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    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating

    Could your application benefit from instant analytics? The capability to embed business intelligence into any production application has been around for a long time, but according to a new Aberdeen report, adoption seems to be spiking as end-users now require a better understanding of their corporate and customer data.

    “Today’s companies need to quickly harness more actionable information from a potential deluge of data,” said Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile. “By making analytics available on-the-spot within familiar applications, more companies are able to derive better decisions without needing to train their workforce on new analytics software.”

    This slideshow uses results from a recent Aberdeen study to describe why embedded BI is more popular than ever and where it has become most prevalent. We also talked with Brian Gentile for more insights on where and why to use embedded BI.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 1

    Click through for more insight on the use of embedded BI, provided by Brian Gentile, CEO of Jaspersoft.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 2

    Embedded BI integrates analytics and reporting functionality into the operational applications that run your business. Some have called this operational BI or analytic applications. This integration can be accomplished in a number of ways.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 3

    Stand-alone BI (commonly associated with a data warehouse or data mart) typically runs the reports, dashboards, and analytic views outside an operational application. The results of the reports come from several application sources typically consolidated in a data warehouse. The goal and benefit of this approach is to provide a more holistic view across related data.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 4

    BI implementations often fail because the BI tools are too complicated for users and too hard to manage. Embedded BI addresses these issues because the view of data is intuitively presented directly within an end-user’s application. Business users can take advantage of their data because it’s presented logically within the application environment they are already using. Management of the BI implementation is just part of maintaining the application rather than a separate environment to manage.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 5

    In Aberdeen’s recent report “Embedded BI: Boosting Analytical Adoption and Engagement”, they found that 53 percent of the 174 respondents surveyed stated that speed of adoption and ease of deployment were the major benefits derived from embedded BI. Additional benefits included ability to tailor analytical functionality, cultural and process improvements and adding value to existing software investments.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 6

    Embedded BI is most commonly used in finance, corporate management, supply chain operations, sales operations and product/purchasing.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 7

    Companies can use the embedded BI approach to spread a more analytical mindset to more people and more areas of the company, which drives more data-driven decisions. Because employees don’t leave their application environment to analyze data, they more often trust the data and the analysis, which reduces latency in making decisions.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 8

    The top software application areas using embedded BI, per Aberdeen’s report were: CRM (65 percent), enterprise resource planning (56 percent), financial accounting software (49 percent), supply chain management (26 percent). Others included human capital management and e-commerce software.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 9

    There are three common approaches to embedded BI:

    Vendor provided: This is where embedded BI functionality is already provided within an application. With this approach, the application provider doesn’t have to build its own BI tool; rather it can choose to buy a tool from an embedded BI provider.

    Fully homegrown: BI functionality built in-house and then integrated with existing applications or application data.

    Hybrid: Pre-built BI platform or modular functionality provided and supported by an application vendor, then customized and integrated by an internal enterprise customer resource.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 10

    Typical vendor-provided BI is challenging to integrate in a seamless way into applications. The vendor provided product often has its own look-and-feel and may not be designed well for embedding (APIs, open architecture, etc.). The key is to find embeddable BI tools, designed for this purpose.

    Remember, not all application developers understand how best to incorporate reports, analysis and dashboards in their applications. They are experts in their application domains, not BI. Leveraging a BI expert (independent or vendor-services person) can really help ensure BI is incorporated into the UI and workflow of the application, which ensures adoption.

    Why Embedded BI Use Is Accelerating - slide 11

    Most companies take either a vendor-provided approach or a hybrid approach. The homegrown approach can seem less costly in the near-term than the other two approaches, but requires substantial IT expertise as well as a long-term commitment to maintain and enhance the BI functionality.

    The hybrid approach allows companies to rely on the BI vendor for maintenance, support and continued innovation, but still requires maintaining the integration of BI as their application and the BI tool evolve.

    The vendor-provided approach really requires the application developer to choose the right BI platform partner. A BI platform that is easily embedded and customized, includes the right amount of BI functionality and can scale and deliver cost-effective analytic insight can become a powerful addition to nearly any software application.

    To learn more about Embedded BI check out this eBook on the five levels of Embedded BI or Jaspersoft’s webinar on the subject.

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