AtScale Research Demonstrates Benefits of Using a Semantic Layer for BI & AI Initiatives 

BOSTON, July 21, 2022 -- AtScale, the leading provider of semantic layer solutions for modern business intelligence and data science teams, today released the results of a new report entitled “Business Impact of Using a Semantic Layer for BI & AI.” Conducted by the DBP Institute, a data and analytics research firm, the report quantifies the business impact of using a semantic layer for a company’s business intelligence (BI) and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

A semantic layer maps complex enterprise data into well-defined business metrics, creating a single, consistent, structured, integrated data product (dataset) ready for analysts and data scientists to consume. A semantic layer enables centralized governance while supporting distributed data product creation across teams.

Businesses using a semantic layer realized a dramatic improvement over the base level performance of those not using a semantic layer. Respondents cited a greater than 4 times improvement in time-to-insights, scale and cost savings from data and analysis projects.

Key findings about semantic layer use included:

• Lowers Costs: Using a semantic layer reduces the cost of analytics and AI/ML projects by 50%.
• Speeds Time-to-Results: A semantic layer cuts the completion time for a typical project to one quarter of the typical length, from 4 months to just 4 weeks.
• Fewer Resources Required: The research showed that semantic layer use resulted in a 46% reduction in level of effort needed.

“The semantic layer is a proven, trusted software component within the modern cloud data platform technology stack that focuses on improving the speed to actionable insights for BI and AI/ML,” said Prashanth Southekal, managing principal, DBP Institute. “This research, based on actual experience from senior enterprise data and analytics participants who have chosen to deploy the use of a semantic layer, quantifies the actual benefits of using such a solution to realize the benefits of achieving speed, scale, and greater cost savings to deliver actionable insights from AI and Business Intelligence (BI).”

Research Details

Businesses using a semantic layer generated a 4.2x improvement in performance, with less than half the effort required.

This is a significant order-of-magnitude improvement in performance, as well as a dramatic reduction in effort and cost, when measured against the base level performance of not using a semantic layer.

Performance improvement was significant and consistent across every measure:

• Speed - 4.4x improvement in time-to-insight (e.g., insights and analytics development)
• Scale - 4.4x improvement in number of self-service users, data sources, and metrics consistency
• Performance - 4.2x improvement in cloud analytics performance
• Productivity - 43% fewer hours required to complete a typical project, saving resource costs
• Cost Savings - 3.7x improvement in cost savings

“This research validates what leading organizations have already discovered - that leveraging a semantic layer within their analytics infrastructure can have a tremendously positive impact on overall success,” added David Mariani, CTO and co-founder of AtScale. “More robust projects can be accomplished in less time, with fewer resources, making it easier for analysts to drive value from a business’ data assets.”

Methodology

DBP Institute, a data and analytics consulting, research, and education organization, launched a research study on behalf of AtScale to assess the value of the semantic layer from industry practitioners. The study was fielded online in April 2022 and only data from more than 100 validated respondents who were data and analytics experts using a semantic layer was accepted.

For a copy of the full research report, please click here .

About AtScale

AtScale enables smarter decision-making by accelerating the flow of data-driven insights. The company’s semantic layer platform simplifies, accelerates, and extends business intelligence and data science capabilities for enterprise customers across all industries. With AtScale, customers are empowered to democratize data, implement self-service BI and build a more agile analytics infrastructure for better, more impactful decision making. For more information, please visit www.atscale.com.

Source: AtScale