About Ken Kaczmarek

Integrating Web Services with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets

If you could have any data in your spreadsheet with a single click of the mouse, what would it be?

Data from your CRM system? Data enrichment capabilities from an API? A research list from Twitter? An on-demand, refreshable view of a corporate database? That master item file that your colleague keeps locked up in his own Excel spreadsheet?

The "Aha" Moment: How to Onboard an API Service and Get Active Users

Since the recent launch of our Flex.io data feed API, onboarding has been top of mind. There have been gallons of ink spilled over the importance of SaaS onboarding, UserOnboard’s teardowns being one of the best.

Share Data Without Sharing Credentials: Introducing Pipe-level Permissions

Throughout the Flex.io journey, we’ve often used the phrase: “Data is a Team Sport.”

More often than not data processing requires some type of hand off between an ‘owner’ and a ‘user’. For instance, a business user might need an extract from an IT-supported system. Or a consultant may need a file that is owned by her customer.

Improving Data Access: Getting Past Step One

In my previous post, I explored commonalities found in any given “data project.” Here we’ll run the first of the five gauntlets: data access.

Data Prep to Data Pipes: 5 Facets of a Data Project

At this point, we’ve all heard the news.

Data is growing at an exponential rate. Data is the new oil. Data is a strategic advantage. Data is big. Data is small. Certainly Goldilocks believes her porridge data is jusssst right.

Let a Thousand Data Silos Bloom

It’s a story as old as time. It’s a story of evolution, a story of freedom. And it’s a story of stuffing a genie back into its bottle.

Yes, I speak of the ancient enterprise battle royale: Productivity vs. Control.

These battles are constantly happening throughout the enterprise, usually with very good intentions. But, like so many good intentions, they often pave the road to, um… employee circumvention. Hey, gotta get stuff done, right?!?

Enterprise Data Projects: It Takes a Village

I recently found an article discussing the four different types of Data Scientists. Turns out there’s a quite a bit of wiggle in what the term “Data Scientist” might mean – from business savant to data viz wiz to world class coder to Ph.D. in statistics. A question is posed: