Business leaders claim that data is the lifeblood of an organization – driving the pulse of today’s modern enterprise. They sing praises of data’s significance – 80% of business leaders say it’s critical to their operations – but when the rubber meets the road, they resoundingly fail at realizing the potential of their data, defaulting to what they know. As a result, Data Teams are relegated to being report factories – data visualizers without a clear cause, or impact.
The report factory might not be hell, but it’s certainly not where you want to set up shop. Forward-thinking CDOs know there’s more to data than just reporting.
Today’s CDOs are visionaries striving to harness the power of data to drive business impact. The problem is that the industry as a whole is just beginning to crack the code for converting data into actionable business value.
Three converging trends will change everything:
- The surging demand for process automation, with 96% of executives emphasizing its role in realizing organizational goals.
- The conversion from traditional “user-friendly” business tools, that almost always come with hidden complexities and dependencies, to a new generation of truly intuitive, no-code solutions.
- The evolution of data clouds, like Snowflake, into enterprise operating systems, allowing businesses to craft applications natively without ever moving their data.
The last point is particularly important. It’s not just that applications can exist in Snowflake; it’s that company data is instantly available to power business solutions without any integrations or egress fees, and Snowflake governance is automatically inherited by the application. Freed from the continual dependence on IT for data transfers, teams can apply their tools to solve problems as needed, self-reliantly and autonomously.
The days of CDOs taking requests are dying. Let’s talk about time-to-value and Snowflake-native apps through the lens of process automation.
Traditional Process Automation: A Double-Edged Sword
At face value, self-serve low-code workflow automation tools are a godsend. They promise to streamline repetitive tasks, create efficiencies, and boost productivity for technical and non-technical teams.
However, the devil is in the details:
- The considerable resources needed to orchestrate a layer of integrations and APIs to move data in and out of Snowflake just to get started
- The continuous need for technical support during updates and modifications (anywhere from 3-5 FTEs)
- Long implementation cycles (3-6 months)
‘Low-code,’ sure, but significantly high effort from technical teams.
The true value of these tools lies in their universal ease of adoption and usability, not just for technical teams but for everyone involved. However, these “intuitive” and “easy-to-configure” low-code tools often lead to a domino effect of dependencies: from business teams to data teams and finally to IT.Kind of defeats the purpose, huh? Just like moving data out of Snowflake in the first place.
Snowflake-Native Workflows: A Paradigm Shift
Enter Elementum, the only workflow platform for Snowflake. Elementum’s Data Driven Workflows are built from the ground up to focus on rapid deployment and performance. It exists natively in Snowflake, so there are no APIs or connectors, no lengthy implementations, and no technical debt to slow things down.
Getting started with Elementum is like downloading an app on your smartphone, virtually eliminating drawn-out vendor procurement. Simply navigate to the Snowflake Marketplace and try it out for yourself.
Once inside, you’ll find how easy it is to get started. Grant Elementum user credentials for your Snowflake instance, and from there, users can start building workflows by linking pre-existing tables.
To expedite things even further, Elementum offers a library of pre-built automations tailored for key use cases, spanning inventory and risk management to software license administration and vendor onboarding.
These workflows aren’t restricted to specific tools or complex codes; they’re open for everyone to use and improve.
See the difference for yourself.
If Data is the New Lifeblood of a Business, Snowflake is its Beating Heart.
In the digital age, every second counts. Moving data wastes time, money, and security. Investing in Snowflake was step one. The next step is to embrace the full value proposition of the Snowflake Data Cloud with native applications, like Elementum.
Download our guide for more reasons why.
