Author: Kartik Patel

How Can Minimum Viable Products Help My Start-Up Business

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March 25, 2026

Minimum Viable Products Are Key to Start-Up Success

Your business has a great idea for a software application or solution. If your enterprise is a start-up with a money-making concept, or you have an existing app and you want to make it more competitive, it is imperative that you take the most direct, effective route to product launch.

Microsoft Estimated that there were more than 50 million start-ups launched in 2022 alone. According to Crunchbase data and a CB Insights report, global venture funding declined 35% year over year in 2022. What does this mean? This decline in funding reflects a correction by venture capitalists and investors who no longer wish to bet on a unicorn.

SO…if you still think you have a great idea, and you want to fund a product or an upgrade, you MUST do so with a cost-effective approach; one that will provide the best chance of success with the least investment.

That’s where the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept comes in!

Let Your Start-Up Soar With Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Development

By engaging an expert in Minimum Viable Products, your start-up can plan for a product test to test theories and create features for feedback from users and customers without the extended cycle and expense of full product development, thereby ensuring success without betting all of your funding on a product that is not suitable for the market or the users you wish to target.

  • Strategy – Identify core product features that will deliver the most value for the largest user audience
  • Market – Define the market need and the target user or customer
  • Metrics – Establish metrics for success and a feedback and evaluation loop to gather and process data for the final product
  • Implementation and Roll-Out – Establish a scalable, workable plan for implementing the test strategy
  • Involve Stakeholders – Align goals and strategy and plan for reporting and stakeholder engagement
  • Alignment – Assure that the MVP features align with business value, revenue growth and the goals of the organization
  • Quality – Assure quality and security of MVP product
  • Define Success – Work with the team and stakeholders to define success and customer or user acceptance criteria
  • Incorporate Feedback – Establish feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement, and methods to incorporate appropriate features in final product

The examples provided above will give you an idea of the components and considerations included within a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) strategy. The MVP process provides swift, affordable market feedback and builds a process of iterative improvement to speed and enhance product development.

Expert MVP services include rapid prototyping, user testing, and iterative development to help you prove your idea’s potential before large scale investment. Be sure that the partner you choose has proven experience in MVP development.

Contact Us to find out more about our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) expert services. Our minimum viable product software development process focuses on identifying essential features, crafting an intuitive user experience, and delivering a functional prototype that investors and users can experience. Whether you need MVP development for startups or tailored enterprise solutions, we make sure your product stands out from the start. Review our MVP Case Studies: Recruitment Industry Start-Up Sourcing Platform, and Integrated Web and Mobile App for Holistic Healthcare.

Original Post : How Can Minimum Viable Products Help My Start-Up Business!

Conversational AI and NLP Expand Access to Analytics

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February 25, 2026

Users LOVE Conversational AI and Intuitive Analytics

Forbes Reports that Conversational AI is making autonomous agents capable of completing end-to-end workflows, so much so that Deloitte projects that 25% of businesses using GenAI will deploy AI agents in 2025 (growing to 50% in 2027).

Analytics solutions represents an ever-expending segment for conversational AI for features and function, and the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Conversational Artificial Intelligence will continue to impact the industry as end users demand easier, more intuitive ways to prepare, analyze, share and report on data.

When we consider this evolving technology, and how it will continue to affect BI solutions and augmented analytics software, one thing is clear. The average enterprise and its users will push for more intuitive products and services, for ease-of-use and improved productivity, improved user adoption, affordability, the flexibility to grow and change with new technology and with business markets.

While we cannot make specific predictions about the evolution of AI and NLP, we can predict that businesses and users will push software vendors and technology companies to provide simpler tools, better, more accurate insight and results and automated features that provide users with alerts, suggestions and support to make their jobs easier and improve results.

Incorporating conversation AI bots and NLP within BI tools will allow users to monitor and manage results more easily and optimize their time by focusing on other, more crucial tasks.

When the organization invests in new or upgraded self-serve analytical tools, it must first ensure that users will adopt these tools and that the features and analytics provided will result in increased productivity and collaboration and resource optimization. When the enterprise selects BI tools with Conversational AI and NLP features, it can achieve all of these goals and assure a good Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies evolve, these technologies will be applied within advanced analytics, self-serve analytics and business intelligence (BI) tools to further improve features, provide better, faster insight and clearer, more concise results and optimize human resources and productivity.

Businesses and Users Push for More as Conversational AI and NLP Expands Access to Analytics

The future of AI and NLP in BI tools will support:

  • Processing large volumes of unstructured data (text, speech, written) to produce actionable insight and reports.
  • Automatically identifying trends, patterns and sentiments to alert users of changes and shifts that may affect goals.
  • Supporting decisions with conversational business intelligence to allow team members and executives to interact through NLP.
  • Real-time analytics to reveal sentiment, emotion, context and tone in customer interaction.
  • Automated reporting to save time and analyze complex data.
  • External data integration to analyze markets, social media, financial markets, investments, and other aspects of external data that will affect businesses.
  • Understanding and responding to voice commands, analyzing and working with contextual information, predicting user needs.
  • Eliminating static reporting, using conversational, dynamic analytics that can leverage predictive and analytical algorithms to produce results.

Contact Us to find out more about how your business can incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning into your products, your business processes and your Digital Transformation (Dx) initiatives. Our AI-Enabled Advanced Analytics Solutions and Products And Services can help you achieve your vision with affordable, dependable technology. Explore our white paper ‘Conversational AI And NLP Analytics Reduces The Dependence And Usage Of Traditional BI Tools, And Improves User Adoption And Data Democratization,’ and our free articles about Agentic AI: ‘The New Age Of AI: Agentic AI’, and ‘What Is Agentic AI And Why Should I Consider It For Apps?’

Original Post : Conversational AI and NLP Expand Access to Analytics!

Can Agentic AI Help My Business, and How Will it Impact My Staff?

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January 28, 2026

Agentic AI Can Be Used to Support Business and Teams

A recent study by Deloitte Reports that 52% of respondents say that Agentic AI is the most interesting area of artificial intelligence today.

Agentic AI takes artificial intelligence to the next level by enabling decision-making and independent behavior that involves reasoning, planning and completing tasks and actions in real time to achieve established goals.

Thirty years ago, we could not have imagined this technology, nor the impact it would have on productivity, work processes, businesses and consumers. In this rapidly evolving environment, it is worth considering the impact on jobs and on the people who previously performed the tasks we now as AI to complete.

Let’s consider some of the uses of Agentic AI so that we can better understand its potential and how it can be (and is) used in today’s business environment and how the use of Agentic AI will impact those currently working in each of these environments.

How Can Businesses Use Agentic AI to Help the Business and Support Team Members?

Manufacturing

Use Case: The typical manufacturing environment is supported by numerous systems, functions and processes. To complete the cycle, the business must incorporate the supply chain for parts and components and manage a multi-step, multi-level workflow. Agentic AI can work independently to identify supply shortages and review alternative sources for supplies that meet requirements for the timing of shipping and the price of materials. It can complete and submit forms and manage production schedules to accommodate the arrival of materials and meet deadlines.

Staffing Impact: If the business intends to engage Agentic AI to perform these tasks, it would be wise to include team members in the process to control specific, critical points along the manufacturing lifecycle and to monitor and manage the process to ensure appropriate decisions and action.

Call Centers

Use Case: Agentic AI is in use today in many call centers. AI agents gather and use existing intelligence to address and serve customers, considering order history and customer preferences, customer satisfaction, and company policies for returns, shipping and other factors.

Staffing Impact: Agentic AI can relieve live agents from the more mundane tasks and, when a live agent interacts with a customer, that agent can quickly leverage information gathered from previous interactions and orders and even suggest solutions and purchases or alternatives based on the information gathered by the AI assistant.

Healthcare

Use Case: Human interaction is crucial to healthcare but Agentic AI can help with the more routine activities like scheduling appointments, processing insurance claims and aligning government and industry regulations with tasks performed to ensure compliance. The system can review electronic health records (EHR) to bring together unstructured notes into a summary and provide classification information.

Staffing Impact: By streamlining the routine tasks, note-taking and summarization, Agentic AI can enable staff optimization and allow healthcare professionals to focus on patient interaction, records review and diagnostics and other crucial activities.

Research and Compounding

Use Case: Whether a business is developing a pharmaceutical compound or creating a food recipe, this process can take a lot of time and involve a lot of trial and error. Agentic AI allows the business to consider other additives, ingredients and compounds, compare the pricing for these new ingredients and compounds and the manufacturing requirements, alternatives and possible issues.

Staffing Impact: Skilled team members can use the information gathered and recommended by Agentic AI to review results, and make alternative recommendations or test theories and make final decisions.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolves, it is important for businesses to weigh the experience, skills and knowledge of its team members and to incorporate those factors into the decisions surrounding the use of AI. Agentic AI and other technologies can be very helpful in performing routine activities, redundant tasks and even some decisions. But human intervention and experience are always important to identify and address the more nuanced issues and bring a trained eye to the final product, service or decision.

AI is at its best when it is used to its full potential, in concert with the human element of skills, experience and knowledge and it can be a benefit to your team by relieving them of routine tasks and by revealing interesting ideas and concepts that can be refined and used to create new business products and services and solving problems.

Contact Us to find out more about how your business can incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning into your products, your business processes and your Digital Transformation (Dx) initiatives. Our Products And Services can help you achieve your vision with affordable, dependable technology. Explore our free articles about Agentic AI: ‘The New Age Of AI: Agentic AI’, and ‘What Is Agentic AI And Why Should I Consider It For Apps?’

Original Post: Can Agentic AI Help My Business, and How Will it Impact My Staff?

Should I Choose Cloud-Based or On-Premises Business Intelligence?

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December 10, 2025

Choosing Between Cloud and On-Premises Augmented Analytics

Your business may be upgrading a business intelligence solution OR it may be considering the implementation of business intelligence (BI) for the first time. Either way, you will be faced with numerous decisions as you navigate the augmented analytics market and look for the right product and solution for your team and your organization.

Considerations include pricing, features, ease-of-use, data storage and data management location, and the capability of the solution to support upgrade and growth. When it comes to the technical foundation of the product and services, you will need to decide whether to choose a solution that resides on premises or one that is cloud-based.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this decision is advanced planning and anticipating the changing needs of the organization. If you are choosing an advanced analytics product, a business intelligence or augmented analytics solutions, you may wish to select a vendor that allows you to choose an on-premises OR cloud-based approach, with the flexibility to change your approach in the future WITHOUT having to change the software your team has adopted – the one they now understand and use on a daily basis.

On-Premises: Software is hosted onsite using enterprise hardware and infrastructure. Some businesses choose this option because they wish to retain control and provide assured security.

Cloud-Based: When a business chooses this option, it relies on third-party servers to support the software and data and accesses information via secured internet connections using cloud. This option provides a flexible, scalable approach and allows the enterprise to access software and features without the need for its own resources, IT support, and hardware expense.

Gartner Has Predicted that, ‘Demand for integration capabilities, agile work processes and composable architecture will drive continued shift to the cloud.’

On-Premises vs Cloud-Based BI Tools: Consider Your Enterprise Requirements

To choose the right solution, work with your IT partner, to consider:

  • Strategy for Business Growth
  • Industry, Government Security Compliance
  • Availability of and Access to Technical Experts
  • Ability to Easily Manage Data Sources, Data Access, etc.
  • Cost of Solution and Support and Maintenance
  • Performance, Scalability, Flexibility
  • Support for Upgrade, Future Needs, Digital Transformation (Dx)

Look for a flexible, low-code, no-code analytics platform with scalable technology infrastructure and architecture that offers on-premises, private cloud or public cloud implementation for Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and other options. Your IT consulting partner will help you decide on your approach based on data velocity, data sources and locations, data security and governance policies and your desired return on investment (ROI).

Contact Us to discuss your analytical needs and to find out more about Smarten Technology, Architecture And Infrastructure, and the process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business. Explore our White Paper: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and our free article, ‘How Does Low Code And No Code Development Support BI Tools?’

Original Post: Should I Choose Cloud-Based or On-Premises Business Intelligence?

What Are Citizen Data Scientists Doing Today?

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October 29, 2025

How Has the Citizen Data Scientist Role Evolved?

Ten years ago, the term ‘Citizen Data Scientist’ was coined by the world-renowned technology research firm, Gartner. The term refers to business team members whose expertise and role are not focused on analytics as a primary job function. Using self-serve analytics solutions, these team members can leverage analytics to create models, reports and analysis to collaborate, share and make decisions. Gartner predicted the emergence of this role within businesses as part of the growing importance of data analytics and data-driven decisions within the business environment.

A decade later, it is worth reviewing the status of this role in the business enterprise and within the average organization. Is the Citizen Data Scientist role a standard role within most businesses today? Does a Citizen Data Scientist replace or work independently from a Data Scientist or Business Analyst? Has the Gartner prediction come to fruition?

While there are no current statistics regarding the number of companies currently using a Citizen Data Scientist approach, the trend toward data-driven planning and forecasting is clear. As with many other business trends, the larger organizations usually take the lead. They have the budget and the depth of resources to plan for and deploy changes across the enterprise and to test theories and enforce cultural changes.

Here are some statistics that reflect the growth of the Citizen Data Scientist movement and the supporting technologies that engender this approach:

After Ten Years, Is the Promise of Citizen Data Scientists Fulfilled?
  • Studies reveal that the number of Citizen Data Scientists is growing five times faster than the number of Data Scientists.
  • Automation technologies support the growth of the Citizen Data Scientist approach with over 40% of data science tasks automated through augmented analytics and/or machine learning.
  • The Machine Learning (ML) market is growing at a compounded annual rate of more than 15%, reflecting the need for data analytics capabilities within self-serve solutions.
  • By some estimates, interest in the Citizen Data Scientist role has tripled in the past decade, as medium and small enterprises embrace new, intuitive, more affordable technologies to support the Citizen Data Scientist concept within their organization.

As this concept became mainstream, the industries saw a trend toward increasing data-driven insight while reducing dependence on Data Scientists.

While the Citizen Data Scientist role began as a basic initiative to gather data and create simple reports, today’s Citizen Data Scientists are now using business intelligence (BI) tools and augmented analytics with Natural Language Processing (NLP), machine learning, low-code and no-code platforms and other technologies to leverage limited technical skills and create sophisticated analytics with clear results. Reports, dashboards and data sharing allow team members to create and use data models and to increase data literacy and data democratization.

Team members can use smart data visualization and assisted predictive modeling to gain insight and solve day-to-day problems, advise management and collaborate with other team members to understand trends, patterns, challenges, and opportunities and leverage metrics to make fact-based decisions.

This evolution of the Citizen Data Scientist role within the organization can free Data Scientists to perform more strategic activities without the daily distraction of simple report requests. If and when a particular data model or analytical approach must be refined to be more strategic, the Citizen Data Scientist can work with the Data Scientist to achieve that goal.

Using this approach, the enterprise can empower team members with the tools to analyze data and to use their knowledge of the industry, market, customers and business environment to make decisions and improve results.

When we consider the last decade of Citizen Data Scientist evolution, we see that businesses across all industries are working toward a more data-driven approach to decision-making, and embracing data democracy as a means to improve productivity and the quality of decisions and to reduce re-work and missteps.

Contact Us to discuss your analytical needs and to find out more about Citizen Data Scientists, and the process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business. Explore our free White Papers: ‘The Potential Of The Citizen Data Scientist Approach And Augmented Analytics,’ ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI Tools.’

Original Post : What Are Citizen Data Scientists Doing Today?

Low-Code No-Code Software Development Options

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September 24, 2025

Consider Low Code and/or No Code Development

If you are considering the development of a software solution or app for business use or consumer release, you know that there are numerous crucial considerations involved in the process of software development. One of the most important factors in solution development is choosing the platform upon which you will build your mobile application, your software product or your business application. Today’s industry publications and technology journals are full of articles about low-code and no-code development technologies and techniques.

There is growing popularity among development teams and technology companies to suggest that the Low-Code and No-Code development (LCNC) approach has taken hold and that it has enabled businesses to move quickly to address market and business needs.

Gartner Defines Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAPs) as platforms for accelerated development and maintenance of applications, using model-driven tools for the entire application’s technology stack, generative AI and prebuilt component catalogs.  According to Gartner, ‘low-code platforms will be used in 65% of application development by the end of this year.’

Low code/no code application development is a game-changing approach for software development and challenges the assumptions about the cost and time it takes to create a software solution or app. Low-Code, No-Code development approaches facilitate seamless and efficient development and allow businesses to expeditiously address individual client requirements with ease and precision.

The capabilities and advantages of the low-code, no-code or LCNC approach include:

Streamlined Development – Leveraging reusable components and a visual interface streamlines the development process exponentially, speeding up development and ensuring swift application delivery.

Promotes Inclusivity – The drag-and-drop features empower non-technical individuals with little to no coding knowledge to participate in development, thus promoting inclusivity.

Cost-Effectiveness – Low code/no code development demands no extensive coding or programming expertise, which lowers development costs, making it a cost-effective solution.

Rapid Prototyping – The visual approach of no code/low code development not only simplifies development but also fosters innovation by enabling rapid prototyping and easy project adaptability.

Low-Code and No-Code Development Options Like Creatio Ensure Speed and Reliability

Let’s take a moment to consider the differences between the Low-Code and No-Code development approach:

Low-Code Development

This approach supports the development team by decreasing the amount of ‘from scratch’ coding required, and creating a foundation of reusable code with components that become building blocks for future development. This development approach allows programmers to leverage low-code user interface components roughly 80% of development tasks, thereby limiting the manual coding efforts to 20% of developer time. Because low-code application development requires a knowledge of other tools and development skills, it is typically used by professional programmers with coding skills and knowledge. A Low Code development platform allows developers to extend component libraries and web frameworks to address specific use cases. Developers can work faster and more precisely with proven tools and combine coding and programming experience with tools designed for rapid software development.

No-Code Development

The No Code approach utilizes a visual workflow in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), eliminating the need for manual coding. This technique creates a kind of ‘snap in’ system of components that developers can use and reuse to solve problems and create features and functionality. This closed system of tools restricts the developer by limiting use to pre-existing capabilities and user interface tools. The No-Code approach can provide a start-up with quick results and foundational features and allow them to enter the market and build visibility. Now that we have a better understanding of low-code/no-code app development, let us consider how technology research firms and publications see these development techniques.

If you are looking for a popular No-Code platform, you may wish to consider Creatio. Creatio is ideal for businesses that are focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), marketing, sales and service, and for the banking, insurance, credit unions, retail, transportation, business services, and telecommunications industries. Its no-code, open platform environment enables custom business applications for quick results.

The Creatio platform is designed with composable architecture, and does not require coding. It provides a simple, secured environment with frequent upgrades, and good performance and reliability. The Creatio framework enables fast and easy integration, integrating easily with other services and apps within your ecosystem and it supports rapid deployment and implementation and  configuration and ensures data security and appropriate data governance, so it is a good option for a project with tight timelines and/or budgetary controls.

Whether you are considering LCNC as one component of your software or app development project, or as a foundational development approach, it is important to understand the opportunities and challenges it may present and to engage an IT partner who can review your requirements and make the best recommendations to satisfy those requirements.

Contact Us to discuss your needs and to find out more about Low-Code No-Code Capabilities and the Creatio Framework.  Explore our free White Paper: ‘Understanding The Concept And Value Of Low-Code And No-Code Development’, and our blog article, ‘When Not To Use LCNC And Creatio.’

Original Post: Low-Code No-Code Software Development Options!

Is One BI Tool Enough or Do I Need More?

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August 27, 2025

Should I Have One, Two, Three or More BI Tools?

Whether your business wishes to implement its first business intelligence solution, or you wish to upgrade your solution to satisfy additional requirements, or your business divisions have diverse business needs, the RIGHT business intelligence and augmented analytics solution is crucial. To protect your Return on Investment (ROI) and reduce your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), you must select a solution that will suit all your team members, and be flexible enough to grow with your organization and provide support now and in the future.

Making the Case for One vs. Multiple Business Intelligence Solutions

Gartner names 12 mandatory and common features of a comprehensive BI tool, which includes:

  1. Data visualization
  2. Governance
  3. Reporting
  4. Analytics Catalog
  5. Data preparation
  6. Data science integration
  7. Automated insights.
  8. Metrics layer
  9. Data storytelling
  10. Natural language query (NLQ)
  11. Collaboration
  12. Composability

For many businesses today, the decision can lead them down a winding path to the question: ‘Can I truly find one solution to suit all my needs and, if I can’t, is it possible to successfully combine and integrate more than one BI tool?’

Let’s take a closer look at these questions in an effort to help you understand the tradeoffs and the decision-making process.

Choosing ONE BI Tool

Benefits

  • Data Centralization – Team members can seamlessly access a single data solution
  • Provides a centralized, simplified platform for user management and access rights
  • Maintenance and Administration – The IT team has only one system to manage
  • Reporting – Dashboards and reports leverage one data model, and reporting formats and scenarios are uniform and interconnected
  • Ensures one focused, experienced IT and technical team

Challenges

  • Scalability – As your organization grows, you may have issues supporting an expanded user base and data volume
  • Performance Issues – For organizations with a large data volume, users may experience a lag in response time
  • Data Security – If your business has multiple business units, the administration of a single solution may be a challenge, as the model will require multi-layered, granular security and permissions
  • Constrains the business to one solution, with one roadmap for the future provided by one vendor

Choosing Multiple Solutions

Benefits

  • Scalability – Smaller, more modular solutions allow the organization to execute development independently without affecting other systems
  • Performance – User experience (Ux) for dashboards and reporting is likely to be better, with suitable speed and responsive dashboards and reporting
  • Support – Each independent module or solution can be supported independently without affecting other solutions

Challenges

  • Duplicate Data or Analytics – If proper architecture is not in place, the systems may duplicate data or analysis or a system may use the wrong model for reporting
  • Integration – Combining and integrating multiple systems requires a sophisticated roadmap to accommodate cross-functional reporting and analytics and data access
  • Continuity – Data mapping, distribution and consistency can be a challenge
  • User Management and Access Rights – It can be challenging to manage these processes across disparate platforms
  • Technical and IT – Multiple tools require expertise across all frameworks and platforms

These are just a few of the examples of benefits and challenges of the one vs. many approach of business intelligence solutions. While the temptation to consolidate and choose one tool can seem practical, the enterprise should consider the benefits and the challenges of each approach and compare them to their needs. Each tool may offer specific benefits that cannot be achieved by a one solution approach, and may better address user expectations and needs and satisfy the goals of the organization.

For a long time, the analytics industry has touted the idea of ‘best of breed,’ and there is a case to be made for choosing the ‘best’ for each scenario. Gartner’s most recent Magic Quadrant places 6 of 20 vendors in the niche quadrant and many of these niche vendors may offer solutions that meet a specific need within your own enterprise. So, don’t be too quick to eliminate the possibility of multiple solutions.

Many CIOs think that at standardization on one platform should always be considered at the enterprise level. While that approach has its advantages, it has lot of disadvantages too.

Advantages include:

  • One vendor, one relationship
  • Concentrated skill set within the team
  • A simple, uncluttered application landscape

Disadvantages include:

  • Commitment to one vendor (who may or may not be dependable)
  • Enterprise is confined to one vendor roadmap, limitations, upgrades and future development
  • One solution platform limits enterprise platform choices and flexibility
  • One tool may not satisfy niche or specific use cases across all divisions, departments and teams

While a one solution choice may work for a smaller organization or one without complex needs, you may wish to consider a balanced approach. When you strike a balance using a practical, limited best of breed approach, you can address the needs of specific business units or users. Be judicious about your choices, so as not to clutter the application landscape with too many applications and complicate your architecture.

You may wish to choose one solution for enterprise IT reporting, or one for smart data visualization for business users, or one that supports Citizen Data Scientists, or a tool that is focused on big data processing. Your assessments should be based on your use cases, user needs, license needs, budget, etc. While some organizations use as many as five (5) BI tools, the enterprise should limit their expansion to 2-3 tools in order to avoid chaos in integration, maintenance, the need for IT skills, costs etc.

While the assessment of needs and requirements for ANY software solution can be time consuming, it does pay off in the end and, especially if you are considering multiple BI tools, it is worth taking the time to thoroughly assess your needs so your business can create the ideal analytical landscape for IT, data scientists, business analysts and business users.

Contact Us to discuss your analytical needs and to find out more about Modern And Traditional BI Tools, Augmented Analytics solutions, Citizen Data Scientist training and the process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business. Explore our free White Papers: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI Tools.’

Original Post : Is One BI Tool Enough or Do I Need More?

What is MCP and Why is it Important to My Business?

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July 30, 2025

How Does MCP Help AI Application Development?

Technology is great! But it can be hard to keep up. Even if you have made a career in technology, the pace of change today is so rapid that, if you miss one issue of your favorite tech publication, you may risk falling behind.

Perhaps nothing has increased the pace of change in technology more than Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, because AI potential seems to be unconstrained, the need for expanded capabilities and foundations is constant.

One such development is Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is an open protocol that was created by Anthropic to simplify the process of interacting with Large Language Models (LLMs) and to standardize the way in which applications provide context to LLMs and help them interpret data.

It may help to think of MCP as a translator or a way to make connections. Much like a USB adapter can connect an external hard drive to your laptop, MCP can connect various tools and data sources to enable interaction, integration and context for use in AI.

While early stage AI struggled to connect disparate data sources, tools and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the advent of Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a bridge to external data and services to connect AI models using a standardized communication framework to allow for AI reasoning and processing. So, AI models like Azure OpenAI, GPT, Atlassian and others can fetch data, connect and interact with APIs and perform tasks, going well beyond the knowledge contained in the model to produce new, expanded outputs.

What is Model Context Protocol (MCP) and WHY Should I Care?

In the good old days of AI (just last year), your users might ask a complex question or a question that exceeded the information contained within an LLM training data set. That question could elicit an answer that made no sense or the system might simply frustrate the user by saying, ‘I don’t know.’ In order to solve that problem, you would have to provide data refinement to ensure that the LLM had context or you would have to add another tool or secondary source. That can be complex, time consuming and expensive.

In short, in order to succeed with your LLM, you were constrained by the amount of training data, and how well you could anticipate what your clients or users would ask or need. Sure, the information exists out there somewhere, but your LLM doesn’t include that data! You could use APIs but that process of application integration is complex and can be difficult to implement in a meaningful way, and you have to hard-code each connection! Using this technique to provide information to an LLM requires you to review documentation and data, identify the end point of the search, verify authentication, structure requests and then make sure it all works seamlessly so your users are not frustrated.

MCP allows you to create a bridge between apps and tools and establish automated workflows, using the power of LLMs to perform tasks and provide clear, concise information across all technology frameworks and platforms. MCP allows developers and content managers to establish what the LLM should know and provide that in a standard format that the LLM can understand. In essence, MCP acts as the go-between or the middleman, simplifying the relationship and connection between the LLM and APIs, tools and data repositories. Rather than your app reaching out to the API, it communicates with an MCP server. The MCP server will then translate that information and decide how to communicate with the API to satisfy the user request. It’s a translator!

Model Context Protocols (MCP) provide support for application developers using AI so they can more easily build apps and integrate information, ensuring that the app is flexible enough to support future integration of tools and data. Its open-source accessibility allows software developers and software vendors to leverage these tools to create business and consumer apps.

The team can create apps that are extensible at runtime and connect tools and APIs to an MCP server, to use the app immediately without extensive coding and deployment. The process is simple.

  • When a user enters a query, the Large Language Model (LLM) sends a request to the MCP server
  • The MCP server translates the request and decides where it should go (API, tool, etc.), and then sends it to the appropriate source
  • The response to the query is returned through the MCP server
  • The MCP server sends that response to the LLM
  • The user receives the response

It’s just that simple.

If you, your IT staff, your management team or your customers are asking about the potential of AI and LLMs, it is time to consider MCP and how it can support your needs. The incorporation of this approach can save development time and expense and alleviate rework and developer and user frustration.

If your business wishes to improve productivity, timelines, budgets and dependability of in-house applications, you will want to find a vendor and service provider who appropriately employs AI and LLMs to support its development model. If you are planning to engage an IT expert to augment your own software product or solution, it is wise to look for this capability when you interview prospective partners. Contact Us to find out how to integrate AI And LLM capabilities into your software project, website, analytics initiative or other project. Explore our free White Papers: ‘What Is AI And How Can It Help My Business,’ and ‘The Practical Use Of GenAI In BI And Analytics Tools.’

Original Post: What is MCP and Why is it Important to My Business?

Look For a Software Development Partner That Uses AI and LLMs

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June 25, 2025

AI and LLMs Support Developer and DevOps Productivity

A recent Copilot study revealed an interesting fact about the use of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) in the software development process. The study included developers from Microsoft, Accenture, and a Fortune 100 electronics firm and reported a 26% boost in productivity, increasing output from the usual eight hour workday to what amounts to ten hours of traditional output. This improved output increased even more for less experienced developers.

By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), the DevOPS organization can greatly improve output, code quality, developer productivity and consistency. As businesses embrace the collaborative and team-oriented concepts of DevOps, the use of AI and LLMs can be utilized across the organization, and forward-thinking organizations are looking at the set of practices in DevOps (software development IT operations) to automate processes and accelerate the software development lifecycle.

Where software vendors employ these techniques, clients, customers and end-users can benefit from this approach. The development team can work more quickly and efficiently to satisfy requirements, design, develop and test and deploy, so business projects can be completed more rapidly and dependably.

If a business is considering a vendor or a software product for implementation within the walls of the enterprise, it is worth asking the prospective vendor and service provider how they are currently using cutting-edge technology to improve their development process and lifecycle.

Elements and Aspects of AI in Software Development

The Use of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) Improves the Development Process

Prompt Engineering uses natural language interfaces to study interactions with and the programing of LLM computation systems to enable complex problem solving, looking for patterns and focusing on reusable solutions. Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), Code-as-Data and CodeQL LLMs support developers by exploring the code, studying requirements and documentation and analyzing infrastructure to find issues and inconsistencies.

Automated Code Generation allows the development team to optimize testing and deployment. Developers can use AI code review tools like Codiga and testing tools like DiffBlue Cover to review and analyze code and find issues, and AI-based code generators like GitHub and Copilot.

Generative AI (GenAI) leverages LLMs to streamline the steps in the development process, including analysis of requirements, coding and testing.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables code generation with machine learning and produces suggestions to develop or complete code, thereby reducing the occurrence of human error and allowing developers to focus on other, more complex aspects of code and development.

Testing and Debugging can be automated to detect and address bugs, inefficiencies and vulnerabilities in the code. These tools can be used to generate unit tests, create test cases and increase the effectiveness of the testing phase to improve overall quality.

Translation Tools enable translation of other programming languages for projects where the team must migrate code to other programming languages. The process uses large language models to complete the translation, leaving developers free to focus on architecture.

Documentation Support includes development of documents for code comments, regulatory requirements etc. Prompt Engineering generates summaries and answers questions and provides examples so developers who review the code for later upgrades have appropriate documentation to support the software evolution.

Project Management for all of DevOps is supported by automated routines and integration of information and documentation throughout the process, monitoring system performance, analyzing test results and optimizing implementation. The ongoing analysis of test planning, data migration, compliance documentation and architecture supports the entire DevOps team.

If your business wishes to improve productivity, timelines, budgets and dependability of in-house applications, you will want to find a vendor and service provider who appropriately employs AI and LLMs to support its development model. If you are planning to engage an IT expert to augment your own software product or solution, it is wise to look for this capability when you interview prospective partners. Contact Us to find out how to integrate AI and LLM capabilities into your software project, website, analytics initiative or other project. Explore our free White Papers: ‘What Is AI And How Can It Help My Business,’ and ‘The Practical Use Of GenAI In BI And Analytics Tools.’

Original Post: Look For a Software Development Partner That Uses AI and LLMs!

Use Data Quality and Data Insight Tools to Avoid ‘Bad Data’

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May 27, 2025

Use Data Quality and Data Insight Tools to Avoid ‘Bad Data’

When a business sets out to initiate data democratization and improve data literacy, it must choose the right approach to business intelligence and select an augmented analytics product that is self-serve, intuitive, easy to implement and easy for business users to embrace. Transitioning business users into the role of a Citizen Data Scientist can be challenging.

By some estimates, bad data costs global organizations more than five trillion USD annually, and at the enterprise level, the quality of data can be a burden on IT, analysts and business users and acceptance of bad data can be inherent in business processes.  Improving the overall quality of data increases confidence in decisions, reporting, strategies and the adoption of dependable analytical models across the organization.

Data Analytics Tools with Data Quality and Data Insight Features Assures Confident Decisions

When a business implements Data Quality, Data insight and Data Quality Management tools and techniques it can establish a comprehensive process with a solid set of tools to identify errors, enhance data quality, and boost productivity. Business users can leverage intuitive tools to uncover hidden insights and improve the overall quality of data with actionable recommendations to take prompt action.

Benefits:

  • Ease-of-Use and intuitive tools for business users and team members – no technical skills required
  • Improved accuracy and dependability of data for confident decision-making
  • Data Quality supported by statistics and machine learning to assure credibility
  • Improved data insight without delays or re-work
  • Assured agility and decentralization of analytics
  • Consistency of data quality and availability
  • Improved User Adoption

Data insight takes data to the next level by providing comprehensive data analysis and quality assurance features that empower business analysts and users to quickly and easily identify errors, enhance data quality, and boost productivity. The business can harness the power of statistics and machine learning to uncover those crucial nuggets of information that drive effective decision, and to improve the overall quality of data. This approach allows users to let the system do the work for them and make confident decisions.

A foundational augmented analytics solution with machine learning, natural language processing and automation within an advanced analytics solution suite can improve results and support its team with augmented analytics designed as self-serve solutions for business users. Users can gather and analyze information with assurance of sustained data quality and produce results that are clear and concise.

Advanced data management features ensure data quality and provide crucial data insights with tools like Column Analysis, Feature Importance, Missing Value Analysis and Observations. Tools that support data insight include numerous data quality management techniques. These tools allow users to see and work with datasets in a way that is targeted and provides clear, actionable information for decisions and strategies.

If your business wishes to improve the easy of analytics and Quality Of Its Data and achieve data insight in a timely, dependable manner, find out more by watching this free Smarten Webinar: ‘Improving Data Quality With Data Insights,’ and read our free blog article, ‘Balance Data Quality With Data Agility.’ Explore our Smarten Augmented Analytics Products And BI Tools.

Original Post : Use Data Quality and Data Insight Tools to Avoid ‘Bad Data’!