A business is a combination of various processes. Improvement in that business will happen when all the processes are harmonized. Coordination is needed not only among multiple departments and their leads, but also among employees lower down the ranks. This harmonization does not happen by chance but by design. Employees at all levels, and not only those in the core team, need to be empowered. And in today's increasingly competitive world, business intelligence (BI) is one of the key factors that allows an internal team to attain that synchronization. Increasingly, more and more companies around the world, across sectors, are turning to BI tools, according to surveys and studies. So what's really the purpose of these tools? **In one line – it's to turn your big data into actionable insights.** How? It gives business users access to data and its analysis through reports and dashboards. Yet, so strong is competition today that mere BI tools do not suffice. With the rapid strides in technology, many companies have taken that one more step to stay ahead of the game – embedded analytics. This is a business approach to embedding dashboards and charts directly into the business app or device for employees and, in many cases (Amazon and Netflix), even customers to use. Such tools that use embedded analytics are browser-based and support JavaScript programming interfaces, for example. Gartner defines embedded analytics as the use of reporting and analytic capabilities within transactional business applications. To be considered embedded, they must be easily accessible from within the application itself. Various factors are driving this trend, but the leading one is that companies are increasingly looking for real-time analytics to make more timely decisions. Many experts in the analytical world now view embedded analytics as a high-growth area, while a few have even predicted that it may ultimately make traditional BI tools obsolete. ## Why is Embedded Analytics Required? So what are the positives of embedded analytics? The first is that it increases the reach of a company's analytical process internally, and the other is the ability to analyze in near real-time. Companies that have started using modern-day embedded analytics tools have embedded (either built or bought) this software in their core business apps, such as Finance, Marketing, and even Human Resources. Embedded analytics, unlike the traditional BI model, is proactive. We talked of harmonization between internal teams and employee empowerment; that's where embedded analytics can play a significant role. It makes data analytics more consumable, meaning it does not leave analytics to the motley group of data scientists or BI analysts but makes it available to more employees, allowing them to make business-related decisions faster.
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This forward-looking form of analytics not only provides actionable insights from data but also offers great ease of use. Those using such apps do not need to quit the app to view the results – they can see it, analyze performance, and recommend action right there and then. No need for a separate login. That's empowerment. But here's something – before your company embarks on embedded analytics, it needs to identify the precise analytical functionality to be embedded. ## Operationalization of Embedded Analytics: Making the results a part of business operations – is being used by companies for: 1. **Increasing revenue** 2. **Improving customer engagement** 3. But two other areas where embedded analytics can make a significant impact are: 1. **Consistent business decision-making** 2. The latter is one aspect of this advanced form of analytics that's still catching on. Yet, that's set to change. Over the next few years, companies are set to move from diagnostic analytics, which react to a given development, to more predictive analytics. The latter will enable them to prepare their business for tomorrow. This form of embedded analytics may seem difficult to implement right now, but technological advancements will soon change that. Embedded analytics not only acts as a GPS that guides your vehicle in real-time, but also pinpoints upcoming hurdles.
