Izenda Embedded Analytics and Technology Blog

Mar 23
0

Leveraging BI to Maintain Competitive Edge

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud
Izenda Tech Blog logoIf you are following the business intelligence space, it seems that there are new surveys every week confirming the growing use of BI in a competitive landscape.

Whether the research comes from academia, research analysts, consultants, large enterprise solutions providers or smaller BI vendors, it all points in the same direction: We live in a fast-paced, data-driven world. Those organizations who don’t keep up will be left behind.

A global report from the consulting company Capgemini is one of the latest in a massive deluge of studies, which reflect this acceleration of data growth and the business world’s attempts to keep pace with it. Their survey found that 64 percent of enterprises in North and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific believe that big data is changing traditional business boundaries. It also found:

  • 58% expect to face increased competition from start-ups enabled by data
  • 24% of companies report disruption from new competitors moving into their industry

Read More

Mar 16
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Security Worries Hold Back Cloud BI Adoption

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud

Izenda Tech Blog logoUser adoption of cloud business intelligence tools has jumped over the past three years and will continue to grow, but it’s clear that many organizations are still slow to take the leap because of security concerns even if they’re unfounded, according to multiple observers.

SearchBusinessAnalytics recently explored that hesitation in an interview with Howard Dresner, founder, president and chief research officer at consultancy Dresner Advisory Services. His company has conducted an annual Wisdom of Crowds Cloud Business Intelligence Market Study since 2012.

The article points out the Dresner survey found nearly two-third of the vendors consider cloud BI “critically important” to their businesses. However, more than half of them have no plans for cloud deployments. Read More

Mar 13
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Millennials Ready for Modern BI Platforms

By | BI Innovation
Untitled-12015 is the year when the millennial generation – age 18 to 34 — will surpass the baby-boom generation in total population. Their impact is increasingly felt in popular culture and in the workplace.

Fortune’s latest ranking of the best companies to work for is filled with companies providing perks, a corporate culture and an environment shaped by the wants and needs of millennials. While companies looking to attract talent are changing the physical environment of offices, managers are trying to ensure that software provides the user experience that millennials expect.

According to the Pew Research Center, millennials are true “digital natives.” They grew up with digital technology, not having to adapt as have GenXers and Boomers. They have always had information available to them in real-time, on the device or devices of their choosing. They expect to be able to control how they consume and explore information and easily share insights with others. Read More

Mar 09
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BYOD and Self-Service BI: Empowering End-Users

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Izenda Reports, Technology, The Cloud

Close-up-of-businessman-using-tablet-computer-smDid you BYOD to work today? BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, has been evolving as a business practice since at least 2009 in many industries. The idea of employees using their own laptops, tablets or cellphones for work has many supporters and many skeptics, especially those worried about security.

Regardless of viewpoint, BYOD is here to stay. A November 2014 study from Tech Pro Research found 74 percent of responding companies permit or plan to permit BYOD. Their study also looked into the impact wearables and the IoT (Internet of Things) are having on BYOD policies. Read More

Mar 06
0

Consumerized BI Drives User Adoption

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology

Main-File2In July 2011, Gartner released a report “The Consumerization of BI Drives Greater Adoption.” Its main focus, the thinking at that time, was that business-intelligence tools were too difficult to use, slow to respond or didn’t deliver relevant content. A key sentence from Gartner’s press release: “BI users want to be able to just pick up and use the technology — they don’t want to have to read the manual.”

Today, Gartner, Gigaom Research, Forrester and others are all focusing on the benefits of self-service BI. Gigaom, in a recent white paper underwritten by Izenda, explored the importance of embedding BI tools inside applications. “Reporting and analytics must be embedded inside applications and end-users must be able to use their interfaces not just for running reports, but for designing them,” analyst George Anadiotis wrote.

It’s no surprise that end-users, whether digital natives or older consumers weaned on Amazon, Google and Facebook, have high expectations that the applications they use at work are modern, portable and easy-to-use. In a data-driven world, they want to create their own reports, dashboards and visualizations when they want it, where they want it and on whatever device they are using. Read More

Feb 25
1

Gartner Confirms Move to Self-Service BI

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology

Gartner this week released its annual Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms research, and we’re excited by one of its key findings. ByMonitor-Mockup2 2017, Gartner said the majority of business users and analysts will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis.

Sound familiar? It should. Izenda has been offering self-service business-intelligence software since its inception. The move to self-service tools should not be a surprise to any organization who has embedded Izenda’s reports, dashboards, and visualizations. Their users already know the value of self-service BI.

“We are thrilled to see user-driven, self-service data discovery predicted to become mainstream in 2017,” Sanjay Bhatia, Izenda’s founder and CEO, said. “We think that most embedding strategies are incomplete. While many providers position their products as ’embedded BI’, their solutions routinely don’t go far enough.” Read More

Feb 23
1

Moving Data Beyond A ‘Faster Horse’

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, Technology, Tips

Izenda Tech Blog logoThere is an often misused quote attributed to Henry Ford, although there is no evidence he actually said it. “If I had asked the people what they wanted, they would’ve said faster horses,” the old saying goes.

That sentence prompts a lot of discussion in business and marketing circles. Many people dismiss it, suggesting it claims organizations shouldn’t look to their customers for answers or solutions to problems. Others contend the “quote” was about not just listening but understanding your customer’s needs and asking the right questions.

Look at the phrase through the world of business intelligence and it takes a different twist. Shaun Connelly of Teradata did so in a recent blog:

“Business people can generally tell you what they want, but struggle to know or communicate what they need. To be successful, Business and IT need to collaborate, spar a little bit and figure out what’s possible in terms of objectives, analysis, and actions to drive specific results.” Read More

Feb 20
1

Five Key Features Your Application Needs

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud, Tips

Izenda Tech Blog logoBusiness application-users need and expect fast, real-time business intelligence. In the past, traditional reporting methods required waiting for IT to run a report that might take days to receive. In considering an embedded self-service BI solution, here are five key features your application needs:

Flexible Fields. It’s not enough to custom-build reports. You have to have the capability to add or revise fields, and your reports and dashboards have to change in real-time, and not require waiting for IT help. Read More

Feb 18
1

Finding the Long Tail of BI in Your Company

By | BI Innovation, Big Data, Business, Customer Success, For Developers, IT and Engineering, Technology, The Cloud

For 11 years, we’ve heard the buzzword “the long tail” prominently discussed in business. First applied to companies like Amazon, the theory is that the company makes more money through the volume of sales from lesser-known books and movies over time than it does from the popular blockbusters. The long tail of the sales chart is so long that all the small sales of lesser-known products add up to something very big.

41XfrH+XPeLFormer Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson first popularized the phrase in a 2004 magazine article and expanded upon it in his 2006 book, “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.”

What does this have to do with business intelligence? Richard Back, a BI architect at IPL, makes the connection in a recent post for Tech Radar. He brings the long tail concept into the world of data and analytics. Read More