What is Zoho DataPrep? | Self Service Data Preparation

What is Zoho DataPrep? | Self Service Data Preparation

The productivity provider SaaS provided Zoho entered the business intelligence platform field in July 2021. Zoho announced an AI-powered data preparation, business intelligence, and self-service platform application that combined the new Zoho DataPrep application with an enhanced version of Zoho Analytics.

This was to win over business users with a combination of features that focused on ease of use, supporting the data preparation, and the ability to blend internal data with the outside data sources. Zoho DataPrep application is self-service data preparation and management tool that uses machine learning to help business users integrate, transform, enrich, transform, and catalog data for creating and managing data pipelines.

Zoho has also added an integrated enterprise portal builder called Zoho Sites and presentation software called Zoho Show to the platform. This is for helping business users put their ideas into context. Basically, Zoho aspires to reduce any friction by empowering business users to drive decisions with data and without learning any new tools.

In this blog, we will learn about Zoho DataPrep in complete detail. So let’s begin.

What is Zoho DataPrep?
 
Zoho DataPrep is data cleaning software that enables organizations to prepare high-quality data by automatically looking for errors, discovering data patterns, cleaning, transforming, and enriching data. This is without any need for coding. It also helps in setting up data pipelines for syncing prepared data to Zoho Analytics or to any data warehouses.

Using Zoho DataPrep you can connect, cleanse, transform, enrich, schedule, and export data with ease. In addition, you can also catalog and manage how the prepared data is consumed with fine-grained controls. It is also possible to import data into Zoho DataPrep from over 50+ data sources such as files, FTP, feeds, cloud storage, databases, and data warehouses while making it simple to bring the data together.

The functions of Zoho DataPrep are:

1. Cleansing and Improving Data Quality
Zoho DataPrep helps in automatically profiling data for viewing distribution, outliers, statistics, and data quality. You can clean and improve data quality by removing duplicates, fixing invalid data, and missing values.

2. Transforming Data
Using the AI-powered data preparations and intelligent suggestions, one can apply over 250 transforms and prepare the data. You can learn to take advantage of machine learning to enrich data with sentiment analysis, keyword extraction, language detection, and much more.

3. Data Lineage
You can track every change applied to the data using ruleset. It is also possible to modify, disable, and remove any changes at any point in time. You can reuse rulesets for applying the same set of changes in other datasets while removing automated data preparation.

4. Data Catalog
The Zoho DataPrep can be used to catalog and manage datasets by categories, data quality, custom tags, data readiness, and much more. You can perform a system-wide metadata search powered by Zia for improving discoverability.

5. End to end data Pipelines
The organizations continue to gather data each day and cleaning it is never a one-time task. It includes setting up pipelines by automating imports, preparing data using rule sets, and exporting to destinations. This status can be monitored and one can also get notified in case there are any changes to improve the data quality.

Basically, you should use Zoho DataPrep because it helps in doing the below-mentioned things.
  1. Empowers business users with a self-service data preparation
  2. Offers high-quality data for any business need
  3. Helps in identifying the next step with augmented data preparation
  4. Brings unstructured data into the fold
  5. Helps in being expansive scale with the cloud
  6. It is an extensible data preparation platform with powerful APIs.
Zoho DataPrep is multipurpose software by design. It can fit in wherever it is needed. It helps in:

1. Advanced Analytics
The high data quality helps the data analyst to get deeper insights from business intelligence and analytics tools. The use of Zoho DataPrep reduces the time and effort needed to prepare the data.

Basically, data analytics enables organizations to interpret and analyze the data and make data-driven decisions. The data analysts can clean and prepare inconsistent and invalid data before coming on to analysis and insights.

The data analysts and scientists spend around 80% time preparing data and the use of Zoho DataPrep helps in speeding up the process and improving the data preparation experience.

2. Data Warehousing
You can run automated data pipelines from various sources to Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Azure SQL, and other popular cloud data warehouses.

It is also possible to build resilient and end-to-end data pipelines while connecting multiple siloed data sources to the data warehouse of an organization. This can be done with easy to maintain and low-code platform.                      

3. Machine Learning
The overall efficiency of the machine learning model is dependent on the quality of the data used for training it. The use of Zoho DataPrep helps the data scientists with data cleaning at a full scale without any need for coding.

Zoho DataPrep can be used to perform data collection, cleaning and pre-processing, feature engineering, and data labeling with the Zoho DataPrep.

4. Business Processes/Migration
You can migrate data between business apps using the DataPrep. It can be used for cleaning and enriching the data in business applications such as CRM, help desk, and survey tools for weeding out any duplicates and validating records.

Hence, the Zoho DataPrep can be used for enhancing the data quality, improving data flows, inefficiencies, and removing any redundancies across an organization.

Now that we have had a look at Zoho DataPrep in complete detail, let us now have a look at the features of Zoho DataPrep in complete detail. This will help in understanding what Zoho DataPrep can do for us.

1. Connecting to Multiple Sources
You can eliminate data silos in an organization, connect to it and a variety of other sources including feeds, files, cloud storage, warehouses, databases, and business applications.
  1. Import Files: It is possible to import files from anywhere in a wide range of formats including CSV, XLS, TSV, TXT, XML, XLSX, HTML, JSON from local storage, URLs, FTP servers, or from cloud drives such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box
  2. Warehouses and Databases: It is also possible to import data from a wide range of warehouses and databases.
  3. Tight Integration: Zoho DataPrep allows in connecting and cleansing data directly from Zoho Analytics using the built-in connectors.
2. Improving Data Quality
With Zoho DataPrep, you don’t ever have to miss out on important data with an intelligent solution.
  1. Data Quality: Zoho DataPrep helps in viewing valid, invalid, and missing data from each column using the data quality bar. You can filter and cleanse data using intelligent suggestions while improving the data quality and removing duplicate and invalid data.
  2. Smart Modelling: You can automatically find data types, create custom data types to find and fix invalid data, and get suggestions for joining the datasets.
  3. Data Distribution: Zoho DataPrep helps in understanding your data better with the help of multiple widgets like value distribution histogram, outliers, text patterns, value statistics, and more.
3. Transform and Enrich Data
Using the interactive data preparation studio, the data can be transformed without any code.
  1. Smart Selection: You can highlight the required part from the data and DataPrep helps in looking for selection patterns to offer accurate suggestions for extracting, counting, replacing, and splitting data.
  2. Transforming: It is possible to format and change the data using more than 250 transformations without the need for any coding. The data can be reshaped using pivot, unpivot, and summary transforms.
  3. Blend Data: The data can be blended from a wide range of sources using the join and append transforms.
  4. AI-Powered Enrichment: The data can be enriched with AI-powered transforms such as keyword extraction, language detection, sentiment analysis, and much more.
4. Automating Workflows
The automation of mundane tasks is one of the quickest ways to reduce time in preparing data. With the use of Zoho DataPrep, it is possible to schedule the data preparation workflows and receive alerts as well.
  1. End-to-end Data Pipelines: You can set up end-to-end data pipelines by connecting data from multiple sources, blending and cleaning data, and syncing to various destinations.
  2. Monitoring Data Quality: The use of Zoho DataPrep helps in continuous monitoring of data quality while sending alerts anytime the quality drops.
  3. Tracking and Reusing: The rulesets can be used to track any changes made to the data and reusing them across datasets.
5. Catalog Data
The built-in management capabilities help in classifying, cataloging, and governing data using the Zoho DataPrep.
  1. Discover Data Easily: The data can be discovered easily using a system-wide search capability powered by Zia.
  2. Mark as Ready: When the data is all prepared and set, it can be marked as ready for letting your team know that the data is available for sharing and exporting.
  3. Data About Data: More metadata can be added to the datasets and workspaces using the tags and improving searchability and filtering. All the important details about the datasets and workspaces can be found in a single overview pane.
6. Safe Data Sharing
You can collaborate seamlessly with the teams and offer fine-grained permissions for ensuring that the users access the data intended for them.
  1. Setting Access Permissions: You can set access permissions for sharing data, share workspaces with users and groups in an organization, and set role-based access controls to share data securely.
  2. Data Audit: You can get a detailed report of changes made to your data. The datasets when shared and exported can be tracked and exported. In addition, you can also verify if the security measures are applied to protect personal data before sharing or exporting the datasets.
7. Security and Compliance
The Zoho DataPrep enables you to find personal data in your dataset, ensure privacy by masking or tokenizing sensitive data, and also enables to adhere to privacy policy and data protection regulations such as GDPR.

All the data associated with the Zoho DataPrep is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Zoho DataPrep In Sum

An important part of any business analytics tool starts with preparing the data for insights. Zoho’s DataPrep is an AI powered data preparation platform that takes out a lot of manual work for correcting formatting, updating fields, and determining missing values. This enables the clients to set up once and save time without being dependent on difficult processes and inaccurate spreadsheets.

The Zoho DataPrep platform is on its way to becoming AI-driven data analytics and self-service tool through data preparation and augmented analytics. It is a BI platform that will allow its customers to clean, unify, and analyze cross-departmental data and obtain an encyclopedic view of the company.

This is a solution that combines Zoho DataPrep which automates and simplifies challenges of importing data sources along with an enhanced version of Zoho Analytics 5.0. The users launch queries for a deeper understanding of data by using the graphical tools or using Ask Zia which is Zoho’s conversational AI platform. The end goal is to make things simple for end-users so that they can construct and share analytics featuring pre-built visual dashboards for data integration and flexible deployment.

Conclusion
Zoho DataPrep is advanced self-service data preparation and pipeline service that helps organizations prepare and manage huge volumes of data. In case you wish to implement Zoho DataPrep then get in touch with a qualified and certified Zoho partner who can guide you at each step.

I hope that you learned something new 
Cheers!
Abhi
(Seasoned Zoho Authorized and Certified Partner)

Feel free to contact me if you have any queries
Email: abhishek(@)encaptechno(dot)com
Call: +1-416-405-8185



        • Recent Topics

        • Does zoho rest api support token exchange from microsoft entra id token

          i want to get access token from the Microsoft user token in rest api. so it is possible to exchange microsoft user access token to zoho's access token or auth token ( token should be user specific not super admin).
        • Important: DKIM verification needed for unauthenticated email domains

          Hi all, This post is to inform users who are currently using unauthenticated email domains as their sender email for their notifications. We have mandated DKIM verification for all domains used as sender email addresses for the outgoing emails by 01-Jan-2025.
        • How do I define a weekend

          I noticed the default for weekends does not seem to include Saturdays. How can i define weekends to include both Saturdays and Sundays? Thank you.
        • Custom Status for Purchase Orders

          Currently Zoho books has functionality to create custom statuses for Sales Orders. Can this be extended to include custom status for purchase orders as well? It was a great decision to add this functionality to sales orders. Our use case is for tracking
        • Remove Address from credit card payment

          I would like to remove the need to add address when paying by credit card. I only want the customer to have to add their credit card details.
        • How to Implement Time-Based Filters in Zoho Workflows?

          Hi everyone, I’m looking for a workaround to implement time-based filters in Zoho workflows. Specifically, I need a workflow to trigger only within certain hours (e.g., between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM, Sunday to Friday). Currently, Zoho workflows execute
        • Top Menu Disappeared from Blog Page

          Hi, Our top menu disappeared at Blog Posts page. However, it's still visible any other page on the website. I attached two screenshots, so it can be understood clearly. How can we bring back top menu? Thanks, K.
        • Subforms and automation

          If a user updates a field how do we create an automation etc. We have a field for returned parts and i want to get an email when that field is ticked. How please as Zoho tells me no automation on subforms. The Reason- Why having waited for ever for FSM
        • My Zoho mail has been blocked for suspicious activity. cannot unblock it! need urgent help!

          Hi, I was accessing my email on an airplane which for some reason resulted in my mail being blocked. I have managed to unblock my incoming however outgoing is still blocked. I have contacted all your support emails but it still says contact support when I try to unblock outgoing emails. Its now been over 8 days with the same issue which is really serious as I'm not able to send several business emails during this period. I have followed all your steps to unblock this and contacted your support 5
        • Copy Widget to another Dashboard

          I can see the option to clone a widget to the same dashboard but is it possible to copy it to another dashboard?
        • booking link that expires

          I have a suggestion that is  crucial. When i send booking URL to clients they keep the link and they book appointment whenever they want multiple times. You should give us the Booking URL feature. We should be able to send it and the user can use it only
        • Error while importing products Purchase Price: Value in the field does not match with the data type supported by us.

          I am trying to import items into zoho inventory using an excel spreadsheet. I keep getting this error Purchase Price: Value in the field does not match with the data type supported by us. no matter how i format the cells this comes up and will not import
        • Quotes Module - import data

          Hello Zoho, is it possible to import Quotes records? I was trying and i have no results. Raport shows no data imported. Could you help me please how to do it?
        • Year-End Wrap: Disconnect now; Reconnect later with Offline Mode

          🎄Happy Holidays🎄 Let's say you are travelling home to spend the holiday season with your loved ones. Before you even board the train, you check your phone only to find your inbox rapidly filling with urgent emails that need your attention. There’s no
        • Exploring SalesIQ's Top Features of 2024: An Insider's Look 🔍

          As we wrap up another year at Zoho SalesIQ, it's time to reflect on how far we've come. This year has been incredible for us in our journey to build a more powerful, flexible, and customer-centric engagement platform. We've introduced several features
        • Resource booking functionality questions

          I'm exploring the resource booking functionality in Zoho Bookings for my organisation's needs. I have a few questions about the available Zoho Bookings functionalities. Is it possible to force all users to sign up for an account before they book a resource?
        • How to create a Field with answers as Yes, No> Further if no is selected a new field to be visible to give details

          Dear All, I am creating a feedback form in HR Letter. The question is were you satisfied with the work allotted. Expected answer to this is Yes, No. Further if the response is no, then a field to be give to fill more details as to why no was selected.
        • Modify the way a phone number is shown in footer on ZOHO Booking Page

          The default display of the phone number field in the footer is not customer friendly - See image below. We would like it to use the accepted standards of phone number display: +61 (0)2 88545440, or allow us to choose. At the moment ZOHO Booking sets how
        • Zoho Bookings Multilingual ?

          Hello, Not sure if there is a way to do it currently, but it would be very helpful if Zoho bookings allowed multilingual translations so we could have our booking pages and notifications setup in multiple languages. Thanks,
        • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

          My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these
        • Problem viewing document imported from google drive.

          Hello, When I add a document via my google drive, it is impossible to preview it. I get the error “Files without extensions cannot be previewed. Download to view this file”. Could you please help me? Also, and this is more of a question: is there a way
        • Two way sync Zoho Mail and Bookings

          Hi, I know it’s possible to view Bookings appointments in Zoho Mail, but is there a way to see my Zoho Mail meetings in the Bookings calendar?
        • Modifying iframe data of Zoho booking iframe

          Hello, I have integrated a Zoho Bookings embedded iframe into my website. Currently, I am pre-filling the booking form with default values as part of our process flow. However, I want to ensure that if an input field is already populated with a default
        • Sending my emails to Spam Folder

          I am loosing my business because of this issue, many of my customers are receiving their email in the spam sometimes no one checks them
        • Why can't I sync my Zoho Mail tasks and notes with my mobile device, and is there a way to fix this issue?

          I'm having trouble syncing my Zoho Mail tasks and notes with my mobile device. Despite following the usual steps, the tasks and notes don't appear on my phone. Is there a way to fix this issue? Regards, Adamjes, Tekskills India Pvt Limited, India.
        • attributed automatically database section

          Hello everyone and happy holidays... here in zoho CRM, I created 3 bases: - Properties (House, apartment ...) - Transactions (Notaries, ...) - Real estate ads I want when the address is identical on these three bases, that in "Properties" the transactions
        • Re: constant rejected email form and to my account

          Hi, have had several rejection when I sent an email to Zoho account as well as other people have sent emails to my as your health Centre they have account and all aspects have been ejected. i wonder why the email are rejecting to and from. If you see
        • How do I redeem credits?

          How do I redeem credits that are shown in billing section?
        • Introducing 'Queries' In Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone! We are here with an exciting feature - Queries in Zoho CRM! A little context before we dive right into the feature specifics :) In today’s fast-paced business environment, immediate access to relevant data is essential for informed decision-making.
        • Will zoho thrive be integrated with Zoho Books?

          title
        • Cannot add IMAP account to "new" Outlook

          Hi, I am attempting to add an IMAP account to my copy of the "new" Outlook on my desktop computer. I have tried using the default password when MFA was disabled and an app password when MFA was enabled. But neither attempt worked. My Windows 11 OS number
        • Update Zoho Flow on Sprint Work Item Status Change

          Hello, I've contacted Zoho One support but have been unable to help in a timely manner, so I'm asking the community. I want to start using sprints, but I'm having an issue. I need to post updates to Slack when a Work Item has a status change. My understanding
        • Issue with skip_workflow Not Preventing Edit Workflow Trigger

          Hi Team, I am trying to upload a file to a form in Zoho Creator. However, during the upload, an edit workflow is being triggered. I want to prevent this workflow from running, so I have used the skip_workflow parameter as mentioned in the API documentation:
        • Create Dashboard using data/tables from different workspaces

          Is it possible do create a Dashboard using different tables that are part of different Workspaces? 
        • Este domínio já está associado a esta conta

          quando digitei meu domínio recebi essa mensagem que meu domínio estava associado a uma conta que eu nem faço idéia de quem seja. Como que faço pra resolver isso?
        • Storage addon failed to upgrade

          Hi, I am trying to purchase addon storage, but i am getting upgrade failed error Sorry! We are unable to process your information. Please try again after some time. If the problem occurs again, please visit our Contact Us page to reach out to the appropriate
        • no puedo recibir correos

          Hola, en la cuenta de la empresa desde hace unos tres días dejamos de recibir correos y no hemos realizado ningun cambio de configuracion, requerimos asistencia urgente por favor
        • Default reminders on Emails

          I have seen that it is possible to set, for each email, a reminder when the email remains unresponded for some time. This is very useful, so useful that I would like to set it for all my emails, by default. Because an unanswered email usually requires
        • NO PUEDO RECIBIR CORREOS EN MI CUENTA ZOHO MAIL

          LO QUE SI PUEDO HACER ES ENVIAR CORREOS PERO NO PUEDO RECIBIR CORREOS. Y LA CONFIGUIRACION DE MI DNS YA ESTA CORRECTA Y APUNTAN A ZOHO PERO AUN ASI NO PUEDO RECIBIR  NECESITO AYUDA URGENTE YA QUE EN MEXICO NO HAY FORMA DE COMUNICARNOS VIA TELEFONIA CON
        • Send email is not authenticated

          Hi, I’m getting an error in Gmail, when receiving an email from my account in zoho, my email is already authenticated in my domain, and I don't know why I keep receiving this message... also testing in outlook, the message goes directly to "junk".
        • Next Page