Write-back refers to the ability for end-users to change and update values and text in a data source database. If a business intelligence dashboard allows a user to write-back, then the appropriate metrics will be displayed as editable fields – otherwise they appear as standard.

Write-back has limited adoption among BI end-users and as a result, many business intelligence tools do not natively support it as a feature. This is because BI tools focus more on reporting rather than the more technical arenas of data integration or data warehousing.

Currently, Yellowfin supports write-back in two ways.

1. From a data preparation perspective, our Data Transformation Flows allow users to write data back into their databases and tables through ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capability.

2. From a perspective of action at the point of analytics, write-back is also supported via Code Mode and Action Buttons; for example, if the end-user has a chart or report with a button, they can click on it and it will write the results of that report, or that particular row, or column value into the target of choice – such as creating a campaign automatically in Salesforce through the API from a campaign report in Yellowfin.