Welcome to Datamartist, a blog for people who need to analyze large amounts of data quickly and are finding that their need for new analysis is outstripping the IT department’s ability to deliver.

 You probably fall right into this population if you answer “YES” to any of the following;

• Even though your company has one or more Data Warehouses, and/or numerous Data Marts you still work most of the time in spreadsheets
• You have to wait for report requests to be completed by IT to get even the most basic data
• You see the same data quality problems month after month go uncorrected

 My name is James Standen, and during the last 15 years working in a large organization, I’ve seen so many rewrites, reworks, add-ons, and out and out rogue data analysis systems that it became clear to me that something was missing from the current approach to data analysis. 

 So I’ve started this blog, and my Company, nModal Solutions Inc.,  to put affordable, powerful and easy to use tools directly in the hands of the analysts- while maintaining the partnership with IT.  We want to keep what’s working and bridge the gaps for what’s not.

If your company is like many others then;

• Your IT department is probably  not being given even a fraction of the resources they need
• The tools you use are often limited by the server centric model that most tools are based on
• The data marts that are available are what was needed 18 months ago when the project that built them kicked off, but many of your current analysis needs are not addressed.

 I believe that the huge proliferation of spreadsheets to bridge the above gaps for data analysis is showing us that

• The people who know the information and know the questions can and should have the ability to design their own analysis quickly with tools that are designed so non-programmers can use them.
• The architecture should use the power that you have on your desk, not be limited by overworked servers
• Data analysis is a personal, fast moving and critical part of today’s business environment, and 6-18 month cycles of “one size fits all” data marts are going to be supplimented by personal datamarts, often right on the desktop.

 I hope that in the coming months, some of you reading this will participate in our public Beta program, because it is user feedback early and often that makes great tools.

I encourage commentary from any and all sources- tell me what you think- as I share some of my experiences, and my passion for data analysis, I’m very interested to hear about yours- and to know what features and capabilities you would most like to see in your Datamartist tool-set.