What is Analytics Canvas?
Analytics Canvas is the leading Google Analytics integration tool for GA users that are serious about their data.
It is a product of nModal Solutions Inc., a Toronto based company and was launched in 2008 by nModal's founder, James Standen .
While it's Google Analytics Connectors are one of its core features, it can connect to all sorts of other data too; Canvas connects to text files, spreadsheets, databases, and numerous other APIs to provide a visual environment for analysts to define data flows, transformations and deliveries.
It was specifically designed to allow anyone to get data from a variety of sources, apply business rules to prepare it for analysis, and load it into databases and dashboards, all without writing a single line of code.
At the same time, the overall platform enables enterprises to automate the canvases made by analysts and directly integrate them into existing infrastructure. Technical resources have access to more advanced functionality such as SQL, parameter based automation and command line access.
It uses a visual interface where data tables and transformations are represented as blocks connected together to create a data workflow. However, unlike other ETL tools which can cost tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, Canvas is also designed to be accessible, starting at just $49/mo.
Today, nModal has customers in over 35 countries who use Analytics Canvas to get more insight from their data and move beyond the cut and paste, spaghetti of overly complex spreadsheets.
We believe in putting customers first and consistently making improvements to help make data analysts more successful and it drives what we do here at nModal.
Who uses Analytics Canvas?
IT
Designed by an engineer and data scientist who spent decades working with data in the enterprise and leading IT teams, Analytics Canvas is at home in an IT environment.
Within IT, Canvas is used for:
- getting data from Google Analytics into reporting processes without investing in learning the API
- rapid prototyping when the business doesn't yet have all their needs defined
- staying current with the Google Analytics API without investing scarce resources
- batch processing from dozens, hundreds, even thousands of Google Analytics accounts, properties, and views
- creating and publishing TDEs (Tableau Data Extracts) for consumption by business users without using TABCMD
- traditional ETL processes
Best of all, Canvas has been audited and approved by government and enterprise IT departments around the world, and integrates seamlessly into existing processes as it can be triggered by existing ETL or BI software.
Marketers
Analytics Canvas is designed for self-serve data analysis without involving IT.
With a focus on Google data tools, such as Analytics, Search Console, Ads, Sheets, BigQuery, and Looker Studio, Canvas is designed to assist analysts in:
- connecting to data sources
- profiling and preparing data for analysis
- publishing datasets to dashboards and reports
- automating mundane data tasks that enable analysts to become more productive
Marketers and business users use Analytics Canvas for accessing data from APIs, databases, and files without writing code. For combining / blending data from various sources, and generally for processing data that is too big for spreadsheets.
Most customers who aren't in IT had never used an ETL or Data-Prep tool before Analytics Canvas, but have now discovered a better way to visualize data tasks and explore data faster than they ever could using traditional spreadsheets.