Data isn’t just numbers and graphs as businesses have to gain numerous insights. This task is almost impossible without data transformation to make sense of all that data. But what is data transformation anyway?
Why should you even consider data transformation? Here are a few benefits that highlight why it’s worth the effort:
Data transformation also unlocks potent insights by converting raw data into actionable intelligence.
The “how” of transforming your data varies depending on the tools and approaches you choose. Mainly, we’re talking about two types of data transformation:
Scripting tools for data transformation, such as Python and its Panda library, require you to write lines of code to instruct the computer on how to transform your data in languages like SQL, Python, and R. You can get very specific about how you want your data transformed and handle complex logic and large datasets with finesse. Moreover, since you’re writing the code, you can customize the transformation process to meet your exact needs, with no compromises.
These tools, including Microsoft Power BI or Google Data Studio, democratize data transformation through intuitive interfaces, drag-and-drop functionalities, and pre-built templates — accessible both to non-coders and coders. With minimal to no coding required, these tools allow more team members to participate in the data transformation process. However, these tools may not offer the same level of detailed customization and control as scripting tools, which can be a trade-off for some advanced use cases.
The data transformation process includes several essential steps.
This phase necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the raw data at one’s disposal. It involves analytical scrutiny to discern patterns, anomalies, and potential correlations within the dataset. For instance, if your raw data includes customer feedback, interpretation may involve categorizing this feedback into complaints, compliments, and suggestions. It sets the stage for the transformation by clarifying what needs to be done to make the data useful.
It’s important to ensure the integrity of the data. This involves rigorous validation checks for accuracy, completeness, and consistency. For example, you may find some customer feedback entries are incomplete or duplicated. Identifying and fixing these issues upfront leads to a clear transformation process and prevents “garbage in, garbage out” scenarios.
Then, the actual data transformations take place. Based on your understanding and cleanup in the previous steps, you’ll convert, format, and restructure your data to fit its intended purpose. It usually means consolidating customer feedback into a structured format, tagging each piece with relevant categories (like product issues, service feedback, etc.), and summarizing the data for analysis. Tools like SQL for database manipulation or Python scripts will help you automate this process.
The final step is the culmination of the transformation process. It ensures that the transformed data adheres to predefined standards and specifications. Did the data maintain its integrity? Are there any unexpected anomalies? For instance, after transforming customer feedback data, you’d verify that all entries were correctly categorized and none were lost in translation. This is how you can understand that your data is ready for analysis, reporting, or any other downstream use.
Each of these steps is indispensable for turning raw data into actionable insights. Skipping one may not stop you immediately, but it’ll surely cause problems further.
When you’re working with a large amount of information from different sources, your job is to make it coherent and ensure it speaks the same language. There are various data transformation techniques to facilitate this process.
So, how to bring these techniques to life in your data?
Transforming data effectively means ensuring your data is clean, consistent, and aligned with the required analytical goals.
Here are a few ways to amp up how your business operates with data transformation:
Now you know how to transform your data to understand your customers more deeply and run your business more efficiently. But what if potential challenges occur?
If some challenges during data transformation arise, Visual Flow, a low-code ETL/ELT solution, can help you solve them, and here’s how.
Transforming data usually means writing lots of complex code, which can be tough if you’re not a programmer. In Visual Flow, instead of writing code, you can drag and drop blocks (each representing a data transformation task) to create your data flow. It’s much simpler and doesn’t require deep coding skills.
If handling huge amounts of data slows down traditional data processing and makes it inefficient, Visual Flow tools will automatically manage how data is processed, often doing many tasks at the same time (parallel processing), to speed things up even when working with vast datasets.
Ensuring that your data remains high-quality through the transformation process is also challenging, but Visual Flow includes built-in tools that act as quality control for your data. You can set rules and checks right into your data flow to clean, validate, and ensure your data is consistent and accurate, all visually.
These are just a few examples of how Visual Flow can help you solve possible data transformation challenges due to open-source ETL tools, business intelligence service consulting, data engineering, and more. For detailed information, reach out to us.
Data transformation turns raw data into something you can use to make decisions. It may sound a bit complicated, but with Visual Flow, it’s not just for the IT crowd anymore. Everyone can get in on the action and make data work smarter, not harder. Yes, there are challenges, like dealing with huge amounts of data or making sure it’s all accurate, but these issues are manageable with the right approach.