After a hiatus of blog writing I realised at the beginning of the 2026 that it was my 20 year anniversary of working in data and analytics. With 20 years under my belt I thought I would take an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of analytical tools during my career so far.
In February 2006 I walked into Hyde Hospital to start my first Analyst role. It had been a year since I joined the NHS as a System Implementation Officer helping to implementing a patient administration system. During this year I discovered my love for data and more importantly my love for Excel, and when a job came up as ‘Analyst’ I jumped at the chance; I didn’t realise at the time how critical that decision was to my future career. I am very grateful to my 2006 Ella for that decision.
Life as a analyst in 2006 was significantly different to what we see today. In fact the world of data and analytics was a very different place… there was no buzz words like ‘Cloud Analytics’ or ‘Self Service Analytics’.
Let’s put this in perspective in 2006 MySpace was at its peak! Youtube and Facebook had just gone mainstream, and Twitter was launched as microblogging platform. This was a year before the first iPhone was launched and our mobile phones were simply a mechanism for texting and calling people. 2006 was also the year Amy Winehouse had her hit with ‘Rehab’, Shakira ft Wyclef Jean had the hit with ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ and Take That had just got back together after splitting in 1996.
The go to tool as an Analyst in the NHS back in 2006 was Excel (my first love..). The demand for data in the NHS at this point was mainly for ‘reporting’ and ‘data submissions’; more tick box exercises than decision making requirement. The necessary key skills in ‘data’ I needed at this time was mastering the Pivot table, Ctrl X | Ctrl V, and the VLOOKUP. Most of the reports I produced were printed out, passed round meetings then jokingly used as doorstops or popped straight in the blue bin (confidential waste). The worst job of the week, every Monday Monday, was merging 30 spreadsheet submissions from 30 wards about ‘delayed discharges’ to enable us to submit the weekly SITREP (situational report to the central NHS bodies). As you can imagine a highlight of my early ‘analytical’ career. 😉
Working in the NHS for the first 15 years of my analytics career meant in some cases we were behind the curve. Although, moving into corporate sector in 2021 I realised in some respect we were ahead or at least chasing close behind. So let’s see if my journey is reflective of yours from whatever sector you reside.
It took me a while to remember the tools I have used over the last 20 years, the details are a little hazy and I am sure I may have some of the years wrong and maybe even missed a few systems.
My first couple of years was a mixture of Excel and Access databases: Like many Analyst my gateway ‘tool’ into analytics was excel. Access databases was the original tool for linking datasets together and my first experience of SQL.
Around 2008 I was introduced to Business Objects (just before it evolved into Crystal Reports): A step up from Access and my first taste of an easy drag and drop development tool. My first ‘yes’ moment in my career believing this might help us connect with our stakeholders and customers. The ‘Universes’ concept initially seemed to answer the maturing questions about our patient data and demonstrated the art of the possible, BUT when our third party provider seemed unable to create a critical ‘referrals’ universe within the platform this hit a major bump in the road. Thi ia rhw older YouTube I coulld for this: BusinessObjects Web Intelligence In Under 3 Minutes (Step by Step Instructional How To)
After quickly realising that ‘third party’ providers of different platforms like Business Objects’ couldn’t seem to grasp even the basic NHS data concepts the sun started to shine brighter, as our organisation gave us access to SQL Server and myself and the team started to hone our coding skills in SQL.
Around 2009/10 again with the limitation of ‘out of the box’ platforms at this time that could support complex NHS data concepts, developing a data warehouse in SQL Server was the next inevitable development. Bringing in some data warehousing expertise to enable this was our smartest move.
The first tools of my career were all focused on making data accessible for Analysts so we could provide data for reports and submissions in the most efficient way. But the challenge still remained the same: how could we get our stakeholders to engage in ‘data’? And maybe even importantly trust us.
For the next few years I was constantly bombarded with suppliers selling a dream; ‘interactive self-service dashboard’ platforms, but all seemed to be very restrictive and very expensive.
(Segway slightly and maybe unneccesary oversharing) At some point between 2010 and 2013 was one of the most embarrassing moments of my NHS career. I sent an email to 50+ other NHS Organisations, to see whether other Trusts had managed to find and implement a successful self-service platform that provided data at a touch of a button. Unfortunately, instead of writing ‘touch of a button‘… I wrote ‘touch of a bottom’. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many times you re-read your emails before you press send you just don’t see it. You can imagine some of the replies I received. I am still cringing over 15 years later.
From 2010 to 2014 I had a few little happy dance moments when I believed we had a found a solution to make data accessible, before a 10 minute demo at the end of 2014 changed everything.
In the absence of an affordable platform in 2010 my team developed an online dashboard platform using Java to provide data to our operational managers. It was fondly named ‘PenInfo’ (Pennine Care information tool), this was my first ‘a-ha’ moment with operational services. I remember vividly demoing this to a group of managers in our Drug and Alcohol services who literally all moved forward in a meeting room to take a better look at the system and start to discuss the story behind the data. This was the first time ever in my career to date that I had grabbed an audiences’ attention with data. It was a joyous moment… The development effort for this platform though was super high, skills were limited, and our capacity to expand this to answer the demand of data questions therefore was almost impossible for a super busy NHS Information service.
Around 2012 (I think….) our IT turned Sharepoint Performance Point Services on for us, and I did another little happy dance (literally) believing this could be the answer. My bubble quickly burst; the tool had huge limitations and the development effort was too high again. Check out this great (retro) YouTube video: Creating BI Solutions with SharePoint 2010 using PerformancePoint Services
Somewhere between 2011 we started to make use of SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) – the biggest win for this was automating some of our reports, but the platform was not something that would help us engage with our stakeholders. Again high development, high maintenance time, and the interface was far from user friendly. SSRS 2012: Introduction and Report Builder Tutorial Video: Report Building Tools
That takes us to 8 years into my Analytics career and it’s the end of 2014. After progressing to Senior Analyst in 2008 and then Department Head a couple of years later, I was now managing a busy Information Department juggling the constant demand for routine reports, statutory submissions and a high volumes of ad hoc data requests. I had successfully managed a huge data warehouse development utlising Kimball methodology which enabled us to integrate data from multiple systems, but I was still struggling to get funding for anything that would help us connect with our teams and leaders. We were still a ‘report’ factory even with our best efforts in SSRS and PenInfo. My enthusiasm for data was dwindling then suddenly there was a definite sliding doors moment. I reticently agreed to a 10 min demo of an evolving ‘BI’ (Business Intelligence) software, despite believing that I was unlikely to get the funding for anything better than SSRS. The NHS budgets says ‘no’ even in 2014 was a common occurrence, especially for technology. Well, I can honestly say that 10 minutes changed my career and my reignited my passion for data. My mind was officially blown… a tool that could rapidly connect to data, quickly create interactive dashboards, and unlike most software at the time I could actually afford to buy a couple of licenses to try it out. This was where I was introduced to Tableau.
Tableau has since been my go to data visualisation tool, with regular upgrades to keep up with the data analytics world. Since 2014 there have been lots of other data visualisation platforms that have progressed, giving Tableau a run for its money. The underlying data management platforms have also significantly evolved as we are all well away. Cloud environment and analytical platforms are today the norm, and migration projects from inhouse servers has been a regular occurrence for most businesses.
Data warehousing, data lakes and specific platforms AWS, Azure, and Databricks amongst other have been a feature of my last few years, with the big technology players all battling to provide full analytical platforms to remove the need to buy separate products. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and this blog is definitely not a sales pitch for any products, the one thing that is the constant across all analytical platforms and across my 20 year career is ‘people’. Ultimately data is useless unless it is used and understood by people. Whilst technology and the recognition that data is one of businesses’ biggest assets has shifted over time, the thing that has kept me in this career is by using the right tools and platforms to help me and my teams connect people with their data to drive value and aid action and decision making. The main progression over my 20 years is that it has got a lot easier and more efficient to do this, but you can never under estimate the time it takes to support people with using technologies and understanding the data and the results to deliver value for the business. Data literacy and digital skills across our general business users haven’t necessarily progressed at the same pace as our technology.
One tool that has stood the test of time across my 20 years is of course Excel. I believe it’s probably the most misunderstood and misused tool of my data career. Why it this still the go to tool for our Business Users? I would love to explore this further, so saving thought for a future blog 💡
Analytics buzz words you were unlikely to hear in 2006 (well I didn’t…):
- Data Visualisation
- Data Science
- Machine Learning (outside academia)
- Real-time analytics
- Self-service analytics
- Cloud analytics
Yes, I managed to write this whole blog without mentioning AI (until now). Unless you have been asleep for the last few years, it goes without saying that AI is having a massive impact on the business world and on Analytics. The efficiencies it is already bringing is colossal, and is allowing our Analytics professionals to do things we couldn’t have even imagined when I started my career in 2006. I for one can’t predict what it will look like in another 20 years time, and by this time likely be retired and relaxing somewhere nice in the sun.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane, and for any fellow ‘Analysts,’ I wonder if any of these tools and experiences featured in your journey.
Ella
Dataliciously Ella 
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