This article was co-written by Lynda Chao & Tess Newkold
With the growing interest in AI-powered analytics, ThoughtSpot stands out as a leader among legacy BI solutions known for its self-service search-driven analytics capabilities. ThoughtSpot offers AI-powered and lightning-fast analytics, a user-friendly semantic engine that is easy to learn, and the ability to empower users across any organization to quickly search and answer data questions.
In this blog, we will explain everything you need to know about ThoughtSpot, including:
What is ThoughtSpot exactly
Why you should consider using ThoughtSpot
How ThoughtSpot compares to other analytics tools
Who on your team should use ThoughtSpot
What use cases it can solve for your organization
How much does ThoughtSpot cost
What Is ThoughtSpot?
ThoughtSpot is a cloud-based AI-powered analytics platform that uses natural language processing (NLP) or natural language query (NLQ) to quickly query results and generate visualizations without the user needing to know any SQL or table relations. ThoughtSpot was designed to be low-code and easy for anyone to use across a business to generate insights and explore data.
ThoughSpot can easily connect to top cloud data platforms such as Snowflake AI Data Cloud, Oracle, SAP HANA, and Google BigQuery. Suppose your business requires more robust capabilities across your technology stack. In that case, ThoughtSpot also leverages ELT/ETL tools and Mode, a code-first AI-powered data solution that gives data teams everything they need to go from raw data to the modern BI stack.
What Is ThoughtSpot Used For?
From the front end to the back end, businesses use ThoughSpot to empower their teams to explore and analyze data easily without needing deep technical expertise.
Self-Service Analytics
Business users can easily search and analyze data without relying on IT or specialists. Insights are immediately generated by entering a data question into ThoughtSpot’s Ask any data question search bar. Users can save these answers, share them with others across the business, and build interactive reports in ThoughSpot.
Data Visualizations
ThoughSpot enables users to easily pin data answers and insights to a Liveboard, the ThoughtSpot term for a dashboard. Unlike traditional BI tools, where you need to code the charts or build them manually, visualizations are automatically generated based on the questions asked. Users can customize the visuals as needed, and reports can be easily built and shared across the business.
Embedded Analytics
ThoughtSpot Embedded drives higher app engagement with embedded analytics, where businesses can customize their own analytics module and components that fit their brand and business needs. With complete brand and UI customization, users can also prototype and preview Liveboards, which enables users to slice and dice their data however they want.
This eliminates the need for users to toggle between business apps since embedded analytics integrates analytics into existing websites, software, and other applications to enable data reporting and analysis.
SpotIQ and AI-Driven Insights
SpotIQ is a ThoughtSpot feature that leverages generative AI and machine learning (ML) to uncover anomalies across large datasets, identify patterns, isolate trends, segment data, analyze root causes, and forecast data for future scenarios.
Leveraging on ThoughtSpot’s built-in usage-based ranking ML algorithm, SpotIQ improves with each use, making data analysis more intuitive and proactive for users.
Full Stack Service
Why Use ThoughtSpot?
User-friendly Interface
Implementing and adopting an enterprise analytics tool is challenging, but ThoughtSpots’ search-based analytics and ease of use are strong benefactors in adoption. The intuitive interface requires minimal training, enabling business users to quickly adopt the tool at any level.
ThoughtSpot is built to perform searches similar to those of a search engine, which we have all become accustomed to. This makes it easily accessible to users with and without a technical background to gain insights quickly and take action for the business.
Self-Service Analytics
The intuitive AI search-based analytics and ease of use lend themselves to a true self-serve analytics platform. This empowers non-technical users at an organization to explore trusted data effectively, run reports, and generate insights without needing to rely on IT or analysts. They can get real-time answers to all their questions, helping them make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
Scalability and Performance
ThoughtSpot can handle large data sets and is built to do so, making it suitable for any enterprise with significant data assets, which is the norm nowadays. The platform is also optimized for fast performance, enabling quick data retrieval and analysis.
Advanced Analytics Capabilities
Not only does ThoughtSpot offer strong visualizations to create clear and impactful presentations, but it also incorporates AI-powered suggestions, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics, which uncovers hidden patterns a user might not notice in their exploration.
Not only is AI incorporated into every layer of this tool, but it is also at the forefront of ThoughtSpot. NLP has been at the heart of this tool’s functions since its inception, giving it a leg up with time-tested features before other tools came to the AI party. These technologies are central to ThoughtSpot’s value proposition and pass that value to the end user.
Integration and Connectivity
ThoughtSpot is designed to connect to various data sources, including cloud on-premises and hybrid environments. Like any analytics platform, there may be certain limitations where ThoughtSpot might not connect, such as custom or legacy systems.
However, ThoughtSpot can often work around these issues using custom connectors, ETL/ELT processes, or APIs, bridging the gap between the two. Most of the time, existing data infrastructure will connect directly to ThoughtSpot, allowing organizations to leverage their current setup. ThoughtSpot also supports API integrations and embedding into other applications, making it versatile and adaptable to various existing workflows.
Collaboration and Sharing
Users can easily share insights and reports with colleagues, fostering a collaborative data-driven culture within any organization. The cloud-native platform is accessible from anywhere, allowing teams to collaborate on reports and dashboards simultaneously and view changes instantly, enabling seamless collaboration.
While it does not currently support ‘co-editing,’ like Google Docs, it allows multiple users to work simultaneously and see changes others are making with track change version control. Users can revert to previous versions if necessary. Comments and annotations can also be added to reports and dashboards.
Security and Governance
Security and governance are paramount in enterprise environments where sensitive data is involved. ThoughtSpot offers robust security features, including user authentication with Single Sign-On (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and Role-based access control (RBAC).
ThoughtSpot also supports encryption using industry-standard protocols and SSL/TLS to encrypt data during transmission between clients and the ThoughtSpot Server. The platform also supports data governance practices, ensuring data quality, consistency, and compliance with various regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, etc.
Customer Support and Community
ThoughtSpot provides comprehensive customer support, strong training for all levels of users, and endless resources and documentation to help organizations maximize the platform’s value. There is also an active user community and online ecosystem, as well as user groups in various cities that offer a wealth of knowledge, best practices, and networking opportunities.
How Does ThoughtSpot Compare to Other Data Visualization Tools?
In the analytics landscape, there are many tools an organization can choose from, some of which are more suitable than others. We discussed many reasons for using ThoughtSpot, but now we will focus on why this tool stands out from the rest. Here is a comparative look at how they stand out among the crowd and differentiate themselves.
AI and Search-Driven Analytics
ThoughtSpots primary innovation is its search-driven analytics, where users can type questions in natural language to generate visualizations and insights instantly. This is very intuitive after years of using search in our everyday lives.
This approach eliminates the need for complex query languages or drag-and-drop interfaces, making it extremely accessible to non-technical users. SpotIQ, their AI-driven engine, analyzes millions of data points to surface hidden insights, trends, and anomalies. This approach means users can discover insights they might not have thought to ask about.
Ease of Use
User empowerment is a strong tenant that sets ThoughtSpot apart from its competitors. It has been designed from its inception to empower business users to perform their own analysis without relying on data experts.
This self-service model reduces bottlenecks and accelerates the decision-making process. Simplified dashboard creation with an intuitive interface makes it easy for users to build and share dashboards without extensive training.
Who Uses ThoughtSpot?
Decision Makers: Business Leaders and Executives
ThoughtSpot makes it simple for business leaders and executives to search for key business metrics and answers quickly. Insights are instant, and leadership does not have to wait days for a report or dashboard; they can get the “what” and “why” faster.
Business Experts: Managers, Data Analysts, Business Users
ThoughSpot’s user-friendly interface empowers business users to search and build their reports without needing complex SQL queries or coding experience. The ability to quickly query and visualize data decreases the manual time required to do the same tasks, giving business experts time to focus on the business and make key decisions.
Data Caretakers: Data/BI Engineers, IT, Data Scientists
ThoughSpot is also for power users, engineers, data scientists, and developers who require more robust capabilities and features to conduct more advanced analytics. ThoughSpot can be a helpful tool to streamline a business’s full BI stack and keep processes organized. Users can embed ThoughSpot into their applications or platforms, providing end-users with powerful data expiration tools.
What Are Common Use Cases for ThoughtSpot?
The business use cases for ThoughtSpot are truly endless. Its adaptability and universality lend themselves well to any data and dashboarding needs. Below are a few examples that exemplify the usefulness of ThoughtSpot in various industries.
Supply Chain and Operations Management
What makes ThoughtSpot such a strong supply chain and operations management tool is its seamless ability to integrate data from multiple disparate data sources and simultaneously process billions of data records instantly. This enables real-time analysis of the complex supply chain processes.
This combination of capabilities that ThoughtSpot offers is crucial for managing inventory, optimizing production, and identifying cost-saving opportunities via spending patterns and inventory usage. The tool’s intuitive interface and robust data integration make it a marketable standout choice for enterprises aiming to enhance their supply chain analytics.
Healthcare Analytics
ThoughtSpot is a powerful healthcare and life science solution that allows anyone, with its easy-to-use interface, to interact with vast amounts of data in seconds. Its search-driven analytics allows all users, from scientists to hospital managers, to interact easily with complex data sets. Anything from patient outcome data drug trial results, and hospital operations leading to faster and more informed decisions.
The platform’s ability to handle billions of rows of data to deliver real-time insights makes it a valuable tool for improving patient care, speeding up drug discovery, and much more. ThoughtSpot is a trusted tool by leading healthcare and pharmaceutical companies everywhere.
Executive Dashboard and Reporting
Regardless of the use case or industry, the need for executive dashboards is an essential piece of the data analytics landscape in any enterprise. ThoughtSpot is the ideal choice for executives due to its ease of use, AI-driven capabilities, and ability to enable real-time, data-rich insights. Executives can ask any question using natural language and receive actionable insights immediately.
Additionally, the scalability, robust security, and governance give any executive the confidence to trust their data landscape end-to-end to make the toughest decisions
How Much Does ThoughtSpot Cost?
ThoughtSpot pricing is based on your business size and needs. It is broken into three levels across its two products, each with various features and terms.
ThoughtSpot Analytics
Essentials – For Small Companies
Cost: $1250/month
Pro – For growing businesses
Cost: Custom
Enterprise – For large enterprises
Cost: Custom
ThoughtSpot Embedded
Developer – For individuals and small teams
Cost: Free
Pro – For single-tenant or medium-scale applications
Cost: Custom
Enterprise – For multi-tenant, large-scale applications
Cost: Custom
Please contact ThoughtSpot directly regarding any pricing-related information to make the appropriate decision for your business.
Closing
There is a lot about ThoughtSpot to digest, so hopefully, this blog distills the platform’s key theme: ThoughtSpot’s strong ability to deliver trusted, speedy, AI-driven, real-time data-rich insights. Choosing an analytics platform that meets your business needs is tough.
We at phData are available to help you at every step. Feel free to contact us with any questions; we love to talk about all things data!
