Wayne Eckerson said the future is data, and for software vendors, it’s an imperative.
The founder and principal of the Eckerson Group told software product teams at the Izenda Embedded BI Conference that data is what drives products today – and it’s driving the economy.
Customers now expect analytics within their key business applications. That BI solution needs to fit in their application’s workflow.
“A software company needs to decide whether to build a BI solution in-house or to buy it from a company like Izenda,” he said.
Just before Eckerson made his presentation at the user conference, Izenda announced the release of our 7 Series™ self-service business intelligence and analytics platform for OEM use by software companies and solutions providers.
Get a free demo of Izenda’s 7 Series, purpose-built for embedding analytics.
Eckerson likes Izenda’s emphasis on embedded analytics. And he suggested that software companies choose embedded analytics. Software companies that embed analytics have found what he calls the killer app to integrate inside their applications.
Software companies need to know their goals for implementing a BI and analytics solution. Are they trying to catch up to the competition? Or are they looking to add features to their core application? If embedded analytics gives them a market edge, should they raise prices?
Once they set goals, Eckerson recommends that software companies know their users to make analytics a success. Keep in mind that job descriptions for casual users don’t usually include analytics. But casual users make up at least 60 percent of their customers’ companies.
Casual users need what Eckerson calls “silver service.” These users want reports and dashboards tailored to their jobs delivered on a silver platter. The software vendor needs to know them and to understand what they are trying to do and design tools to meet those needs.
Software product teams can use Izenda’s self-service BI platform to create basic reports and dashboards common to their customers and industries. This gets these casual users started. It speeds user adoption by showing them the value of analytics and teaching them how it works and within their application.
“In this data-driven world, if you don’t use data to help make decisions, you are running your company blind,” Eckerson said.
The rare data scientist can mine data to tease out nuggets of information that can save millions. But the typical end user can help a company save money daily if given access to self-service BI and analytics. Every piece of insight they gain through analyzing the data enables them to make business decisions for the benefit of the company. An embedded analytics solution like Izenda’s 7 Series offers the self-service end users need to do this.
Eckerson said users need an analytics tool that’s easy enough to use and that an administrator can tailor to their use. He said granular permissions – the ability to turn off and on based on user roles – are important. This ability assures that one end user’s mistake will not share sensitive information with unauthorized users, or even mess up the whole company’s reports.
Izenda’s 7 Series includes an administrative UI that can be managed by business analysts. This makes data connections and user role setup simple tasks that won’t need IT staff or developer involvement.
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