What is our primary use case?
I work as a business analyst and I usually see data anomalies in our company's data set, and I also work a lot on Power BI reports to see our performance on the supplier side.
When we receive data from our suppliers to view their performance, sometimes the data is not complete or they are doing backfills of previous data, so we have established some rules in Monte Carlo to monitor these anomalies, and whenever we see something passing a preset limit, we receive an alert.
When I open Monte Carlo, I usually look at my dashboard to see how many alerts we have received in the last few days, but I usually check the alerts in the last month, and I see which rule has received the maximum amount of alerts; then I try to solve it first because the pattern is similar, and then I try to solve other alerts based on other rules.
In my team, it's me who handles those alerts, but we have another team who works on these alerts as well, although they are working on another kind of data set, but in the company, it's used by many people.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Monte Carlo for my work are the ability to see alerts clearly, how many alerts we have received on which rule and for which country, and there is a feature called investigation query inside Monte Carlo which shows a pre-done analysis, so you don't have to run an SQL query by yourself to do manual checks.
It gives a clear analysis in a large data set, which is very time-saving, so I don't have to run manual codes to verify the data, and it has helped me a lot in saving time and improving efficiency while doing data checks or verifying data. It's a really great tool to explain the anomalies when we see one in Monte Carlo, as we have actual proofs to show to people or to the managers that we are having this anomaly or that data is missing.
There's also an AI feature that is inbuilt in Monte Carlo, but you have to pay separately for that feature, and I used it for quite a while in the beginning, but now my company has disabled it.
What needs improvement?
The biggest pain point with Monte Carlo is that we have created some rules, but those rules cannot judge everything, and I think the platform is a bit complex for someone new, so it can be more intuitive; a display adoption platform could guide the user on how to use this, like a DAP system. It took a lot of time for me to learn it, and without a guide, a new user would be clueless.
If I could change one thing about Monte Carlo, it would be for the platform to suggest some data quality rules by itself or some algorithms based on the anomalies and the patterns of our anomalies, which would be helpful, and also changes in our rules according to past anomaly patterns. I think that would be good, and they should also improve their support system, as I find it a bit weaker at the moment.
For how long have I used the solution?
It's been six months since I've been working on Monte Carlo, and it's a really great tool for analyzing data quality anomalies.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, the data checks were performed manually; they extracted data on Snowflake and then did manual verifications on Excel using formulas.
How was the initial setup?
It was not me who implemented Monte Carlo; it was another senior data analyst who implemented it a year ago, but I think it took a few months to get everything up and running.
It needed formal training because the tool is not that easy; if someone doesn't have a data analyst or business analyst background, you have to explain every rule which you have set by yourself, because the rules are created by us, not Monte Carlo; Monte Carlo is just a tool. We put our own rules to govern the data sets, and we literally had to make a guide to help users get to know that platform.
What about the implementation team?
It was not me who implemented Monte Carlo; it was another senior data analyst who implemented it a year ago, but I think it took a few months to get everything up and running.
What was our ROI?
Monte Carlo saves me roughly 30% to 40% of my time in doing verifications or data quality checks, and related to my team, I'm the only one who uses it in my team, but we collaborate with another team that uses it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I didn't ask that question in my company; it was a good choice, so it's a very popular tool, which is why my company picked Monte Carlo.
What other advice do I have?
I would like to leave a review for the tool called Monte Carlo, which is a data quality analysis tool.
I think they just changed the layout a little bit, and during my work, I didn't see any changes in the platform except for the AI feature, which I don't use anymore.
Our final goal is to automate every data quality manual check into Monte Carlo so we don't have to do a lot of checks by ourselves.
If I find something bizarre, I go to Monte Carlo and see if it's happening there as well, so it gives me confirmation that the issue is occurring and we can contact our supplier or the country to verify what it is.
Monte Carlo is a really good tool; whenever I do data verification checks for the dashboards, and if I find something bizarre, I go to Monte Carlo and see if it's happening there as well, so it gives me confirmation that the issue is occurring and we can contact our supplier or the country to verify what it is. I would rate this product a 7 overall.