More and more customers want access to powerful analytics, usually from within your application or product. And having the ability to deliver data in a visually compelling way - think rich charts, killer dashboards and easy to understand reports - in your software application, can easily set you apart from the rest.
In the past, visual reporting capabilities were only available for those who could afford to build complex (and expensive) data warehouses, typically Fortune 500 companies. But now, thanks to the growing market and demand for embedded analytics, anyone looking to incorporate data visualizations into their daily workflows can actually make it happen.
What Exactly is Embedded Analytics?
When it comes to exploratory data analysis and visualization, let’s face it, business applications have always come up short. Sometimes, advanced reporting capabilities are needed and an Excel export from your CRM will no longer cut it.
And not only is the demand for more visual and interactive data increasing, but now users expect analytics to be seamlessly integrated into the applications they’re currently using. This is where embedded analytics come in.
Defined, embedded analytics is the amalgamation of analytic content into business software, including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), marketing automation and financial systems.
This integration allows users to easily access BI tools during daily workflows. Which means you have real-time access to relevant information and data, so you can work smarter and more efficiently day to day.
Generally speaking, embedded analytics are usually developed by BI vendors and are typically used by independent software vendors (but not just ISVs, there are other business applications too).
What Types of Analytics Can Be Embedded?
There are several analytic applications that can be embedded within your software or product:
- Data visualizations and dashboards: charts and graphs that easily display performance metrics
- Interactive reporting: enables users to do various types of data discovery and analysis
- Mobile reporting: allows interactive functionality on mobile devices while leveraging capabilities specific to mobile devices
- Visual workflows: incorporating transactional capabilities directly within the analytic user interface, sometimes referred to as write-back
- Self-service analytics and reports: enables users to create ad-hoc reports and their own data discovery
- Predictive analytics: forecast trends and outcomes on the basis of historical data instead of just describing the data
What Are the Benefits of Embedded Analytics?
In order to meet the growing demand of creating useful, immersive products to keep end users happy, application teams are turning to embedded analytics. Some of the key benefits of embedding analytics include:
- Increased End-User Adoption Rate: adoption of standalone self-service tools has stayed around 20 percent for the past three years, while adoption of embedded analytics is higher than ever this year - 60 percent. Whether a commercial software or an internal application for employees, developer teams know that embedded analytics solves the adoption challenges that have cursed traditional BI tools.
- A Bigger Competitive Edge: according to the 2018 State of Embedded Analytics Report, 92 percent of respondents report an increase in differentiation because of embedded analytics. Most companies also saw benefits in reducing customer churn (90 percent) and improving win rates (91 percent). (And yes, we did link to one of our competitors website, we love their research, but we still think Yurbi is a better option for you and don't mind you researching both to find out 😀)
- More Available Development Resources: self-service analytics empowers users to get the information they need, without sending ad-hoc requests to your application teams or IT departments. Reduced number of ad-hoc requests means your developers time can be focused on the core business.
- Increased Value of the Application: 51 percent of survey respondents indicated that their applications’ value was a result of embedded analytics. Even more interesting was that 68 percent also said they were able to charge more for their products because of the increased value that embedded analytics brought.
- Improved UX: a successful application starts with a great user experience. When it comes to embedded analytics, 94 percent of respondents say it improves their customer satisfaction while 93 percent agree that it improves the overall user experience for their application.
Exploring Data in a Better Way
Users want to see data analytics in a way that is relevant and useful to their daily tasks, from within the applications they use. They don’t necessarily need to see a high-level view of all the information across the entire business, and they certainly don’t want to navigate between your application and a separate tool. With embedded analytics, your end users gain the ability to explore their data in a better way, where they can work more efficiently day to day, as well as gain actionable insights.
Want to learn more? Request a live demo of Yurbi today and see how to integrate your data in the places where your users need it most.