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Data Preparation Software
Compare All Data Preparation Software
Infor Birst
Infor Birst
Birst, an Infor Company, is a web-based networked BI and analytics solution that connects insights from various teams and helps in making informed decisions. The tool enables decentralized users to augment the enterprise data mode...Read more
TIBCO Spotfire
TIBCO Spotfire
TIBCO Spotfire provides executive dashboards, data analytics, data visualization and KPI push to mobile devices. It complements existing business intelligence and reporting tools, while midsize organizations can use dashboards and...Read more
Rapid Insight Construct
Rapid Insight Construct
Rapid Insight is an on-premise Business Intelligence solutions for higher education institutions and fundraising, healthcare and data science corporations. The suite of applications includes dashboards and scorecards, data mining ...Read more
Phocas Analytics
Phocas Analytics
Phocas is a team of passionate professionals who are committed to helping people feel good about their data. Our software brings together organizations’ most useful data from an ERP and other business systems and presents it in a ...Read more
Software pricing tips
Read our Data Preparation Software Buyers GuideSubscription models
- Per employee/per month: This model allows you to pay a monthly fee for each of your employees.
- Per user/per month: Users pay a monthly fee for users—normally administrative users—rather than all employees.
Perpetual license
- This involves paying an upfront sum for the license to own the software and use it indefinitely.
- This is the more traditional model and is most common with on-premise applications and with larger businesses.
Rated best value for money
Oracle Business Intelligence
Oracle Business Intelligence
Oracle Business Intelligence Suite is a cloud-based solution that helps small to large enterprises gain insights into organizational performance using predictive analytics, facilitating decision-making processes. The centralized p...Read more
Popular Data Preparation Software Comparisons
Buyers Guide
Last Updated: March 09, 2022As a business, you need to trust that your data is complete, formatted, and up-to-date so you can make accurate business decisions. It can be disastrous if the data you're using for analysis or decision-making is inaccurate, and that's why data preparation is key to business success.
Data preparation allows businesses to simplify and automate various manual processes that are associated with collecting and cleaning data. Data preparation tools enhance operational efficiency and accuracy.
However, selecting one data preparation tool from among the hundreds on the market can be overwhelming. That's why we've created this buyers guide to detail everything you need to know before making the final purchase decision.
Here's what we'll cover:
- What is data preparation software?
- Common features of data preparation software
- What type of buyer are you?
- Benefits of data preparation software
- Key considerations
What is data preparation software?
Data preparation software is a tool that allows businesses to explore, gather, and manipulate data into a form that is ready for analysis. The software cleans and consolidates data into a single table, file, or curated dataset for data visualization or other operational processes.
Data preparation software is useful when you need to:
- Combine data from multiple sources
- Manually enter data into spreadsheets
- Deal with unstructured data (e.g., PDF files or web pages)
Clean data for analysis in Tableau's Prep Builder (Source)
Common features of data preparation software
Different vendors offer different features in their data preparation software. Selecting the best data preparation software for your business is easier when you know what the common features are and what they do.
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Data access |
Access and import structured or semi-structured data from multiple sources. |
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Data mashup/data blending |
Blend multiple types of data sources, or normalize multiple data sources into common formats for integrated data analyses. |
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Data transformation |
Transform raw data into usable data by correcting typos, standardizing data, and converting and normalizing numeric values into standard forms. |
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Data modeling |
Specify data types and their relationships with each other. |
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Interactive user interface (UI) |
Combine multiple data sources through an intuitive, visually oriented UI. |
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Collaboration |
Share, comment on, and promote datasets. |
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Data governance |
Leverage security features such as data encryption, user permission, authentication, and security filtering at user/group/role levels. |
To further understand these features and learn about data preparation software vendors, call our advisors at 855-998-8505 for free, no-obligation help. They'll help you narrow down your options by listening to your requirements and recommending the best-suited solutions for your business.
What type of buyer are you?
Before you start evaluating data preparation software options, you'll need to know what buyer category you belong to. We believe most buyers will fall into one of the below categories:
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Business owners and analyst teams: Business owners often use the tool themselves or hire business analyst teams to do the job. These teams are found in every business that is involved in any form of data analysis. Business analyst workgroups use data preparation tools to collate data from different sources, avoid manual data entry, and transform unstructured data. They usually don't need complex dashboard capabilities or governance features, but would require functionalities such as data access, data blending, and data transformation.
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IT departments: Even though data preparation tools are designed for business users (owners and analysts), IT departments also use these tools in many organizations. In addition to data cleaning features, IT departments prefer tools with data modeling capabilities, since they'll have to support data modeling for the whole organization rather than just a small analyst workgroup. They'll need a tool that offers data governance to protect sensitive data from users who don't need to access it as part of their roles.
Benefits of data preparation software
While some of the benefits of data preparation software may be clear from our discussion above, we've called out the most notable ones below:
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Accurate business decisions: Cleaner data results in better data analyses and reporting, which eventually leads businesses to make more accurate business decisions.
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Reduced data errors: Data preparation tools minimize manual intervention in processes such as collation and consolidation, thus reducing errors.
Key considerations
Here are some important aspects to consider before you purchase data preparation software:
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Scalability: Ask your shortlisted vendors about the scalability of their tools. You'll need a solution that supports your business as it grows and is able to handle your expanding needs. For instance, if you plan to go from being a single-location business to a multi-location one, the software must be able to gather data from all the new locations and handle the higher volume.
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Customer support: Find out if the vendor offers support 24/7, only during business hours, or not at all. Also, ask about available support options, such as email, phone, or live chat.
Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.