts.” DataSelf also allowed users to report directly from their Sage ERP system to track targets, leads, and follow-ups. The increase in data efficiency has helped Sawstop to build detailed insights and enhance innovations.

Going forward, Girardi foresees a huge demand for BI solutions in the distribution and manufacturing sector. “As of now, it amounts to about 60 percent of our customer base. We look forward to companies with the real need for data analysis,” he concludes