Look! Looker's come as a bot in Slack now

Looker, a data visualization and business intelligence startup has announced the integration of Lookerbot, a new component that makes it possible to access Looker data directly within Slack conversations without having to access the program separately. More often than not, communication and data have been two separate verticals. So if you need to refer to a document or share it with a colleague while chatting, you need to exit your chat, open another application and then access the document. Clearly, you are deprived of your ease of accessibility. Now Looker aims to change it all. Looker’s data platform that is built using the Slack bot technology aims to make enterprise collaboration more efficient by creating a single source of truth so that every business team can easily ask and address their own questions. By bringing real-time data into any conversation in Slack, the need to shuffle through applications in order to hunt for information would be completely eliminated. “Data has been something people do out-of-cycle. Data needs to be part of the conversation, no matter where it’s happening,” says Frank Bien, CEO of Looker.

“The world is moving on from the current swath of business intelligence tools that simply report a view of the past in a kludgy user interface. Accessing current data in collaboration tools like Slack helps everyone make better business decisions, faster. Looker’s data platform makes these conversations possible.”

Looping data into chats

Lookerbot is built using Looker’s API and SDK and is one of many integrations built on the data platform. It would allow users to define their interaction with Looker while using Slack and craft their own commands using classic Slack slash commands. What creates an edge is that the data appears in Slack as it does in Looker with a complete array of visualization types (charts, maps, and tables), including custom visualizations and colors. There’s more! The Looker Slack Bot also allows companies to tap the context around how people are using the data and that makes it really valuable. According to Bien, “The really cool thing is you have context on how data is used. I can see conversations and why they wanted data and what point of action was taken after they saw the data.” Currently free for Looker customers, the most prominent users of Looker Slack Bot include industry stalwarts like Yahoo, Warby Parker and Sony. With Slack becoming its poster child, Looker is spearheading to make data as useful as possible for enterprises through easy accessibility and smooth integration. The video above demonstrates the new tool in action.