When is it time to adopt analytics?

Companies considering expansion strategize over multiple areas of their organization to see where, how, how much and at what cost this growth must occur. They’re looking at business ability, capacity, potential as well as longevity.

The organization will rely upon compiled proprietary data as it sorts through its business intelligence. What must also gain scrutiny during this time are the analytics tools being used to accomplish the assessment, and how long those instruments will be able to deliver at the scale that the business will demand.

New Tools for New Decisions

Usually, the same BI applications that companies have used to date will be drawn upon as they make their expansion plans. Mining and reporting this data will bookend the analysis, interpretation, and prediction of it to assess and improve expansion efficiency and lower the risks involved in scaling up. There is some sense in this, as the best decisions come with access to quality data.

But that doesn’t ensure the companies will gain or maintain a competitive advantage in their marketplace and stand out among industry peers.

Shuffle the deck all they want; if they’re using traditional BI apps at this juncture, only those with a master understanding of them have favorable odds of interpreting data fully. But with modern embedded analytics, users with varying levels of data analysis experience can successfully seek and recognize a winning hand.

Simplify Increasingly Complex Data

Dynamic analytics draws from myriad data sources to deliver its information within a single workflow, eliminating the need to swivel in and out or over to separate BI tools where the intelligence resides or where reporting takes place. This single workflow solution significantly enhances cost-efficiency while increasing performance and analysis.

The benefits of analytics extend well beyond individual performance improvements. They deliver business performance at scale; as organizations grow and BI software evolves or come and go, well-designed, powerful analytics modify along with company needs. The functionality and UX of embedded analytics adapt to the periodic revisions inherent in BI tools and software. So analysts, managers and executives alike can keep working with the same intuitive tool even as their needs and the company goals change as the organization matures.

Streamline Workflows

The best analytics utilizes infrastructure that allows it to develop vertically and horizontally. This eliminates the need for organizations to keep budgeting for BI-specific hardware management and maintenance costs. Further, these same analytics perform on the MS Windows platform and function dynamically across preferred data storage sources, whether on-premise, cloud or hybrid. Without these requirements for proprietary software and servers or their retrofits, the company's skill at data analysis scales hand-in-glove with the business and its goals.

Of course, well-designed analytics that provides users’ easy access, interpretation and adaptation of business intelligence must also furnish that data in a favorable UX for reporting. Analytics capable of generating easy-to-use dashboards and distributing reports company-wide will also enable broad access to the information by group, subgroups and individuals. Imperatively, they’ll do all this securely.

Scale Decision-Making

Businesses of every size in every vertical are transforming around us. They must consider their data tools imperative to their evolution because BI keeps growing exponentially. Powerful modern analytics drive that growth, making them indispensable in today’s business environment.

Their functionality to deliver BI that drives decision-making in real-time is incomparable. That they perform to this extent for everyone in the organization regardless of whether they’re tech-savvy or not puts the power of decision-making into the hands of skilled business professionals regardless of their software talents.

Businesses work hard to gather intelligence that directly influences their market reach and influence. Embedded analytics scale with these organizations and adeptly capture the data’s insights. They ensure these companies have the instrument to perform with the best now and in the future.

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Charles Caldwell is vice president of product management at Logi Analytics, with more than 20 years of experience in the analytics market, including a decade involved in direct customer implementation. He writes and speaks extensively on analytics with an emphasis on in-app embedding, optimizing user experience and utilizing modern data sources. Caldwell earned his MBA from George Washington University. On LinkedIn and Twitter.