When developing the data stack that your company or brand relies on for consumer insights and marketing tactics, it’s important to understand all of the various components that create a modern data stack. A data stack, in its simplest form, is a series of programs, software, technologies, and processes that enable the collection, analysis, transformation, and visualization of consumer data. This data is then utilized in its various representations by sales, marketing, growth, and development professionals in the various aspects of business operations. All-in-all, allowing organizations to better tailor and customize the consumer experience.
In order to accomplish these hefty data-based tasks, organizations need to implement more than a single piece of technology. One crucial element in the modern data stack is the data warehouse. While traditionally the data warehouse was a physical location populated with servers in-house, this is very rarely the case anymore. Modern data stacks make use of a cloud-based data warehouse. This makes the other data-related tasks they rely on for day-to-day operations much easier.
The data warehouse is the centralized data source that is populated from various data pools and consumer touchpoints throughout the various business functions. The data is funneled into the centralized warehouse with ETL. ETL is another integral aspect of the modern data stack as is its counterpart, reverse ETL. While ETL brings data into the centralized warehouse, reverse ETL distributes important consumer insights across other SaaS platforms and tools. The data-based tools that organizations rely on today don’t stop there, though. The DBT Cloud is another critical component to include in a modern data stack.
The DBT Cloud is another cloud-based data tool that allows data engineers and data teams to more accurately and more quickly build data models and other programs against the centralized data warehouse. These insights, visualizations, queries, and models are then distributed to the various teams who utilize them in day-to-day operations. DBT stands for data build tool and should be a non-negotiable element included in the design of a brand’s modern data stack.
The DBT Cloud brings a suite of tools and features to the fingertips of developers and other members of the data team and enables them to be more effective and efficient. One of the top-selling points of the DBT Cloud is the integrated development environment.
The integrated development environment, or IDE, is one of the aspects of the DBT Cloud that make it so valuable. This is a space in which developers and other members of the data team can actually build programs and data models. However, unlike the traditional method of building these models, the IDE allows developers to test their models in real-time. This saves time, money, and countless migraines.
Since developers can test their models as they build them, they can incrementally save their progress. In turn, this makes it a lot easier to identify errors and issues with the models. Not only that, but the DBT Cloud interface recognizes common variables and other code snippets and makes smart suggestions based on a user’s keystrokes.
Between the smart suggestions and the IDE allowing for incremental development, the DBT Cloud makes both the writing and editing process much smoother when it comes to data models.
With the implementation of the DBT Cloud, data analytics as a whole are improved. This is because the models created in the DBT Cloud can be orchestrated to run regularly over the course of the business week. As such, employees utilizing these models in their everyday activities around sales, growth, development, and marketing are always working with updated, fresh, and accurate data.
As a result, marketing, sales, development, and growth professionals are better equipped to create campaigns, communications, and interactions that both engage and connect with consumers on a personal level. Ultimately, the integration of the DBT Cloud elevates the entire data-analysis process.
Modern organizations that want to remain competitive within their industries need to adopt consumer data analytics. It’s simply too important and powerful of a strategy to ignore in today’s hyper-competitive virtual marketplace.
The brands that pave the way forward into the future will undoubtedly be those brands that have most effectively utilized the consumer data available to them. Developing a comprehensive and thorough data stack, that includes DBT Cloud, is essential for organizations hoping to make their mark on the digital economy.
Information and technology are suspect to constant innovation. While the modern data stack is defined by how industry leaders are utilizing consumer data analytics today, it could all be flipped on its head by tomorrow. Keeping your thumb on the pulse of the trending best practices will help you keep your company’s competitive edge now, and well into the future.
