SQL IDEs (late 1970s):
SQL IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) were designed for database administrators to query and manage data in their new relational databases. These no-frills interfaces gave a handful of highly-trained technical users the ability to do everything from creating a table to, erm, running a query. (View Highlight)
Note: History of BI (1)
Spreadsheets (1980s):
Our beloved spreadsheet was designed to enable accountants to digitize paper accounting worksheets. Their cell-based interface provided flexibility in both formatting and computation. Users could build highly proficient financial models, but any actual analytics was limited to only small datasets. (View Highlight)
Note: History of BI (2)
Data Visualization Tools (1990s):
Data Visualisation tools finally brought data to the boardroom. With a friendly interface, and high-quality data visualization capabilities, business users could start using data in decision making, but only for simple queries. (View Highlight)
Note: History of BI (3)
Computational Notebooks (2010s):
Although computational notebooks, like Mathematica, were first seen in the 80s, they didn’t arrive on the data scene until the data science era of the 2010s. These notebooks help data scientists build and deploy complex models and analyses using programming languages like R and Python. While very powerful, and flexible, they come with a steep learning curve. (View Highlight)
