Business intelligence (BI) is in a constantly evolving state where best practices are highly flexible. Right now, a hot topic is embedded BI and analytics. BI software has become almost a staple in any data-centric company regardless of size. Big or small, startup or well-rooted enterprise, the idea that data is power has finally begun to stick, and having quality tools to make this happen has become a Business priority.
With this new perspective, the days of simply buying a dashboard reporting software are coming to a close, and they’re being replaced with advanced, integrated reporting and analytics. In other words, the era of embedded BI has arrived.
Also called embedded analytics, embedded BI is the addition of features you’d normally see in the usual BI software like analytic tools and dashboard reporting or current applications. Businesses can achieve this via developing embedded BI in-house or by buying embedding software. Both solutions can work great, but most organizations don’t have the expertise to build embedded BI in-house. Outsourcing your software development is another option increasing in popularity.
A savvy software developer will starting honing his or her embedded BI development skills immediately—or at the very least, start freshening up on the management of such software. The value and power of data is becoming well-known in circles outside niches, and gathering data has become incredibly simple. The surge of big data led to organizations getting accustomed to having data at their fingertips and figuring out how important it is to actually analyze and utilize. Software that automates and organizes data collection is a given now in many companies.
The rise of big data also led to the realization that while raw data is better than no data, “crunched” data that’s been cleaned and analyzed is a lot better. Crunching is, of course, handled by BI software.
Embedding an analytics platform inside the application that’s actually collecting the data is best. It simplifies the entire process, negating the need to switch back and forth between various platforms. “Organizations require support for different delivery models such as Web delivery, report bursting, or different file formats provided in a secure method often with different user access levels,” wrote Jinfonet’s Dean Yao in a recent column.
One impressive piece of embed-friendly BI software that recently launched is Sisense’s BI Bots framework.
