Do you know that 90 percent of end users won’t use a self-service analytics solution if it’s not as fast as Google? They don’t have a big attention span. Google trained them to expect data called from around the world instantly, according to Wayne Eckerson.
An analytics solution needs to deliver data in real time without lagging or user adoption will suffer.
Wayne told software product teams at the Izenda Embedded BI User Conference that the hardest thing to get people to do is to change. By delivering BI and analytics, a software company becomes a change agent. When you introduce something new, a few folks greet it with open arms. The bulk of people will, as good corporate citizens, eventually come on board.
Executives Hold Out on Analytics Adoption
Top executives often hold out before adopting the analytics solution. Wayne, the founder and principal of the Eckerson Group, said they fight and kick and scream. For those folks, you’ll need to create a different strategy.
For an executive who wants to see the same spreadsheet that he’s been using, Eckerson said you’ll need to recreate it in a new environment. Sit down with him one on one, log on to the application and open the embedded analytics solution to show him the “spreadsheet” built in an embedded BI report. Now’s the time to show him that clicking on another button shows the exact same data in a new view or visualization. “Walk them gradually over the ledge,” adding functionality as you work with them, Wayne said.
“Walk them gradually over the ledge.”
– Wayne Eckerson
He said appealing to their heads isn’t enough. You need to appeal to their heart, giving them some emotional reason or incentive.
The last step requires a company to appeal to the herd. These workers do what everyone else is doing. “If you want to change behavior, you need to change the herd.”
Self-Service BI Without Governance Lacks Trust in Data
Power users who companies value can complicate user adoption. They generate lots of reports with no one understanding their provenance. Their zeal for self-service leaves everyone else confused.
Self-service BI without some form of governance weakens user adoption and effectiveness. Wayne said this happens because no one knows what data to trust.
Something as simple as applying a watermark to reports that have gone through governance before pushing them out to the enterprise creates a standard of quality. Once you adopt watermarks, it communicates to other users to take their reports through the process to get that watermark so other users can see the reports. The watermark communicates trust in the report.
Wayne has seen “SWAT” teams jump in when things get bogged down. Companies empower a team that may include an architect, report developer and analyst to quickly build reports and dashboards. They get quick wins that develop a feeling in the whole company on what they can do with data.
Embed Analytics Into Application Workflow to Maximize User Adoption
Izenda built its 7 Series with a modern three-tier embedded architecture that is modular, extensible, and scalable. This architecture provides flexibility when integrating analytics into existing infrastructure and application workflows, which maximizes user adoption.
lzenda’s new administrative interface lets business analysts and other non-technical users provision, join, and secure data sources, as well as create and manage roles, security, and custom relationships between multiple data sources. Data source and field name aliasing can be done in the UI.
An open ReactJS front end provides unparalleled OEM integration opportunities and makes customization and white labeling easy. It is framework agnostic, allowing for embedding of the front end in Java, .NET, and other technology stacks.
7 Series & Data
- Reports against MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Azure SQL, and Oracle databases, with support for additional data sources planned
- A Fusion driver that enables real-time analytics from multiple data sources without a data warehouse
- In-memory data blending engine for cross-database reporting
- Support for OEMs to leverage components and to build their own report parts and modules
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