How easy is it to use Sigma?

Sigma provides an instantly-familiar spreadsheet interface so business users can focus on getting insights from their cloud data warehouse. No code or special training required.

We have BI tool already, how is Sigma different?

Today’s business user expects to be able to adapt to changing business needs quickly by having access to the single source of truth quickly and at scale.

Legacy business intelligence (BI) software requires a developer to work with business users to define needs so that they can create/code the analytics. This takes time and often requires multiple passes before what the business user desires is available. That delays any action on the data. Changes then require another development cycle. Additionally, drill paths often have to be pre-defined with legacy BI tools, which limits the user to the path that was coded in advance. What happens when the user realizes that they want to see the data in a slightly different way? Another request for development.

Sigma is built for today’s fast-changing business world.needs and users. Developers may use Sigma to set up the connection to the warehouse (<5 min,) but that is all that's required. Data analysts and business users can start exploring data immediately.
Read about how users at Doordash reached 92% adoption.

When users want something different, they can use Sigma to create it themselves, in an interface that is familiar to them.

Have millions of rows of data? No problem, Sigma is designed from the ground up to scale with your data.

Want a different drill path? No need to configure that, users can drill anywhere their role allows, out of the box.

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In other words, Sigma is not your legacy BI platform.

How do I get started?

Sigma is a cloud service, so there is nothing to install. Getting started is as simple as setting up an account online. Users can spend more time exploring data instead of struggling to learn a new tool.

If you have not purchased a Sigma license already, you can create a trial account.

Log onto Sigma and connect to your cloud data warehouse, code free.
Explore your data using a familiar, spreadsheet-like interface.
Share with others in your organization.

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All three steps can be done in just a few minutes. Sigma has made all the complexity required to do this simple so that anyone with basic spreadsheet skills can start working on solving business problems rather than learning a new tool.

‍Request a demo to see for yourself.

Does it really look like a spreadsheet?

Sure does, but it’s also so much more. Sigma understands that some users will work with basic table data and others will want very sophisticated pivot tables with conditional formatting, along with other fine-grained controls.

What about charts and other visualizations?

Sigma provides a wide array of chart types, dial gauges, KPIs and more. Users can create anything from a simple raw table to a feature-rich dashboard in minutes.

Why not let users just work in Excel on their local machine?

Over time, users were “trained” by legacy BI tools to download to Excel when the BI tool did not provide the data in a way that was useful to them.

This bad practice provided a short term “patch,” but also creates other problems:

Potentially stale data being used
Data sharing can exist in violation of governance policies
Business decisions can be made incorrect calculations
Data is limited to <1 million rows

Sigma solves these issues, allowing business people to use all the data in the cloud data warehouse for decision making. At the same time, Sigma’s security and governance controls ensure that approved data and processes are being enforced.

That’s all cool, are there any other differences?

A fundamental difference between Sigma and legacy BI is that Sigma is 100% cloud-based and never existed as an on-premise solution. This means Sigma’s architecture leverages the best of the modern cloud technology stack with zero technical debt. When vendors have to support older technologies, they are burdened with technical debt, which means they must move slower and can’t add new features or respond to customer issues as quickly as Sigma.

It also means we can introduce radically different workflows. Sigma’s Input Tables allow additional data to be entered while the business user is working in Sigma. Data is stored in your warehouse (separate from corporate data) and can be used for a variety of use cases. This is very powerful. A user can provide their own value (ie: forecast planning,) and see how the base data is impacted.

Customers are finding many interesting ways to leverage this to make better business decisions. A few examples are:

Live Forecast Adjustments
Rapid Data Prototyping
Territory Planning
Simple Data Collection
Retail Price Adjustments

‍Learn how Input Tables are being used today.

Is it hard to migrate to Sigma?

Not at all. It is time for a change when existing tools have reached their limit in terms of performance and functionality, as well as ad-hoc requests taking too long and overwhelming the development team.

We have some customers who use Sigma alongside existing, legacy BI tool(s), some who are migrating away from old tools, and others who are just starting their data journey. Their common starting point is they have an existing or planned cloud data warehouse and a large amount of data.

With nothing to install, a few minutes to connect to the warehouse and a familiar user interface, migration is a breeze. Switching to Sigma also provides a unique opportunity to evaluate your existing BI landscape, clean out the unused content, and optimize for the user in new ways.

Read how a customer benefits from using Sigma:

Ad-hoc requests down by over 70%
Familiar user interface driving a 5X increase in user adoption since since migrating from Looker
Product feedback cycle reduced from 2-4 weeks to mere hours

Real Impact moving from Looker to Sigma