So, you’re distributing your product, sales are going great, development is working hard on improvements or sequel products – it is all business as usual. Well, have you thought about analytics?
No, we don’t mean just basic charts and visualizations showcasing your data, we’re talking about advanced data analytics, including machine learning, forecasts, pattern matching, etc. But it would cost so much time and effort, you may reply. Well, that’s why we’re here to tell you about embedded analytics and how combining them with your current setup will enhance your business greatly.
Embedded Analytics in Business
Definition
First off, let’s begin with the obvious question – what are embedded analytics? Well, suppose we want to give a textbook answer. In that case, we’d have to say it’s the act of taking data, managed and aggregated by a BI platform, and placing it within the user interface of an application or product with the intent of improving decision-making and data usability.
And suppose that definition confused you more than anything else. In that case, you can just think of it as the integration of reports, dashboards, visualizations, and other BI features inside an application, product, or website.
No matter which definition you go with, it all concludes that embedded analytics help transfer data and insights to the place users need them most and where they can be used to generate more insights and improve key actions.
However, it’s not just about making those colorful and interactive visualizations and dashboards available, it’s also great for introducing more advanced data analytics features like forecasts, multivariate testing, machine learning, and much more.
Driving Factors
So, what are the main driving factors that push companies to consider embedded analytics solutions? The answer is actually simpler than you may think – to improve the company’s user experience for the offered service or product and to further increase its adoption, retention, and satisfaction. Of course, that’s not everything, but many of the other reasons tend to relate back to this main one for the most part.
You may hear a business say that they wish to gain a competitive advantage over their competition through product differentiation or that they want to branch out into new revenue streams. But, in the end, all of this boils down to enhancing the service or product to meet the growing demand for data analytics.
General Benefits of Embedded Analytics
Alright, so we covered definitions, purpose, and driving factors, so all that’s left now is to tell you about the benefits. They usually vary depending on the approach to take – building or buying. If you choose to build your own embedded analytics, then you’ll have total control, customization, and security; however, you’ll also need to always have developers on hand to help maintain your solution and servers.
See how embedded analytics helped four businesses achieve their KPIs.
So, if your business can handle the additional costs that come with this approach and you really need something custom and unique, then, by all means, go for it; you’ll do great!
However, you would do well to consider purchasing and embedding third-party software within your systems. “Why?” you may ask. Well, the benefits are quite tantalizing:
- Cost predictability – know just how much finances to set aside without worrying about any unexpected costs popping up
- Higher and faster ROI – costs are lower when going for a SaaS approach, so a faster and higher return on investments is achieved
- Accelerate development and time to market – by purchasing an established software or platform, you’ll be up and running in no time
- Free resources from support and maintenance – benefit from the ongoing support and updates from the BI platform vendor while staying focused on your own product or service
- Product “stickiness” – as users utilize your product or service they collect and store a lot of useful data making it harder for them to want to switch to something else
- Peace of mind – don’t worry about keeping up with industry standards
Qlik Benefits of Embedded Analytics
That last part about peace of mind is actually more important than you may think. As soon as a feature becomes an industry standard, it’s observed in all the big BI platforms. So, if your business is going for a “build” approach, that means acting quick or losing out on potential clients. Well, in the spirit of pushing your company to the forefront, we thought we’d recommend a leading platform to go for – Qlik.
Qlik is designed to accommodate embedded analytics in any product or service. The reason for its seamless integration is its powerful open APIs. You can connect to various different platforms, applications, and websites and make web mashups of all the necessary data. This is incredibly useful for companies with a large product portfolio of integrated parts.
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) businesses, for example, benefit so much from this since their products are often embedded in others anyway. But you don’t necessarily need to be an OEM company to find benefits in Qlik’s embedded analytics.
In fact, remember those general benefits we mentioned earlier? Well, Qlik provides them and more. Here are just a few of the highlights:
– Self-Service Reporting – reduce the reliance on IT support by enabling users to find insights and answers via intuitive, drag-and-drop reporting UIs. With a report and dashboard design environment made to empower users, they can get what they need without waiting for other teams to provide those unique custom embedded analytics.
– Improved Customer Experience – for companies with internal or commercial applications, embedded analytics means your users can get the answers they need without switching away from your product or service. This leads to increased productivity and an improved customer experience.
– Increased Revenue – embedded analytics can provide an additional revenue stream for companies who implement it in their commercial products or services. Businesses can charge for enabling custom reports, and, in fact, using embedded analytics in an application can increase the value per user by up to 1,250 percent.
Successful Implementations
We talked enough about the benefits of the embedded analytics solutions and platforms, but you may still be on the fence about utilizing them in your business. So, let’s talk about a few companies that successfully implemented analytics within their products and systems. Hopefully, that will give you a better idea of the kind of heights your business can reach with a bit of imagination, ingenuity, and analytics.
Sensormatic
Sensormatic manufactures and sells electronic article surveillance equipment. They have installed over 150,000 sensors that track the habits of around 40 billion shoppers around the world. Their product started as a somewhat simple device that would count the number of people who entered and exited a store, but with the help of data analytics, they managed to turn it into a product that any retail business owner would want.
In short, they were already an OEM company, but when they embedded OEM analytics within their internal systems and within the product itself, their performance and business reached new heights. Sensormatic was able to provide its clients with more valuable insights than the initial traffic numbers, like determining the optimal times to restock and do maintenance or providing store layout suggestions with detailed heatmap reports.
Lazada
The next example comes from Lazada – a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia that has managed to connect that whole region through its technology, logistics, and payment capabilities. So, even online retailers can benefit from embedded analytics solutions. But how exactly, you may ask.
Well, by integrating data analytics, they’re able to measure the results of their marketing promotions and create targeted campaigns for various shopper segments. They also effortlessly analyze and re-evaluate their entire supply chain if any merchant has delivery issues. All this data isn’t just being utilized in some headquarters; rather, with the help of embedded analytics and its open APIs, it’s being extended to its seller ecosystem as well.
Symphony Health
And finally, we wanted to mention Symphony Health – a leading provider of healthcare information in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. It provides healthcare professionals with comprehensive data through its Vantage application, which helps them understand the complete market lifecycle of pharmaceutical therapies.
In fact, the app offers insights into so many processes like physician prescribing, payer reimbursement, sales compensation, and much more. It’s also equipped with the most sought-after features in the advanced data analytics suite, like predictive analytics and natural language processing. And with the help of embedded analytics, they’re able to get the right data to the right people at the right time so they can react accordingly.
By integrating those more advanced features into their app, they’re allowing their customers to easily evaluate payers, marketers, and even the current competitive landscape to better forecast and plan ahead.
Conclusion
It’s clear that embedded analytics can offer your business so much more than just raw statistics and visualizations. Naturally, enhancing your product or service will come at a cost, but at least now you’re familiar with all the benefits you can attain by either buying or building your own solution.
And if you need to consult with someone on the best approach for your company, you can be sure that B EYE will always be here for you, whether you just want to talk or straight up start implementing.
