Embedded analytics: the future of business intelligence

In the 21st century, business analytics are crucial. The ability to reflect on business data to find areas for improvement is a key aspect of what makes some businesses so successful.

We’ve all used some form of analytics and reporting software—usually several at a time—but the future of business intelligence, according to Logi Analytics, is in embedded analytics. In their 2016 State of Embedded Analytics Report: The Fourth Annual Executive Review of Embedded Analytics Trends and Tactics, Logi Analytics compares data collected across North America from companies using analytics and the software companies that build the applications.

Their conclusion? Analytics are increasingly crucial; embedded analytics are the future.

“For many years, I’ve been saying the future of business intelligence (BI) is embedded,” says Wayne Eckerson, business intelligence and analytics expert, speaker, and author, in the introduction to the report. “Embedded analytics closes the last mile of BI, conjoining insight and action into a single workflow. Embedded analytics helps turn BI from a reactive endeavor into a proactive one.”

Image courtesy of Logi Analytics

Traditionally, many companies are forced to exit out of their preferred business applications to access analytics. This third-party approach to BI, along with the speed with which companies can access data, have been the main barriers for client organizations with regards to business intelligence. Many analytics applications are disjointed from the primary business software; they also don’t update in real-time, so users have to wait to generate accurate reports.

The answer, says Logi Analytics, is embedded analytics. According to the report, “Embedded analytics is the integration of data analytics capabilities within business applications…embedded analytics helps users work smarter by incorporating relevant data to solve high-value business problems and create a more efficient user experience. Embedded analytics strives to bring together insight and action into the same context by integrating analytics deeper and deeper within business applications and workflows.”

The future of business intelligence is in working smarter. It’s in using software that offers these features directly within the system, so that companies never need to exit out of their software to build reports or access real-time data.

As the owners and developers of Reflex ERP software, we’re proud to have offered embedded analytics within our system since 2012. When we built the newest version of our ERP, we built business intelligence, dashboards, and predictive analytics directly into the system, so that our clients never have to worry about using third-party applications to generate reports and analyze data.

Based on Logi Analytics’ Embedded Analytics Maturity Model (shown below), our Reflex ERP software offers Infused Analytics, which are embedded directly within the core workflows and application functionality of the software.

Image courtesy of Logi Analytics

The need for modern, embedded analytics stems not only from businesses needing to access comprehensive data in real-time, but also as a way for them to increase overall revenue by directly accessing and addressing the company’s pain points.

“73 percent of commercial ISVs and SaaS providers who infuse analytics in their applications strongly agree embedded analytics helps them increase revenue.” – 2016 State of Embedded Analytics Report

Thanks to this report, we can see that ERP systems featuring embedded analytics are more accessible and provide more value for modern-day companies than third-party or add-on business intelligence applications.

Further predictions for the future of business software included within the report were self-service analytics reporting and predictive analytics. We’re proud to offer both within our next generation Reflex ERP, along with fully embedded infused analytics, so that each of our clients can enjoy access to the business intelligence of the future.

Read the full Logi Analytics report here.

Learn more about Reflex Analytics here.

*This article was originally posted by Al Muirhead on LinkedIn Pulse.