As you can probably guess by the name, embedded analytics integrate directly into existing workflows and applications — as opposed to requiring users to access a separate program or interface to work with data. Almost three-fourths (73 percent) of organizations believe it’s important to use embedded reporting solutions within other systems, according to a study cited by Digitalist Mag. Why? Here are just four advantages of embedded data analytics to consider.
Puts Data Where People Spend Time
As Techopedia outlines, the advantage of embedded analytics is that users can get insights and closely track performance without having to switch between apps.
The more convenient your company can make analytics, the higher adoption rates you’ll see. Putting data tools and insights where people already spend time increases the likelihood they’ll engage with data in a meaningful way. It’s the opposite of the saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Bringing data directly to people — rather than making them hunt it down manually in a separate interface — makes it more convenient to access to stay abreast of the latest metrics.
Gives Instant Insights to Customers
Besides giving employees quick, convenient access to data, embedded analytics can also connect customers with insights.
British Telecom provides its B2B customers with access to search-driven analytics from ThoughtSpot. This means business customers are able to analyze their bills and identify which service plan will give them the best performance for the price. So, instead of more than a million business customers needing to contact BT customer service every time they have a question, they’re empowered to ask questions through data analytics embedded right into the company website. BT customers can also generate custom analytics dashboards displaying the key performance indicators (KPIs) most important to their operations.
Other organizations are utilizing embedded analytics to provide quick data access to widespread customer bases — it’s a move that goes a long way toward alleviating customer service concerns and offering greater value to patrons.
Boosts Potential for Collaboration
There’s no excuse for everyone not to be on the same page with embedded analytics in the picture. Everyone should be up to date on the latest KPIs and trends if they have such easy and pervasive access to data within their already existing workflows.
Say a marketing manager pulls some surprising insights about product performance and wants to share them with members of the marketing and sales teams. Instead of having to wait for a meeting to share said insight, or copying everyone on a clunky email chain, this manager can instantly pin the insight to a collective dashboard.
If your company has hundreds or thousands of employees, seamless collaboration can be a challenge. Embedded analytics can help teams save time, money and hassle by allowing users instant access to the same data insights — which paves the way for more informed decision-making across the board.
Helps Promote a Data Culture
Becoming a data-driven culture requires more than just deploying some new business intelligence tools and calling it a day. What really matters is how people inside and outside your organization are using those tools — as well as how often and how easily they do so.
Embedded analytics can infuse portals and applications with analytics in a few different forms: as a search-driven analytics tool (like a search engine but for data), as interactive charts, as entire in-depth dashboards or as entire portals powered by data APIs. This encourages people to think of data as an inherent, integrated part of doing business rather than a separate — and optional — function.
At the end of the day, the capability to embed analytics into familiar workflows can increase adoption rates, encourage collaboration, contribute to a data-driven culture and provide customers and employees with instant insights when they need them most.