Why Should My Business Adopt Embedded BI and Analytics?
There are many reasons to consider adding embedded BI to your enterprise technology landscape. When you are making a critical business decision, one of the factors you probably include is how your competitors and other businesses are addressing the problems you are trying to solve. When making a decision about Embedded BI consider these survey results. Businesses that are currently using embedded BI within their enterprise, report the following:
Add Mobile BI for Your Team and Improve Access, Analytics and Business Decisions!
Recent surveys reveal that the mobile BI market is growing by leaps and bounds. Of those surveyed, over 35% of companies said that mobile BI is in use among their business users. While some businesses have yet to adopt BI tools or augmented analytics for their business users, many have done so, and are now in the process of adding mobile BI to the set of tools available to users. There is no doubt that the COVID pandemic affected this strategy, since many businesses are now embracing a full-time or a hybrid remote work environment that requires team members to have access to tools from wherever they are working.
The Client is India’s largest omni-channel jewelry brand, and is recognized and renowned by India consumers. The Client has 165 retail stores in 66+ cities across India, as well as a thriving jewelry eCommerce presence online. Its product line includes rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, chains, bangles, bracelets, mangalsutra, and nose pins, as well as 22k (916) and 24k (995) gold coins with certification and BIS Hallmark stamp guarantee. The Client customer base is growing rapidly, and to attract and retain customers, the business provides new designs and uses a mobile application to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar stores and the virtual world. The mobile app provides a Virtual Try-On feature that allows customers to ‘try on’ jewelry and designs using a virtual reflection and image.
Is it the Right Time for My Business to Initiate a Citizen Data Scientist Program?
Whether you are a business owner, a business executive or a business manager, or you just like to keep up with industry trends, you no doubt have read about the transition of business users to Citizen Data Scientists. The topic has been in industry journals and publications for years, and it is still relevant today.
The Client is a global business governed by a foundation whose mission is to have a meaningful social impact, both for patients and for a sustainable world. With its unique governance model, the Client business can fully serve its vocation with a long-term vision and fulfil its commitment to therapeutic progress and to serving patient needs. The company has grown exponentially, first across France and then throughout the world, driven by the transformation of the business.
Mobile BI Tools Support Citizen Data Scientists and All Team Members With Access to Critical Data!
When a business takes on a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it must provide the tools and techniques the business user will need to support the new role. Augmented Analytics is key – with features and tools that make it easy to integrate, find, analyze and share data across the enterprise.
Gartner has predicted that, ‘90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency.’
If your organization is doing it right, the Citizen Data Scientist initiative will incorporate support to change the culture, to update the employee evaluation process to encourage the use of analytics and fact-based decision-making, and other factors that influence user adoption and enable the business to move forward with a team alignment.
But one thing many businesses fail to consider is the need for these tools outside the walls of the office environment. If the global pandemic taught us anything is that many employees were forced to work at home or in settings outside the typical office facility. Today, many companies have embraced this concept on a long-term basis, allowing their employees to work from home, or in remote group locations. But even if your business is situated in one more office buildings or store fronts, the chances are good that your team members spend a certain amount of time working outside the office, after hours, on weekends, etc.
‘Mobile BI tools provide the support for your Citizen Data Scientists, data scientists, business analysts, team members, executives, and managers so that every business user can access and analyze data, share, and collaborate.’
Teams today are asked to do more with less and, as work hours expand, and the expectations of businesses change, the team must adapt. Managers, executives, IT teams and others find themselves in situations where they must check the status of a project, approve a purchase or resource acquisition, communicate with a team and assess the need to make changes – the list goes on and on!
Mobile BI tools provide the support for your Citizen Data Scientists, data scientists, business analysts, team members, executives, and managers so that every business user can access and analyze data, share, and collaborate and make decisions on the fly, in a staff meeting, in an airport or hotel, or at home.
To ensure that you choose the right tools for your Citizen Data Scientists, look for a Mobile Business Intelligence solution that offers the following features and functionality:
Native app, with seamless user interface for a great user experience (Ux). Available for iOS and Android
Extends the office environment. Allows swift analysis and decisions from anywhere
Encourages user adoption and provides support for BI investments and data democratization
Access rights are defined on the server so security and privacy is ensured at all levels
Hosted anywhere within IT infrastructure – on premises, public or private cloud
Business Users have access to dashboards, reports, Clickless Analytics – Google-type Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search functionality
Start-up is easy, within a few minutes and support is readily available
‘One thing many businesses fail to consider is the need for BI tools outside the walls of the office environment.’
If you want to support your Citizen Data Scientists and every member of your business user team, explore Smarten Mobile Augmented Analytics And Mobile BI. Add powerful functionality and access for your business users with out-of-the-box Mobile BI and advanced analytics for every team member. For more information on Mobile BI and Augmented Analytics, read our article, ‘Understanding The Truth About Mobile BI.’
The Client is among the top five Food and Beverage (F&B) companies in India with a chain of several leading restaurant brands, and is known for being a trailblazer in its field.
The Client is the largest global manufacturer of Air Coolers. The Client is an India-based Multi-National Company with a presence in over sixty (60) countries. As the market leader, this enterprise enjoys a prime position in the residential, industrial and commercial market segments and its brand is considered synonymous with cooling products in the global market. The Client is a market disrupter in what is a diverse and poorly organized sector and it has set the market benchmark with 201 trademarks, 64 registered designs, 15 copyrights and 48 patents, thereby setting the gold standard for air cooling in the global market.
Select the Right BI Tools and Succeed with Data Democratization!
Do you know what Data Democratization is? It’s simple, really. Data Democratization is the purposeful approach to cascading and integrating data into the daily workflow of business users to provide access to crucial information and the tools to analyze and understand that data and use it to make confident decisions. Instead of holding data in silos that are only accessible to IT, business analysts, data scientists and management, the enterprise recognizes the value of providing team members with the right information to do their job and contribute to the bottom line.
‘To succeed in data democratization, you need BI tools that provide data analytics access for all business users.’
Gartner predicts that, ‘75% of organizations will…deploy…multiple data hubs to drive mission-critical data and analytics sharing and governance.’ The key here is the ‘analytics sharing’ piece of the statement!
In order to fulfill the promise of this approach, your enterprise must employ business intelligence solutions that are easy-to-use and designed for business users, without advanced technical skills or advanced analytical skills. These tools allow your team members to engage in analytics and enjoy data democratization without the frustration of leveraging solutions designed for data scientists or IT staff.
Here are a few considerations to give you an idea of the kinds of things you will need to support your data democratization initiative. These factors are crucial to success, as they ensure that your users can and will adopt the BI tools you select to enjoy the new data access you have given them. Without these, you run the risk of spending the time and money to provide access and achieving poor return on investment (ROI) because of poor user adoption.
Embedded BI – By embedding business intelligence into the enterprise apps your users love, you can encourage data democratization and analytics in a single sign-on environment. Users do not have to sign in to multiple systems or move data around. They can start with the data within the ERP, HR, Finance or other system and perform analysis from within that system. Make it as easy as you can, and users will be happy!
Mobile BI – Don’t make your users sit at their desk in an office to use the BI tools. Make these tools accessible from the office and on the road, at home and in a client location or hotel. If you want your users to see the value in data democratization and you want to achieve your goals for this initiative, you must give your users the tools they need WHEN THEY NEED those tools.
Business Intelligence with Seamless User Access and Security – Data democratization does NOT mean throwing caution to the wind. Data must still be secured and accessible to users for the things they need to see, but not for the things they are not eligible to see and not in an environment where data security and privacy are at risk. To democratize your data, you must also ensure data governance, security and access standards and requirements are met.
Natural Language Processing – Make the augmented analytics and BI tools intuitive. Democratized data is no good if the users need an advanced degree to access the data. Natural Language Processing (NLP) allows your users to access data in a familiar way, with a Google-type search interface where they can ask questions using regular language and receive answers in a way that is easy to understand. If they can search, query and find information easily, they are more likely to a) use the system and b) understand the information they produce and make the right decisions.
Tools Designed Specifically for Business Users – The solution you select should be designed for business users, not for data scientists, business analysts, IT or statisticians. While you want the data democratization initiative to expand the skills and knowledge of your team, you do not want them to need advanced skills or training. Select a system that can be adopted and used within minutes – not months. Users want sophisticated functionality in an easy-to-use environment. That is important!
‘If you want your data democratization initiative to succeed, select tools that allow your team members to engage in analytics without the frustration of leveraging solutions designed for data scientists or IT staff.’
There are other considerations but, if you address the ones we have highlighted in this article, you will be well on your way to achieving your data democratization goals and ensuring that your users adopt the solution you select.
BI Tools should provide data analytics access for all business users. Simple, Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.
Don’t Be Daunted by the Challenges of BI Tools. Self-Serve BI is the Answer!
Gartner research reveals that, ‘90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency.’ As business professionals, we all know that information is power and today, your business users are expected to know more and to keep pace with industry, market and customer changes that will negatively impact the business or have provide potential opportunities. But how do your team members achieve these goals when they are busier than ever, and the changes are coming more rapidly than ever!
‘Simple, self-serve BI tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your goals with features and tools like Social BI, Mobile BI, Embedded BI, etc.’
In this article, we will discuss the topic of modern business intelligence tools and solutions and the advantages of providing self-serve tools to your users for day-to-day analysis and intelligence gathering.
First, let’s look at some of the challenges you will need to consider when implementing self-serve BI tools:
Challenges of Self-Serve BI
Technology Access and Infrastructure Readiness – Your IT, finance and management teams will need a comprehensive understanding of your current technology and infrastructure, the data hubs, data warehouses and software solutions (legacy, best-of-breed, ERP, etc.) that will provide the foundational data for your users. You will need a plan and a roadmap to integrate these into your business intelligence strategy. A modern, seamless BI solution can provide a simple solution for what might otherwise be a challenging situation. If you can easily integrate your data sources and make them available for data gathering and analytics, your users can leverage the data to report, share and collaborate.
Team Member Adoption and Understanding – Your team will also need an understanding of the average technology skills of your business users and their willingness to adopt new tools and solutions. If your team members perceive that your BI tools are difficult to use, or if they are not educated on the need for and the benefits of self-serve business intelligence, they are unlikely to adopt the new tools. If, on the other hand, they see the value to their role and how it can make them more productive and streamline their work process; if they see that the solution is easy and intuitive to use, your business is less likely to face the challenges of team reluctance.
There are many other challenges and considerations that should inform your BI tools strategy, but these two are perhaps the most important.
Now, let’s consider some of the many benefits of self-serve business intelligence and how it can support your goals and simplify the lives of your business users:
Benefits of Self-Serve BI
Social BI – Social BI allows users to champion the use of business intelligence. Power users and those who are curious by nature will create reports, share and collaborate, using easy-to-use tools and thereby encourage others to use the tools and to repurpose report formats etc. to achieve their own goals. Social BI allows business users to share, ‘like’ and perform tasks in a way that is similar to social networking and is therefore popular among business users.
Mobile BI – Today’s team members often work remotely, or spend a lot of time on the road. By providing self-serve business intelligence that is intuitive to use and accessible on Android and iOS devices, the business can ensure that users will have seamless access and can accomplish tasks, search for information, share and collaborate, without missing a beat!
Data Democratization and Data Literacy – If you want your team members to grow and add more value, you want to encourage data literacy and ensure data democratization. Move away from restricted data access and sole ownership of analytics by data scientists, IT and business analysts. Provide easy-to-use tools that allow for simple search analytics in a Google-type environment and will make it easier for reluctant business users to embrace your new BI solution and develop new data analytics skills they can use for fact-based decisions.
User Adoption – There is nothing more frustrating than spending the time and money to implement a new solution, only to find that your users are resistant to using that solution. With true self-serve BI tools and intuitive data visualization, reporting, analytics and access, users will want to adopt the tools and share their discoveries with other team members.
Embedded BI – If you want to leverage existing technology, improve your Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for your current solutions and infrastructure, consider that self-serve BI tools can be embedded into existing solutions. With embedded BI with Integration APIs, users can leverage familiar, favorite software solutions in a single sign-on environment, and find information within those solutions without having to learn complicated new techniques or fighting with data silos and transferring data from one place to another.
There are many other advantages to Self-Serve Business Intelligence. This short list should give you some ideas of how you can leverage these tools in your own business landscape.
‘As business professionals, we all know that information is power and today, your business users are expected to know more and to keep pace with industry, market and customer changes that will negatively impact the business or have provide potential opportunities.’
Business Intelligence solutions should include tools and techniques that make it easier to achieve data literacy and provide data analytics access to all business users. Simple, self-serve BI tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your goals with features and tools like Social BI, Mobile BI, Embedded BI, etc. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.
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