Self-Service Data Preparation Without the Risk

Self-service data preparation has been a game-changer for accelerating AI and analytics. Giving data analysts the ability to prep data on their own has slashed months-long backlogs and minimized the endless game of ping-pong between analysts and data engineers.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where crucial decisions are driven by data, leaders are understandably excited about the potential of giving more people in the business access to the data they need. But lately, a familiar concern has come back to the surface:

Governance.

In our conversations with data leaders, three governance concerns come up over and again:

• Security. Analysts must only access data they’re authorized to see.
• Compliance. Data must be prepared accurately and in line with company and regulatory standards.
• Cost. With more people building pipelines, how do you avoid runaway compute bills?

At Amgen, the Financial Insights Technology (FIT) group using traditional data prep tools was “left facing a lot of complexity with disjointed systems,” said Drew Davis, Data & Analytics Manager. “[We had] no way to automate user security and the process required a lot of manual intervention” See how Amgen modernized to deliver crucial financial insights by moving from Alteryx to Prophecy and Databricks.

Without the right foundation, self-service becomes a liability instead of an asset. These concerns keep organizations from expanding access to high-value data, resulting in persistent backlogs, overworked engineers, and delays in delivering insights.

Ironically, the key to making self-service safe and scalable isn’t locking things down. It’s bringing the central data team back into the picture. Not as gatekeepers, but as enablers. They're the ones best positioned to enforce security policies, manage compliance, and keep costs under control. The challenge? Doing this without reintroducing bottlenecks.

And that’s the challenge we’ve solved.

Prophecy 4.0. Reinventing Data Preparation

With our latest release, Prophecy has cracked the code on governed self-service. We’ve taken our foundation of governance and built on it with powerful new capabilities that make it even easier for analysts to get clean, trusted data. Fast.

Analysts get more power and flexibility, and central data teams get visibility and control. No more trade-offs.

Self-service data preparation that just makes sense

Prophecy has always made building pipelines accessible through natural language and a drag-and-drop interface. Now, we’ve made that experience even more powerful, with features built specifically for the needs of analysts in the business:

• Expanded connectivity. Easily bring in data from sources analysts use daily, like Excel, CSV, Google Analytics, SFTP, and SharePoint. 
• Seamless last mile operations. Send results directly to Tableau or email stakeholders, without switching to other tools. 
• Unified, end-to-end workflows. Load, transform, report, and schedule pipelines - all in one pane of glass. No more juggling disconnected tools. 

Governed data preparation, without the headaches

We know what you're thinking: "Self-service sounds great, but won’t this just create chaos?" Not with Prophecy. Here’s how.

Cost control:  Avoid the invisible cloud spend spiral

“We want analysts to build their own pipelines... but what about our Databricks bill?” Great question. Because Prophecy is deeply integrated with Databricks, we allow organizations to enforce cluster limits and cost guardrails automatically. And we go further:

• Simplified version control. Analysts can save pipelines to Git without ever touching a command line. Meanwhile, data engineers review and promote pipelines to production, keeping quality high and costs predictable.
• Packages. Engineers can create reusable pipeline components that enforce best practices, like pushing filters to the top of the pipeline to optimize compute.

Simplified version control. All the power of Git, with none of the complexity.

Pipeline Quality:  Accurate, standardized, and compliant

Poor data or pipeline quality doesn’t just hurt your insights. It can damage trust, tank decisions, or in some industries, put lives at risk. Prophecy ensures accuracy and consistency across teams:

• Data profiling. See at a glance whether your data is fit for use, with visibility into null values and value distributions.
• Prophecy Apps. Prebuilt, parameterized workflows created by engineers allow analysts to generate insights safely and repeatably.
• Observability:  Real-time monitoring helps teams detect failures early and fix them fast.
• Packages:  A searchable library of standard components ensures pipelines are always built the right way. 

It’s like giving every analyst the power of a senior data engineer, without the 10 years of coding experience.

Secure by Design: Security that’s built in, not bolted on

Legacy tools create security nightmares, copying data into siloed systems where permissions vanish and visibility disappears. Prophecy is secure by design:

• Unity Catalog Integration. Analysts inherit existing permissions from Databricks. No extra systems, no security gaps.
• Product security. Prophecy persists no customer data. Only essential metadata is stored for control and visibility. 
• Databricks Partner Connect with OAuth: Secure, one-click provisioning for analysts. No manual setup or management of personal access tokens (PATs) required.

No more permissions puzzles. Just clean, secure access. 

Prophecy's ability to strike the right balance between access and control was critical for Amgen, helping them eliminate duplicate work, reduce data inaccuracies, and uncover hidden costs tied to their legacy data prep tools.

And at another major pharmaceutical company, well-governed self-service data preparation enabled the supply chain team to collaborate directly with the business, resulting in a 10x increase in data delivery.

One Platform. One Experience. Total Control.

With Prophecy 4.0, analysts can move faster than ever, without compromising quality, cost, or security. And for central data teams, it means empowering the business without sacrificing control.

Self-service no longer means giving up governance.

It means unleashing the full potential of your data team.

Join our upcoming webinar on April 24, 2025, to see Prophecy 4.0 in action and learn how we’re making governed self-service a reality.