What is Alteryx?

Alteryx is an automated analytics, machine learning, and data science processing platform designed from the ground up. It empowers businesses and technology users alike to use their data more effectively. At Continuum, we believe that every user can utilise Alteryx to become more efficient. It allows users to rapidly prepare, blend, conform and analyse data from any source in almost a single instance.

All of this is accomplished using a visual “workflow” designer that is remarkably intuitive and easy to use. These workflows are built using a combination of pre-built or custom tools that represent units of functionality such as data input/output, aggregation, filtering, sampling and reporting.

In essence, Alteryx is a key part of our company’s backbone. To help gain a further understanding, we have listed some of our favourite, impressive features that have been the building blocks to new partnerships and solutions for our clients.

1. Incredibly user-friendly as a result of its no/low code interface.

Alteryx is a no/low code software that rivals the technical abilities of traditional platforms has completely transformed the way that businesses can utilise their data.

With the ability to carry out processes from the simple preparing, cleansing, and merging of datasets to complex analysis, predictive analytics, and machine learning, the no/low code aspect of Alteryx does not come at the expense of high-level capabilities. Anyone from data scientists to someone with little experience in coding and data can work this software, allowing you to capitalise on data that was previously inaccessible. This “democratization“ of data has enabled users to draw on-demand insights from the data that they know best, rather than queueing up endless requests to IT.

2. Transforms complex analytic processes into transparent, comprehensive and accessible workflows.

This transformation is another factor that has arisen from the Alteryx-facilitated “democratisation“ of data. The migration of analytics towards business users is only made possible through the incredible accessibility of Alteryx.

Queries made by IT using code-heavy platforms such as Python, SQL and R provide little to no transparency, even to other high-level coders, much less to non-fluent business users. Bespoke code lacks both scalability and potential for collaboration. Alteryx subverts this blockade in clarity and flexibility due to the framework that all processes are built upon.

Alteryx contains a palette of core, simplistic tools that combine to execute even the most complex tasks. All workflows are composed of these easily understandable building blocks, providing a clear, step-by-step overview of every operation performed on the data, allowing even non-Alteryx users to understand the workings of an Alteryx workflow.

This clarity ensures that complex processes developed within Alteryx are not left unapproved by the business because insufficient confidence is provided to management to implement them. Instead, the transition into production is seamless as the organisation is provided with reassurance at every stage of the process through the transparency that Alteryx provides.

3. Enables the reliable, repeatable automation of the mundane.

Alteryx is unrivalled in the world of data cleansing and preparation. In contrast, Excel is the king of mundane, time consuming, low-value processes that cripple your ability to focus on analysis that is invaluable to the business.

Alteryx is the best tool in the market to automate these problematic manual processes, empowering analysts to lead the way in driving the business toward success.

Analysts that have to right tools to provide more value to the business are more productive and find a greater sense of fulfilment in their work. We believe that Alteryx is the key to this.

4. Seamless integration with other platforms

Normally, when an organisation stumbles across a new piece of kit, there is always a slight hesitation on the integration process with what data is already active in the company. However, Alteryx’s Designer feature hosts a wide variety of different “Connector” tools that allow for seamless integration with other software through the use of APIs packaged into prebuilt, easy-to-use tools. Some popular software integrations your company might use already are Power BI, SharePoint and Tableau. These tools often provide the final stage in an Alteryx end-to-end automated process, outputting to a visualisation tool or database that already exists within the business.

You can also integrate other platforms through community-created tools in the Alteryx Gallery - a collection of custom-built APIs and tools created by 3rd party developers such as DVW Analytics, with whom we have partnered. This enables the frictionless adoption of Alteryx into the infrastructure of an organisation, which is a traditionally painful task with other software adoptions.

5. Award-winning Alteryx Community

The Alteryx Community is well known by all Alteryx users as an invaluable resource. It offers anything from learning resources to help sharpen your software skills, to a conversational platform where you can ask fellow Alteryx users for guidance with any difficulties that you may be facing.

The chances are, if you have run into a problem when tackling a process in Alteryx, someone else in the community has either asked the same question or is happy to lend their expertise to help resolve the issue - talk about community spirit!

This incredible community is well recognised, as evident through Alteryx receiving the Community of the Year 2021 award in the CMX Community Industry Awards

If you want your organization to do the following then contact us for a demonstration today:

Benefit from a tool that democratizes data within the business
Empowers users to upgrade their analytics to the next level
Removes users from their mundane manual processes
Integrates painlessly and seamlessly with existing business infrastructure
Be a part of an award-winning community to support and inform users

How Alteryx Can Improve Your Business and Why We Swear By It.