Choosing the right data aggregation tools for the job
We call the gathering of data from multiple databases, ‘data aggregation.’ Data is gathered to be combined into a comprehensive summary for the data analysis process. Typically, you’ll be aggregating data in order to process that data together. Data aggregation by hand can be time consuming and draining, so most analysts rely on data aggregation tools. Data aggregation tools are used to combine data from multiple sources into one place, in order to derive new insights and discover new relationships and patterns—ideally without losing track of the source data and its lineage. But choosing from the growing list of data aggregation tools is a challenge for even the most motivated decision-maker. Here are a few things to keep in mind:What is data aggregation and how are data aggregation tools useful?
When is it time to do data aggregation?
Data aggregation tools allow you to look beyond the two dimensionality of a row and column tool like Excel. For example, you can apply calculations across categories, and then use the resulting high-level summary information to present overall statistics. You might want to use data aggregation tools to bring together data from your sales regions, product categories and customer trouble tickets, all by time. It’s time for aggregating data when you need to look beyond a typical data layout and begin using the data.
Data Aggregation Examples by Industry
Most industries work heavily with data, so most industries also use data aggregation in some form. Here is how these tools are being used within several industries:
- Financial industry. Financial analysts are constantly focusing on staying up-to-date on industry and company trends. These firms can use aggregation tools to gather headlines or even article copy to find the current trends that could affect their business. Tools save them time trying to gather data from all across the internet and help them focus on making crucial financial decisions instead.
- Healthcare industry. It’s crucial to monitor healthcare developments and trends to create innovative developments and correctly diagnose patients with the best information. They can use data aggregation to help maintain transparency and trust between the healthcare industry and patients.
- Marketing industry. Marketing professionals need these aggregation tools to gather market trends to be able to determine current needs for their businesses. Businesses also need to see how campaigns are performing, and these tools help the marketing teams determine how their campaigns are working with the customers.
- Retail industry. One of the most effective ways retails businesses can use these aggregation tools is with price monitoring. The analysts can determine whether or not their prices are competitive within the industry and make adjustments if necessary.
Must Haves In Data Aggregation—It Depends on You
Like a lot of software, data aggregation tools rarely have all the best features you want in one package so it’s important to evaluate your own needs carefully before picking a provider. That way you’ll get the best features for you and your company’s unique needs, such as financial services reconciliation or electronic healthcare records. Some tools are extremely technical and others can be used by anybody. Some work with the cloud and others don’t. Knowing what you’re looking for can help you find the right tool for your business.
For example, a nursing home might only need to combine a few sources of data for something like a population roster or a point of care integration report, but a major research hospital or health insurance company will need powerful predictive modeling and forecasting features. Talk to your counterparts at similar institutions to see what they’re using, or see what is discussed at your next conference, or in internet discussion groups in your field.
Using Designer Cloud’s Data Aggregation Tools
Alteryx Designer Cloudwas designed from the ground up to help reduce data cleaning and data preparation time for data mining and predictive analytics by enabling better assessment of data sources, offering smart extraction that learns preferences over time, and providing easy to use, intelligent, interactive, visual data analysis that improves data understanding for your entire organization. Data aggregation tools built into Designer Cloud, include:
Roll-up or summary tools, which calculate summaries and report only those. This reduces the overall size of your dataset and makes it easier to share with others in the organization who can leverage it for their own insights.
Intermediate calculation tools, which allow you to calculate a value based on an aggregation and include that value in the dataset. For example, an analyst might use aggregation to determine the average cost of a transaction and then use that value to calculate the deviation between individual transactions and the average cost. These tools can be used to determine performance. The idea is to add the value to the existing dataset, instead of reducing the size of the data file, which is the purpose of the roll up tool.
See for yourself how Designer Cloud can help with your data aggregation needs – sign up for a free 30 day trial.
FAQs
Data aggregation is the process of compiling data (often from multiple data sources) to provide high-level summary information that can be used for statistical analysis. An example of a simple data aggregation is finding the sum of the sales in a particular product category for each region you operate in.
What is data aggregation in simple terms? ›
In its simplest form, data aggregation is the process of compiling typically [large] amounts of information from a given database and organizing it into a more consumable and comprehensive medium.
What are the benefits of data aggregation? ›
Benefits of data aggregation
Improved Data Quality and Efficiency – By centralizing and summarizing data from multiple sources, data aggregation helps to improve data quality and consistency. It reduces the likelihood of errors and inconsistencies, making the data more reliable for analysis and decision-making.
What is the main purpose of aggregation? ›
Data aggregation is often used to provide statistical analysis for groups of people and to create useful summary data for business analysis. Aggregation is often done on a large scale, through software tools known as data aggregators.
What is data aggregation function? ›
In database management, an aggregate function or aggregation function is a function where multiple values are processed together to form a single summary statistic. (Figure 1) Entity relationship diagram representation of aggregation. Common aggregate functions include: Average (i.e., arithmetic mean)
What is data aggregation in data analytics? ›
Data aggregation is the process where raw data is gathered and expressed in a summary form for statistical analysis. For example, raw data can be aggregated over a given time period to provide statistics such as average, minimum, maximum, sum, and count.
What is an example of data aggregation? ›
For example, calculating the total number of leads across all marketing channels is considered spatial aggregation. Time aggregation involves gathering data from a single source across a longer period of time, for instance, counting all leads from a single marketing channel per month or per year.
What is a simple example of aggregation? ›
Aggregation is the process of combining things. That is, putting those things together so that we can refer to them collectively. As an example, think about the phone numbers on your cell phone. You can refer to them individually (your mother's number, your best friend's number, etc).
What is an example of aggregation? ›
Aggregation implies a relationship where the child can exist independently of the parent. Example: Class (parent) and Student (child). Delete the Class and the Students still exist. Composition implies a relationship where the child cannot exist independent of the parent.
What are the risks of data aggregation? ›
Know the Risks
Foremost, you can expose yourself to privacy and security risks. These include potential vulnerability to cyber fraud, unauthorized transactions and identity theft.
Probably the most serious disadvantage of using aggregate data is the inherent difficulty of making valid multilevel inferences based on a single level of analysis [I].
What are the disadvantages of aggregation? ›
What are the disadvantages of aggregating data? It is cumbersome to find and analyse data if it is not collected and organised in a meaningful way. Low quality data that is aggregated can lead to a high chance of identifying false positives and negatives.
What is the explanation of aggregation? ›
Meaning of aggregation in English. the process of combining things or amounts into a single group or total: Installation art - the aggregation of objects in a space - has long dominated the visual arts. Some animals avoid being eaten by aggregation in groups, such as schools of fish.
What is the purpose of data aggregation in data warehousing? ›
Data aggregation is the process where data is collected and presented in a summarized format for statistical analysis and to effectively achieve business objectives. Data aggregation is vital to data warehousing as it helps to make decisions based on vast amounts of raw data.
What is the difference between data aggregation and data integration? ›
Data aggregation tools simplify this process, making it less time-consuming and more efficient. Conversely, data integration involves combining data from different sources into a unified, cohesive database.
What does aggregation in process mean? ›
aggregation is the process to reduce the many measurements into a few values/statistics. You can do this aggregation in many different ways, the mean and 95% confidence interval is just one of many options to summarize the several measurements.
What is this aggregation? ›
To recap, aggregation is the process of grouping things together. We use aggregation to refer to a group of items as a whole, and to individual items as part of the whole. There are a number of examples of aggregation in computer programming languages.
What is aggregation in event processing system? ›
Event Aggregation is the process of combining multiple events that have occurred within the IT environment. In order to aggregate disparate events, they need to go through the following steps: Event normalization. Event deduplication.
Which tool aggregates data in alteryx? ›
You want the Summarize tool. You can do all your aggregations in there.
