Data analysis, as a professional skill, has been in high demand in the last 8-9 years as a result of the capabilities of companies around the world to be able to capture customer data related to how to buy or how the company manages . your own finances. Evolution in software development has enabled this ability. However, there is this ongoing debate as to whether the same software tools used to create the data capture capabilities can be used for data analysis or whether we need more dedicated software tools to achieve the same.
One such tool is SQL-based database software, which essentially forms the backend of any operation. Used to query for information from data sources. Audit Command Language is another tool dedicated only to data analysis projects. Let’s look at the main differences between these tools to decide which approach is better.
1. Simpler interface – The first advantage of ACL over SQL-based tools is the user interface. For any end user trying to work on an analysis project, you can complete basic routine tasks to get very interesting reports just by using the GUI. See the ACL GUI demo below:
2. Work spaces – A defining characteristic of the ACL tool is “workspaces”. Workspaces allow the end user to write simple lines of code for data manipulations and test the results without having to run any scripts. Workspaces allow flexibility and another layer to the ACL project design process to execute desired tasks.
3. Scripting – Scripts in ACL Audit Command Language are a combination of scripts and workspaces. Most of the data manipulation tasks, such as creating new formatted fields from the raw data, are mostly done in workspaces, where the syntax for scripting is quite simple. Aside from workspaces, most of the tasks (such as summarizing, filtering, sorting, etc.) the data can be done simply by using the GUI provided by the tool. If any user is willing to learn how to write scripts (regarding analysis tasks such as summarize, sort, add, join, etc.), the logs provide the scripts related to all the tasks performed using the GUI.
ACL Audit Command Language can be considered an entry-level skill that can be used for almost any type of analysis project, especially in the audit / risk analysis domains. It acts as a refined layer of software on top of the data captured in ERP systems. It is easier to understand for professionals who do not have a technical background and it almost takes about a day, perhaps, if you have a technical background. For these reasons, it is easier to train the workforce on this tool, due to the easy learning curve and relatively affordable investment compared to SQL, SAS, HADOOP / HIVE infrastructure.
