Beinex Achieves Platinum Status Among Top Business Intelligence Consulting Firms in the Middle East 2024

We all boarded after breakfast from Edapally into the buses waiting as planned. Our journey to Munnar resembled the long-lost college trips, filled with songs, dances and ‘Antaksharis’. Finally, we reached our destination passing vast expanses of tea estates and dewy mountains. Munnar is an exotic place with a breath-taking landscape and scenic spots. The chilly hill station stole our minds with its exotic flora and fauna. Our team stayed in a luxury resort: Mountain Club. The cottages chosen for us resembled the colonial architecture from the bygone era. The bedrooms were cosy, with a balcony open to the rustic surroundings. The lunch was a luxurious affair that included starters to desserts. We used the mealtime to get to know more about each other. Then, we all attended the motivation speech by Sibu Varghese which was quite insightful, followed by an interactive session. Then, we interacted with and introduced each other. Personal interaction creates tight bonds and has an integral role in team building. We all broke the ice by sharing our stories and telling jokes. It was fun to get to know each other. In the evening, we had a wild-theme based gala party, and all got dressed up in sync with the theme, ‘Just Go Wild’. It was fun to watch everyone from the Manager to the employees dressed up in the same theme. We had an exhilarating DJ party manned by Darryl Gaulbert which made us all shake a leg to the tune. We danced and roared to the music. It was indeed wild! The following day after breakfast, we met our founder Indumon Das, who had a chat with us regarding the journey of Beinex and his vision. It inspired us all to have a dream and pursue it fearlessly. Some of us accessed the infinity pool late afternoon and had great fun swimming and playing pool ball. It was a blissful evening based on an ethnic wear theme. We competed for the best ethnic outfit of the evening. The different hues and styles made the evening stunning. Everyone flaunted the traditional wear in style. We had a musical evening with a live barbeque and a sumptuous dinner. Finally, the day of leaving Munnar dawned; March 19. We all had breakfast in the morning and packed our backpacks. Most of us were pretty reluctant to leave Munnar as we were not ready to lose the bond we created together. Nonetheless, we vowed to stay connected. We boarded the buses around 10 AM and waved goodbye to Munnar. When we reached Edapally in the evening, a surprise goody bag was waiting. It was an impressive and admirable gesture from our firm. Beinex has a culture of nurturing growth and spreading positivity, and employees’ comfort is the priority here. Yes, we had a fantastic time together. After this retreat, our rejuvenated and motivated minds are ready to bounce back to work with enhanced spirit. We are looking forward to more team building sessions in the future to meet each other more often.

Tableau Exchange: A One-stop Destination

You can access Tableau Accelerators through Tableau Exchange. Tableau Exchange is a platform where the Developer Community can showcase and offer a wide range of dashboard extensions, connectors, and accelerators. It is your all-in-one destination for offerings that accelerate your data analysis, providing prompt insights and actionable data. This platform offers a wide range of trusted solutions created by Tableau and our partner network, enabling faster time to value, catering to various use cases, and maximising your Tableau investment returns.

What exactly are Tableau Accelerators?

Tableau Accelerators are pre-built dashboards and workbooks created by industry and functional experts, allowing you to leverage analytics tailored to your specific line of business, vertical, or sector. Instead of starting from scratch, you can begin with these expert-built dashboards for various industry and departmental use cases, accelerating your data-driven insights. These pre-built assets are designed to monitor and enhance key performance indicators (KPIs) across your entire organisation.

For instance, Tableau’s healthcare offerings have introduced Accelerators that delve into metrics such as patient wait times, admission rate seasonality, readmission rates, and more. In addition to industry-specific dashboards, Tableau offers a multitude of Accelerators for various lines of business functions like marketing, sales, and corporate finance. Tableau also provides Accelerators that seamlessly integrate with critical enterprise applications and cloud services such as Salesforce, Marketo, LinkedIn, and Service Now.

How to use Tableau Accelerators? Steps

To begin utilising Tableau Accelerators, follow these steps:

1. Visit exchange.tableau.com/accelerators.
2. Once on the website, you can easily browse and filter the available Accelerators based on your specific requirements. You have the option to filter by Tableau version, connection type, language, industry, or job function.
3. Each Accelerator listing provides detailed information about how to use the dashboard effectively. It includes insights on the business questions the dashboard can address, the necessary attributes for optimal performance, demo scenarios, and even potential partners who can assist in customising the Accelerator to suit your specific requirements.

By following these simple steps, you can access the Tableau Accelerators that best align with your goals, helping you jumpstart your data analysis and derive valuable insights.

Types of Tableau Accelerators

Tableau accelerators offer valuable solutions in various fields, addressing specific industry needs and challenges. With their versatility and industry-specific capabilities, Tableau accelerators provide valuable insights and empower data-driven decision-making in various fields like corporate finance, healthcare, ESG, insurance, marketing, public sector, retail, telecommunications, supply chain and manufacturing etc.

1. Corporate Finance

The Corporate Finance Accelerator by Tableau offers finance professionals a range of powerful tools. It enables in-depth financial analysis, facilitates budgeting and forecasting, and streamlines the generation of financial reports. With this accelerator, finance teams can gain valuable insights, make informed decisions, and effectively manage the financial aspects of their organisation.

Examples of corporate finance accelerators:

a. Budget Controlling Accelerator


Budget Controlling Tableau Accelerator provides the capability to:

• • Evaluate and manage your budget expenditure effectively.
• • Analyse budget consumption from various viewpoints, including Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, and Actual figures, and compare against the budget and the previous year, all presented in a tabular format.

b. Budget Allocation Accelerator

Using Budget Allocation Accelerator by Beinex, you can:

• • Offers a clear comparison of revenue and expenses against the budget.
• • Enables you to track the trends of revenue and expenses over time.
• • Analyses revenue and expenses by vendor, economic sector, account group, and geography.
• • Allows you to drill down into individual customer details for a more detailed understanding.
• • Makes actionable decisions based on the insights gained from the accelerator.

2. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

In the realm of ESG, Tableau accelerators enable organisations to visualise and analyse environmental, social, and governance metrics, track performance, and benchmark against industry standards.

An example of an ESG accelerator is given below:

a. ESG by Tableau

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Evaluate global efforts in Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) areas.
• • Analyze detailed environmental indicators.
• • Assess leading industries in terms of ESG performance.
• • Deep-dive into specific companies and benchmark their performance against competitors.

3. Healthcare

Tableau accelerators in healthcare help analyse patient data, optimise resource allocation, and enhance decision-making for improved healthcare delivery in healthcare.

An example of a healthcare accelerator is provided:

a. Budget Controlling

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Evaluate and manage your budget consumption effectively.
• • Analyze budget consumption from various perspectives, including Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, Actual figures, and comparisons to the Budget and Last Year.
• • View budget consumption in a tabular format for detailed analysis and insights.

4. Insurance

Insurance companies can leverage Tableau accelerators to analyse claims data, detect fraud, and monitor policy performance.

An example of an insurance accelerator is provided below:

a. Insurance Claims

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Assess your performance in handling claims.
• • Identify the most impactful open claims for targeted action.
• • Identify the most effective agents in claims management.
• • Improve the effectiveness of your claims process.
• • Drill down to the specific claim level within your Claim Application and take immediate actions for enhanced efficiency and resolution.

5. Marketing

In the marketing sector, these accelerators assist in analysing trends, identifying growth opportunities, and optimising pricing and product strategies.

An example of an Marketing Accelerator:

a. Email Marketing Campaigns

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Assess and enhance the efficiency of your email marketing campaigns.
• • Identify the most impactful campaigns based on key metrics and performance indicators.
• • Conduct an audit of campaign optimisation results over time, enabling data-driven improvements and informed decision-making.

6. Public Sector

Public sector organisations can use Tableau accelerators to monitor government initiatives, improve public service delivery, and track budget allocation. Retail businesses can benefit from analysing sales data, optimising inventory management, and enhancing customer experience.

An example of an Public Sector Accelerator:

a. Emergency Cells

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Assess and improve the efficiency of handling emergency calls.
• • Enhance citizen service across different areas.
• • Optimise resource allocation to areas with the greatest need.
• • Adapt staffing levels to accommodate activity peaks and ensure an effective emergency response.

7. Retail

Retail businesses can benefit from Tableau accelerators to analyse sales data, optimise inventory management, and enhance customer experience.

An example of a retail accelerator:

a. Salesforce Data Cloud - Retail Sales by Tableau

This Tableau Accelerator enables you to:

• • Assess network performance and drive sales growth.
• • Predict sales evolution and optimise product mix.
• • Identify emerging/declining products and pinpoint stores in need of assistance.
• • Learn from top-performing stores and identify sales drivers.
• • Dive into detailed insights at the store, product line, and product levels. Watch the demo video to see it in action.

8. Telecommunications

Telecommunications companies can leverage accelerators to analyse network performance and improve customer satisfaction. Supply chain and manufacturing organisations can optimize operations, track production data, and streamline inventory management.

Game Analytics is an example of a telecommunications accelerator:

a. Gaming Analytics by Lovelytics

The Gaming Analytics Accelerator offers performance metrics for your game, integrating game telemetry, usage stats, marketplace data, platform data, and external sources like social media. It provides insights into game-playing patterns, consumption, and revenue. This Accelerator aims to help gaming by:

• • Facilitating the quick and easy acquisition of new customers.
• • Enhancing the gamer experience.
• • Tracking revenue and spending patterns within the game.

9. Supply Chain and Manufacturing

Supply chain and manufacturing organisations can optimise operations, track production data, and streamline inventory management.

a. Occupational Health and Safety by Tableau

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Assess and improve employee health in the workplace.
• • Identify safety hazards, risks, and areas of concern.
• • Reduce and prevent injuries, sickness, and accidents.
• • Strive towards the goal of achieving Zero Harm and compliance with industry standards.

10. Energy

Accelerators help monitor energy consumption, optimise resource usage, and track environmental impact in the energy sector.

Two examples of accelerators of the energy sector are given below:

a. Power Grid Connections by Tableau

With this Tableau Accelerator, you can:

• • Assess and enhance your ability to handle Power Grid connection requests.
• • Evaluate the level of service you deliver to customers.
• • Identify priority requests to handle first for efficient resource allocation.
• • Focus your efforts on areas that require immediate attention and improvement.

b. Risk Register Accelerator

The Risk Register Accelerator by Tableau enables you to:

• • Assess your current exposure to risks.
• • Monitor and prioritise risks, focusing on key areas.
• • Evaluate the effectiveness of your risk mitigation and elimination efforts.

Beinex+ Tableau Partnership

Beinex, a premier Tableau partner, provide sustainable analytics solutions to organisations and help to build superior data visual analytics capabilities internally through our bespoke training programs. Our team of Tableau-certified consultants are real-life Tableau business users passionate about Tableau and delivering a world-class experience. Connect with us for a Tableau free trial.

Semi-structured Formats with Snowflake Support

The number of sources that produce semi-structured data has increased exponentially in recent years. The arrival of Snowflake Data Cloud has made it effortless to process complex datasets. Snowflake supports storing and processing semi-structured data. It supports semi-structured formats enlisted below:

• • JSON
• • Avro
• • ORC
• • Parquet
• • XML

This article is about the two features in Snowflake that come in handy for Data Engineers while handling semi-structured data.

• • Variant
• • Flatten

Variant

A variant is a datatype which can hold semi-structured data in a single field. Snowflake stores semi-structured data in the column format when semi-structured data is loaded into a VARIANT column. A single row can contain other underlying data. Let’s demonstrate with the help of examples:

The stored data can be easily retrieved and structured from the above table by a simple query as below:
select
v:time::timestamp as observation_time,
v:city.id::int as city_id,
v:city.name::string as city_name,
v:city.country::string as country,
v:city.coord.lat::float as city_lat,
v:city.coord.lon::float as city_lon,
v:clouds.all::int as clouds,
(v:main.temp::float)-273.15 as temp_avg,
(v:main.temp_min::float)-273.15 as temp_min,
(v:main.temp_max::float)-273.15 as temp_max,
v:weather[0].main::string as weather,
v:weather[0].description::string as weather_desc,
v:weather[0].icon::string as weather_icon,
v:wind.deg::float as wind_dir,
v:wind.speed::float as wind_speed
from json_weather_data
Note: ‘v’ is the Field (Column) name, and the JSON tags are arranged alongside to retrieve datasets.

Flatten

Compound values are flattened into multiple rows with the use of the Snowflake Flatten Command. A tool called Snowflake FLATTEN is used to transform semi-structured data into a relational structure. Relatively complex JSON structures such as nested JSON structures can be structured with FLATTEN function in Snowflake. Here is an example of the same: The above JSON file stores a single set of conversations between two texters in a single row. If the requirement is to get every individual message as a separate row a FLATTEN function can be used to produce the following result:

Here is the query to generate the above table from semi-structured data:

(SELECT
b.value:message_date::TIMESTAMP AS Time_Of_Message,
b.value:conversation_number::STRING AS Conversation_num,
b.value:message:message_text:msg_txt::STRING AS Message,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY b.value:dialogId::STRING ORDER BY
b.value:message_date::TIMESTAMP ASC) as Message_order
FROM customer_messages t,LATERAL FLATTEN(input => t.v) b);

Summing Up

The ability of Snowflake’s assistance is undeniable. It aids you to make better decisions and offers a better overall experience when attempting to get the most out of your data, through features like Flatten and Variant. If you want to be a part of Snowflake’s incredible platform, let us help you. Beinex’s partnership with Snowflake enables us to offer you advanced features like automated tuning and elastic computing, along with analytics modernization services, to help your organisation realise exponential Return on Investment.

ZTA in Simple Terms

It is a cybersecurity paradigm focused on enterprise resource protection. This includes data; no matter where it resides, cloud or on-premises, and resources like printers, compute resources and Internet of Things (IoT) actuators. The objective of the paradigm is to prevent unauthorised access to data and resources but at the same time enable authorised and approved subject to have access to the same. The word subject can mean user, device or an application/ service. The paradigm also envisions making the access control enforcement as granular as possible. Thus, “Zero trust architecture (ZTA) is an enterprise’s cybersecurity plan that utilizes zero trust concepts and encompasses component relationships, workflow planning, and access policies. Therefore, a zero-trust enterprise is the network infrastructure (physical and virtual) and operational policies that are in place for an enterprise as a product of a zero trust architecture plan.” Zero trust (ZT) provides a collection of concepts and ideas designed to minimize uncertainty in enforcing accurate, least privilege per-request access decisions in information systems and services in the face of a network viewed as compromised. The crux of the concept is that trust must be continually evaluated. If a subject needs access to data or resources, it is granted after authentication and authorisation, but it will not go beyond the minimum privileges needed to perform the mission.

Benefits of Implementing ZTA

The ZTA paradigm comes packed with a slew of benefits:

1. Supporting employees/ workers with secure and reliable access to a multitude of resources from anywhere using any device, any time
2. Resource protection irrespective of whether it is on-prem or cloud
3. Improving visibility and governance: who, what, and how users are accessing enterprise data and apps.
4. Limiting of insider threat borne of the need-to-know approach to resource access
5. Limiting of lateral movements of attackers in the system which perimeter security-oriented networks are otherwise prone to.
6. Limiting the cost for recovery and mitigation
7. Ensuring confidentiality and security of sensitive enterprise data
8. Enhanced risk mitigation courtesy of continuous assessment and review of resource access

ZTA: How it Works

The Zero Trust Architecture evaluates the level of confidence about the subject’s identity for a unique request and if the device used to place the request have proper security posture. The system also evaluates if there are other factors that should be considered and that change the confidence level. Also the access rules are made as granular as possible to enforce those least privileges needed to perform the action in the request. Image courtesy: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-207.pdf Three terms assume significance in the context of Zero Trust. They are Implicit Trust Zone, Policy Decision Point (PDP) and Policy Enforcement Point (PEP). Implicit Trust Zone represents an area where all the entities are trusted to at least the level of the last PDP/PEP gateway. In other words, the PDP/ PEP engine decides as to whether a request for resource should be allowed access to the Implicit Trust Zone from where it can access the resource. The PDP/ PEP gate is more like an airport security checkpoint. The passengers, once they have been through the security check are granted access to boarding gates where they can wait for the entry to the airplane. They are considered worthy of trust once they are through. The boarding area is thus the Implicit Trust Zone in the analogy. In our case, the idea is to explicitly authenticate and authorize all subjects, assets and workflows that make up the enterprise.

Challenges of Implementing the ZTA

For where there are opportunities, there are challenges. The road to ZTA implementation has its fair share of challenges.

1. There is no single solution encompassing all the tenets of Zero Trust. A one-size-fits-all approach is off the table for obvious reasons. Many different technologies need to be integrated and often, they are of varying maturity.
2. Investment in terms of time, resources and technical capabilities. Migration of extant and legacy systems to a Zero Trust environment is not as easy as it sounds.
3. And finally, there is no such thing as 100% fool-proof security. The ZTA control plane is still susceptible to compromise.

Overcoming ZTA Implementation Challenges

The challenges need a holistic approach to overcoming them.

1. Getting hold of visibility: The resources within the enterprise and who needs access to the same and when; these queries should be ascertained at a granular level. This exercise must be inclusive of:
   1. Identities
   2. Permissions
   3. Configurations
   4. Activities crisscrossing the cloud infrastructure which are about access to networks and resources that are publicly exposed.
2. Managing risk: Continuous risk assessment exercise across the cloud IT stack including but not limited to:
   1. Identity
   2. Networks
   3. Compute & storage segments
   4. Publicly exposed resources if any
   5. Third-party risks originating from vendors, clients etc.

Taking care of governance: Agencies concerned must implement least-privilege policies by taking care of workflows, continuous integration and delivery pipelines and stave off misconfigurations. Just-in-time access policies are also a must-have rather than awarding engineers with all-access pass for specific, limited-time projects. Tracking behaviour: Anomalies that may be borne out of compromised identities must be detected and mitigated.

Beinex and the Zero Trust Architecture

Beinex has solid experience in fostering Zero Trust Architecture capabilities amongst clients. Considering the fact that 90+ entities of Beinex are government clients, our Digital Transformation Team is well positioned to implement the paradigm in multiple domains. Contact us to know more about our offerings.

How User Roles and Permissions Facilitate Implementing Data Governance

The Alteryx Server helps enterprises implement effective data governance by ensuring every user operation is based on pre-defined user roles and permissions. It optimizes processes and access control and ensures data integrity. User Roles Defining user roles helps businesses ensure a safe and efficient analytics setting that aligns with best data governance practices. Each role assigned to users ensures they have the right level of access to perform their tasks. • Curator /Server Admin: Accessing the admin interface to run administrative tasks- crucial in enforcing governance policies. • Artisan: Publishing, running, and sharing workflows in their private studio and shared collections- ensures control over their workspace. • Member: Running workflows that are shared with them via collections – supports collaboration without giving excess control while adhering to data regulations. • Viewer: Running public workflows on the Server UI home page and in districts – ensures workflow integrity by limiting them to consumption roles. • No Access: No access to all Server assets- ensures data security for confidential data. User Permissions Besides user roles, you can set user permissions to decide what users can do in the Server UI. User permissions are paramount to upholding robust data governance and ensuring that users can only perform tasks within their scope of responsibility. • Scheduling workflows to run at a planned time – ensures timely task completion without manual intervention. • Prioritizing jobs to run those with the highest priority first- facilitates effective resource allocation and alignment with requirements. • Tag a specific worker to run a workflow- ensures resources are allocated right. • Create new collections within a defined structure- supports collaboration without risking data privacy. • Granting server API access to users- enables task automation without compromising governance • Allowing users to create or edit DCM assets- controls access to shared credentials and connections. • Sharing DCM Connection Credentials to run on the server- ensures data security, which is crucial for governance. • Sharing DCM Connection Credentials for collaboration- strengthens data governance by securely handling confidential and sensitive data. • Managing generic vaults- enables secure handling of credentials and sensitive data. • Blocking the user from accessing the Server UI- ensures that only authorized individuals can interact with sensitive data.

How to ensure Effective Data Governance?

For organizations to cater to their specific requirements, implementing and maintaining an effective data governance process is required, which is briefed below:  • Identifying the data assets of your organization. • Classifying your data based on significance and prioritizing data governance actions • Ensuring accuracy, completeness, and consistency of your data for efficient data quality management. • Safeguarding data from unauthorized access • Controlling data access, including giving and withdrawing access to data • Managing your organizational data throughout its lifecycle

Data Governance in Alteryx: Best Practices

The blog gives you a walkthrough of the best practices about how Alteryx handles data governance by ensuring data management and quality.

1. Authenticating and Authorizing Data: The initial aspect to address in data governance strategies is how data is accessed. Alteryx supports the existing safety measures implemented at the database level; it utilizes your username and password when connecting to your data. These credentials authenticate users and ensure they can only access the data permitted. Alteryx also supports pass-through authentication, facilitating access to data using network identity and authenticating users with the same credentials they use for access. It eliminates the need to manage separate usernames or passwords within Alteryx. In short, Alteryx easily integrates with your organization's existing security infrastructure, leveraging authentication mechanisms to ensure secure data access. 2. Managing Data Effectively: A standout factor in Alteryx's data management is that it does not require the creation of a distinct persistence layer for data storage during processing. The Alteryx server is designed to support multi-tenancy, using in-memory processing and handling temporary data in a sandboxed setting. This means that a single instance of an Alteryx Server can manage multiple workflows simultaneously. Different departments can use the same platform without the risk of unauthorized data access between them. 3. Tracking Data Lineage The drag-and-drop interface of Alteryx offers robust visualizations of the transformations occurring within the workflow. Organizations get a detailed knowledge of the data sources, how they are collected, prepared, blended, and analyzed, the workflows being run, and the count of records read and written. 4. Defining Data Ownership and Stewardship Establishing clear data ownership and stewardship and assigning responsibilities for data sets and workflows is important, especially in an environment like Alteryx where multiple users engage with data. Data ownership is about taking responsibility for the accuracy, privacy, and availability of a data set. Data Stewardship ensures data integrity and quality by implementing policies and ensuring proper documentation. Defining these roles clearly within the organization fosters accountability and reduces data misuse risk. 5. Leveraging Metadata and Data Cataloging Metadata is integral to comprehending your data's context and lineage. The Alteryx Connect tool helps handle metadata and build a centralized data catalog. Data catalogs allow users to discover available data easily, track where the data comes from, and enhance collaboration by sharing and reusing datasets and workflows. 6. Ensuring Data Security and Access Controls When using Alteryx, enforcing appropriate security measures ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data. To minimize the risk of a data breach, Alteryx helps organizations by providing robust user access control options, supporting encryption of sensitive data, and establishing validating processes for workflows. 7. Monitoring Data Quality Data quality is paramount to effective data governance. Alteryx streamlines and automates data quality monitoring by: • Providing data profiling and validation tools to check for duplicates, inconsistencies, and missing values. • Utilizing Alteryx Server to schedule periodic audits, maintaining data integrity over time. • Setting up alerts or automated reports to notify data owners or stewards of any data quality issues that arise. Data governance is beyond data management. It extends to the policies and processes that decide how an organization should use data while aligning with its goals. With effective data governance, businesses can boost data accuracy and security, enhance efficiency, and boost business value by complying with regulations, tracking data quality, and eliminating discrepancies. With Alteryx's built-in capabilities and powerful tools, organizations can manage the multidimensional challenges of data governance.