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Whitepaper

5 Dos and Don’ts of Embedded Analytics

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Who Needs Embedded Analytics? Whether you’re producing automation software, SaaS products or

cloud applications, it’s likely to assume you’re collecting a lot of data

in the process.

With more and more companies and individuals understanding the

value of using data to improve different aspects of their business, the

ability to offer a powerful data analytics and dashboard reporting (i.e.,

Business Intelligence) feature within your existing product can give

your software product the competitive edge that it needs and greatly

improve the value you offer to customers.

This paper will guide you through five essential steps in selecting,

purchasing and implementing embedded analytics software, with

some specific dos and don’ts for each stage.

CONTENTS

Click on the title skip to the relevant section

Step 1: Considering Whether To Buy Or Build An Analytics Platform

Step 2: Defining Your Requirements From Embedded Analytics

Step 3: Choosing Between Different Embedded BI Vendors

Step 4: Integrating Embedded Analytics in Your Products

Step 5: Building a Customer Support Model

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Step 1

CONSIDERING WHETHER TO BUY OR BUILD AN ANALYTICS PLATFORM

In a world of unlimited resources, you’d probably want to develop

your analytics platform in-house to retain full control of your product

and include the exact kind of functionality you feel that you or your

clients require.

However most businesses don’t operate in such an ideal environment,

and the reality is that Business Intelligence isn’t one of their core

competencies. Hence it would take years of R&D work, as well as

immense financial investments, to develop the same kind of platform

that is readily available to purchase from vendors who live and

breathe BI.

Buy vs. Build

So you’ve decided your software could use an analytics

and reporting feature. Great! The first thing you’ll want to think

about is whether to buy existing embeddable software and

integrate it in your own product, or to develop an analytics

platform in-house.

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Nevertheless, it’s important to take note of the type of software you’re

purchasing, and to make sure it will be easy enough to implement and

use without incurring extensive and unexpected costs.

Do:

Consider the costs, time to market and end-product

functionality of developing in-house

It’s important to note that Business Intelligence is about more than

just displaying fancy visualizations on the user’s screen: It handles

joining multiple data sources, running fast queries on large datasets

and allowing users to explore their data by questioning it in a wide

variety of ways.

This type of analytics platform is no cakewalk to develop. Building a

robust BI system that can handle the demands of Big Data would

require immense resources (in terms of time and money) and might

still fail to achieve the same level of functionality as an out of the box

solution.

Don’t:

Overlook the possible hidden costs and time-sinks in

some embedded solutions

Problems with integration between your own software and the

embedded analytics platform have the potential to greatly increase

your costs and production time. This could mean prolonged periods

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that will have to be devoted to development and iterations between

you and your BI provider.

Additionally, some BI software is so complex to implement and use

that it will require extensive training on your end before the system is

actually up and running, further extending your costs, time to market

and proving to be a major headache on its own sake.

Next step:

Defining Your Requirements From Embedded Analytics

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Step 2

DEFINING YOUR REQUIREMENTS FROM EMBEDDED ANALYTICS

There’s a seemingly endless amount of BI products in the current

marketplace, and to the untrained eye they could all appear to be

promising the same essential things.

However a closer inspection – which might actually require

downloading a trial version of the software or requesting a proof of

concept – will reveal substantial differences between the different

types of software. For example, Front end tools such as data

visualization software focus on dashboard reporting, whereas end to

end tools also handle data preparation and have a built-in querying

and analytics engine.

The type of tool you’ll require depends, among others, on the volume,

variety, and velocity you plan to process.

50 Shades of Business Intelligence

After you’ve decided to go ahead and purchase an

embedded analytics solution to integrate with your existing

product, it’s important to define what exactly you’ll be hoping to

achieve with it and what the different types of BI software have to

offer you.

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Do

Consider your current needs

Ask yourself what exactly will be required from your embedded

analytics feature. Here are some guidelines to take into account:

Size: How much data will you need to handle? Hundreds of

megabytes? Gigabytes? Terabytes? Some BI tools’ performance

can suffer when handling large datasets.

Reporting: Will it be enough to generate a few pre-

determined reports, or will you want users to be able to

generate custom queries and reports?

Security: Which permissions will you be able to set, and how

difficult will it be to do so? Can you set permissions on

database, table and row levels?

Don’t

Underestimate your future needs

Even after thoroughly defining your exact plans for your embedded

analytics app, don’t forget that Business Intelligence is, to a large

extent, the realm of the uncertain. The amounts and types of data we

collect today would have been incomprehensible a few years ago,

and there’s no reason to believe they will remain identical in a few

years’ time.

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To avoid the need to repurchase, re-implement and re-train your staff

when you discover the solution you’ve chosen can no longer fully

satisfy your requirements, make sure that whichever embedded

analytics platform you choose will be scalable. Assume your datasets

will grow and your querying and reporting needs will also expand,

and make sure that the software you integrate will be able to handle

the larger workload.

Next step:

Choosing Between Different Embedded Bi Vendors

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Step 3 CHOOSING BETWEEN DIFFERENT

EMBEDDED BI VENDORS

If more than one vendor offers you an embedded analytics solution

that you think would be a good fit for your own software, it’s time to

see who can make you the best offer.

Do

Look for a vendor that offers full-featured software

with fast implementation

The whole reason you started your embedded analytics project was

because you were looking for a faster and cheaper alternative to in-

house development. If the embedded BI software you’ve landed upon

can’t promise you these two factors, you probably need to reconsider

your choices.

Finding the Best Offer

After determining your exact Business Intelligence needs,

it’s time to start making a shortlist of possible vendors that offer

embeddable software which can adequately address these

needs. As this is usually going to be a costly transaction, insist on

a Proof of Concept and trial period before making a purchase.

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This doesn’t mean you should settle for a mediocre product. As we’ve

mentioned above, even if your BI needs seem modest at the moment,

you can’t be sure they won’t be tenfold greater within a mere few

years. Hence you should choose an embedded analytics solution that

covers all the features you currently plan on using, as well as ones you

might want to implement further on.

Don’t

Compromise on less than a full Proof of Concept before

purchasing

Bear in mind: quality software isn’t cheap, so expect an OEM license

(which will allow you to redistribute the vendor’s Business Intelligence

tool under your own label and as part of your product) to be a

medium to large transaction in terms of software costs.

This is exactly why you should be sure you’re making the right choice

by choosing a vendor that lets you try their software on your database

and experiment with its API before actually spending any of your

organization’s money.

Insist the vendor provide you with a trial version of their software and

runs a full Proof of Concept on your own data to see that it really can

do all that the vendor’s representatives claim it can.

Next step:

ductsIntegrating Embedded Analytics In Your Pro

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Step 4 INTEGRATING EMBEDDED ANALYTICS IN

YOUR PRODUCTS

Embedded dashboard software should enable you to fully white-label

the tool you’ve purchased under your own branding. This should

include adding your logo and controlling the color scheme, fonts and

general design to keep it in tune with your product.

We recommend you supply regular users with several built-in

dashboards and widgets that will answer the common questions they

would usually ask about the data you provide them with, while still

enabling ‘power users’ to build custom dashboards and expressions

and gain deeper insight into their data. Make sure the embedded BI

tool you have chosen allows you do this, as well as set different

permissions for different users.

Create a Seamless Customer Experience

Now that you’ve purchased an OEM license for embedded

analytics, it’s time to think of how you want to integrate your shiny

new software within the framework of your existing products. Aim

to create a single sign-on (SSO) experience in which your users

don’t even realize they’re using embedded software.

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Do

Give your users the freedom to explore their data

If you’ve purchased embedded analytics, it means you wanted to

enable your customers to reap the benefits and insights of true

Business Intelligence, not just a few pre-generated reported. You

should enable users to perform queries on the whole of their data,

mash-up different data sources and get fast answers for on the fly

questions that they come up with after their initial analysis.

The whole idea is to add to the value that customers gain from your

product. True value derives when end-users can reach their own

insights, not from flashier versions of the same charts and graphs

which your built-in reporting platform could have produced.

Don’t

Confuse your users with overly complex interfaces

Most software products have a learning curve. For some (e.g. word

processing programs) it’s fairly shallow, and for others (e.g. central

logging tools) it can be extremely steep. If your embedded analytics

make your current product much more complex than it previously

was, this might deter parts of your audience and should serve as a

warning sign.

What you’re aiming to achieve is an analytics platform that is in-line

with your users’ level of technical expertise. If your software is not

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meant solely for IT use, your embedded analytics should have the

same level of usability.

Next step:

Building a Customer Support Model

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Step 5

BUILDING A CUSTOMER SUPPORT MODEL

While certain adjustments will most likely be required, this needn’t be

a major issue. If handled correctly, it should not be too big an obstacle

for your organization.

The first key is to reduce the number of problems which lead

customers to contact CS:

Choose software that integrates with your own smoothly and

doesn’t create new issues that stem solely from API

incompatibilities.

It also helps if the embedded software has a simple GUI which

doesn’t require coding or scripting, allowing non-technical users to

complete simple tasks on their own.

Leave No Customer Behind

Adding new features to your software will mean additional

training and preparation is required from your technical support

staff. This is especially true when it comes to features that your

company didn’t develop and isn’t fully familiar with their inner

workings. Tackle this issue in a joint effort with your vendor.

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However, as with any software, issues will arise, and the key to

handling them without crises is preparation: make sure the price

you’ve agreed upon with your vendor includes training for your staff,

as well as support from the vendor’s own representatives when the

need arises.

Do

Train your staff to properly handle common issues

Before you make the embedded analytics software operational, make

sure your onsite staff are ready to support customers who run into

more common and simple problems. Training your support team can

and should be the vendor’s responsibility – but it’s best to have your

own reps ready and able to provide direct answers to the bulk of your

customers’ issues when they arise.

Don’t

Settle when it comes to ongoing support from your BI

vendor

It should be absolutely clear that your vendor’s responsibilities

towards your organization have not ended upon you purchasing and

implementing their software. After all, the vendor is the one who built

the product – and as such, should commit to provide ongoing support,

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maintenance and training when your customers have problems

running it, and all within a reasonable timeframe.

So while your own employees should be able to take care of the

simple stuff – always rest assured that if something more substantial

arises, the original manufacturer of the software will be there for you

and your customers.

Next steps

Embedding Sisense BI Software