With all the amazing things that Salesforce has been up to the past few releases, it’s easy to overlook the ongoing and aggressive enhancement that Einstein Analytics keeps receiving. After attending a few workshops on the technology recently, my initial belief in the product has only been reinforced, and I’m excited to see its use continue to expand with our customers.
But let’s take it back a few notches. I’ll start broad, and end with a dose of nerd.
#1 – An Einstein Analytics dashboard is alive.
If you click on a bar in a chart, everything else (that you want) will automatically filter to update with specified criteria. With the ability to run through the data, manipulate things in real-time (measured in milliseconds), the data reorganizes itself as desired to provide a truly interactive experience. An “old school” Salesforce Dashboard does a great job rendering some static data for review, but there is no way to interact with it.
#2 – An Einstein Analytics Dashboard allows you to take action.
It’s possible to set breakpoints when certain events occur or annotate the information in real-time for ongoing review and discussion. Any widget can be shared out to Chatter for discussion with your team. They can be delivered via other means to keep the conversation going. It’s not just “looking” at data, it’s having a conversation with it, then having conversations with your team.
#3 – Setting up Analytics opens the door for Einstein Discovery.
I’m not going to lie, with all the Einstein branding it’s difficult to know what these things mean. Discovery will basically take a data set from Einstein Analytics and allow you to define a goal and then Salesforce’s AI mashes the data to find statistical correlations between the data points and make recommendations on how to improve the probability of the desired result.
The example I was shown was retail sales. A company had 4 stores and were trying to decide how to balance discounting, location, and marketing. We put a copy of data into Einstein Discovery, and it pushed out a plan that analyzed the results from discount levels in different locations and marketing efforts. You have to see it to believe it, it works, and takes less than 5 minutes to do!
What about the Nerdy Stuff?
My biggest issue with the standard Salesforce reporting engine was the inability to control the way data is joined and pre-processed to get it ready for viewing. Einstein Analytics has an entire ETL engine built in which allows for ample control over the way data is pulled from Salesforce (or your other favorite database/tools) and processed. These “Data Flows” are easy enough for a point and click admin to build, but with the option to write custom JSON and SAQL code prevalent, the option to go more custom is always available. From there, it’s a playground of options on how to process the data!
If you’re interested in learning more, these are great YouTube overviews of the platform:
Beyond that, if you’re Einstein Analytics curious, Red Argyle can help! Please consider reaching out and we can have a free consultation about your reporting goals. Let us figure out how to make them a reality with the right technology!
