Introduction
I might not be a typical Alteryx user, but I have a short story to tell based on real-world usage of Alteryx. I take the time to write stories like these because I try to educate people about the possibilities that a software suite like Alteryx can provide to them. Without people documenting what they do, it is easy to think of Alteryx as a tool designed to do little work segments (like I did in the early days of usage). It wasn’t until I spent enough time in the chair to realize a much more expansive view of the value of Alteryx.
In some respects, I am like the great Canadian arm wrestler named Devon “No Limits” Larratt. Whereas Devon refuses to quit during an arm-wrestling match, I have removed all limits during my usage of Alteryx. Seemingly no data project is too big or complicated for me to solve with Alteryx. Now I proclaim that I am not as crazy as Devon (click here to understand why), but I will go toe-to-toe with any analytics task sent my way as long as I have Alteryx in my corner.
I am also someone that understands an adage:
You get what you pay for.
A study on pricing
The Value of Alteryx
I’ve been fortunate in my career. I have had an Alteryx desktop and geospatial license since 2013. I have taken that privilege very seriously because I know a software cost is associated with these licenses. I have strived to make the most of those purchases by doing technically challenging work, large in scale, and requiring creativity and innovation to complete.
For these reasons, I have worked hard to develop my skills to use Alteryx to solve many types of problems. My workflows have investigated topics ranging from global warming to understanding the efficacy of disease-specific medical treatment technologies to simulating the limitations and movements of autonomous vehicles in real-world situations. Financial analysis, consumer behaviors, sales analysis, product usage, mechanical performance, and many other types of studies have been completed using Alteryx. The ability to formulate an approach and compute solutions to virtually any business or scientific problem makes Alteryx Very Valuable.
When you have a tool like Alteryx, you have access to your full complement of creativity. As an example, I have spent over eight years doing a data-driven independent study of climate change. Although I had no idea what I would discover at the beginning of the work, eight years later, I’m still going strong because Alteryx has allowed me to open the doors to the Hall of Insights. Last week, I used Alteryx to obtain and process the latest worldwide data set, with nearly half a billion temperature and precipitation readings from over 118 thousand monitoring stations.
The climate change discoveries I have made keep me motivated to do more. As I am now working in my fourth phase of work, the insights I discovered years ago are now becoming easier for me to explain thanks to the versatility and computational power of Alteryx, and I am finding that the insights I have uncovered are consistent over time. That is a very exciting finding and has allowed me to build confidence in my work.
The other day a very talented friend of mine sent me a message and asked me a great question about this study. He said:
What is the end game of the global warming work? a report, a viz, a book?
Will Strouse, July 30, 2021
I never answered him because I don’t have an answer. What I do know is that as long as I have an Alteryx license, I’m going to attempt to make significant climate change discoveries. That is the value of Alteryx. It allows me to do whatever I want or need to do with data. Alteryx sets my mind free. One day this freedom and the insights I have gained might lead to an end-game. For now, there is more to do.
The Proof of Value
In some cases, it is hard to prove the value of things we buy. People may complete return on investment (ROI) calculations (time saved, money saved, the extra money made, etc.), investigate usage statistics of the item of interest, or quantify productivity improvements. Whether the item is a piece of software or a power tool for woodworking or some other activity, the value is achieved through usage. The functional value we obtain from software only happens if we use it.
The other day I thought about my Alteryx usage and wondered if I could quantify how I have used the product in ways I never thought of before. I wondered if I could use the Alteryx log files I have been gathering over the past few years to show key usage elements. Of course, Alteryx was used to analyze my Alteryx usage! Is that an example from the department of redundancy department?
In Figure 1, three time-series charts of usage are shown. In the upper panel, the time series history of computing time and total tools used are shown. This chart shows a total amount of computation that has exceeded 3,600 hours, with a serious computational workload occurring in late 2020 and early 2021. Also displayed is a fairly uniform tool usage over time, with over 136,000 unique tools used in the workflows I developed.
I was hoping to quantify the types of tools used and how they are used in combination, but the log files did not have sufficient detail to complete that type of analysis. I’ll leave that work for another day when I get inspired to investigate the content of my workflows in their native XML format.
I was surprised to see that I have read nearly 700,000 input files in the middle panel and written nearly 800,000 files. This result indicates how I use Alteryx in “big data” situations. To properly analyze and visualize large data volumes, I have developed techniques that break the data into manageable sizes. This technique creates more output but allows me to use the power of Tableau to quickly understand the insights lurking within the data.
The lower panel contains the number of processed input and output records. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my workflows have read over 131 billion data records and produced over 151 billion records of data. With over 282 billion records of input and output, I proclaim that one tremendous value of Alteryx is its ability to process massive amounts of information efficiently and cost-effectively. All of this work has been done on either desktop systems or laptops.
Finally, when you examine any of these time series plots, it is easy to see the consistent usage patterns over the years. There are a few short time gaps of no usage (holidays, vacations, etc.), but the consistency shown in these plots is proof of the value of Alteryx.
People who understand the power of Alteryx will use it extensively. This software is the primary platform I used to gain insights into data. All of the results shown in Figure 1 represent the usage of one person – me. As I previously wrote in “The Alteryx Advantages“:
I have realized that the more you use it, the more you realize its potential.
Ken Black, May 7, 2021
Final Thoughts
For companies/people considering using Alteryx as an analytics tool, I can tell you that your employees will experience increased productivity, boosted enthusiasm, and return more data insights than you ever thought possible. This platform is magnificent in its scope and capabilities. Thanks for reading.
