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Business intelligence, data analytics, data visualization, embedded business intelligence,… There are dozens of terms, but don’t they all just mean the same thing? 🤷♀️ If it were only that simple.
To find out which type of business intelligence is right for you, there are some important nuances to be aware of. In this article, we’ll zoom in on embedded business intelligence, the new kid on the block in BI.
Learn what embedded BI means, how it’s different from traditional BI, and if it’s right for you.
Embedded business intelligence is the process of embedding analytics capabilities into existing business applications. This could be a SaaS product, web application or any cloud-based portal. It gives product users access to information they need to make smarter decisions.
In common terminology, business intelligence encompasses the entire data supply chain. That includes everything from data connection to data modeling and data visualization for the end users. Where embedded business intelligence should excel, however, is in the data visualization process.
And even beyond data visualization alone, embedded BI can add self-service BI analytics capabilities straight into the apps and platforms we use on a daily basis.
Whether it’s an email marketing software, an accounting program, or a cash register system. Anyone can create reports, interact deeply with data, and get notified of trends. All in an easy and intuitive way in a web-based app.
Imagine embedded business intelligence as your software product’s “control center”. You can compare it to the control panel on your car’s dashboard. It shows your speed, and gas level, and alerts you when something is wrong. It would be impossible to drive without a control panel inside your car. And dangerous too!
Embedded business intelligence works the same way. It’s difficult to make confident business decisions without insights at hand. And too often, business users have to switch between their work apps and dedicated reporting tools. As a result, they make crucial decisions at a much slower pace.
Traditional business intelligence is almost a privilege for data scientists and people with technical knowledge. Traditional BI software is complex to learn if you don’t know data science or coding. It takes a long time to create reports. And often, the people who end up using the reports are not even involved in that process.
Because of this limitation, data scientists often need to start all over again. With so much ad-hoc data analysis, it takes months before businesses can make critical decisions they should make within hours. And with a shortage of good data scientists, it strains your most scarce resources. And it’s insanely expensive too!
The intuitive visualization of embedded BI in analytics tools cuts out the middleman. No more back and forth on reports between IT and business teams. With the use of intuitive tools, business users can slice and dice their own data.
With this empowerment and functionality, they reduce the time to make a decision from months to mere hours. From data management to action, an embedded BI solution helps you speed yourself up.
From that perspective, the biggest difference between embedded BI and traditional BI is the user experience. Insights are now embedded into the daily workflows of any person. Data scientists no longer need to be involved in the creation of the actual visualizations in an analytics platform. And business users no longer need to learn clunky BI tools to run data-driven businesses. Finding insights is now an intuitive process that is part of their day-to-day tasks.
Embedded BI is like eating farm-to-table. Ingredients come straight from the source, cutting out intermediate suppliers. You pay less for better quality. With embedded BI, you get your insights straight from the source. At a faster pace, with competitive pricing, and with less margin for error.
SaaS product builders enjoy many advantages when using embedded business intelligence.
Your product users will also reap the benefits of this new way of analyzing their data.
Many tools you use every day have interactive dashboards, but it can be difficult to see how much value they actually bring to the product. Here are some examples from our own customers.
Spaceflow is a proptech SaaS company that focuses on improving tenant experience. Tenants and landlords use it for communication and making sure that both sides are happy.
Over time, they noticed that landlords started requesting custom reports about their buildings and portfolios. Building these manually took a lot of time and effort.
With Luzmo, they introduced dashboards with real-time data for each landlord. As a result, they spent 80% less time creating manual reports. If a landlord needed occupancy data, they could use Spaceflow’s self-service reporting features.
Timewax is another great example with a different use case. This project and task management app collected a wealth of useful data about their customers’ projects. They decided to add embedded dashboards and allow their customers to see what they were working on, when and how.
The end result was a personalized analytics dashboard that allowed teams to see inefficiencies, opportunities for improvement, time wasters and more.
For Timewax, this meant an opportunity for monetization. After adding this reporting feature to their free trial, their sales teams found it much easier to turn free trial users into paid customers.
For 24Sessions, using embedded analytics helped not only increase customer satisfaction but also unearth precious insights.
With an embedded analytics dashboard, 24Sessions users found out that they save 20 minutes on average if they have a meeting online rather than in person. The end result? Increased product adoption.
Apogea is another interesting example: a software platform with 3D building models. With exciting visualizations, they could help their customers better explore and understand data.
For example, if a developer wanted to find out how many apartments are available with a price range between $250k and $300k, less than 100 m2 in the region of Madrid, they could just use Apogea’s dashboard.
The following capabilities make embedded BI stand out from other approaches to great data insights.
Product and engineering teams are still hesitant to adopt embedded business intelligence software. Engineers often prefer to stitch their own solution together instead. Even though low-code software can save them months of time.
The most common misconceptions of using a third-party embedded business intelligence software are:
The product teams who build instead of buy analytics often delay their roadmap. You need a specific skill set to build business intelligence and big data features. If your team lacks the expertise, you are draining your resources for months to come without realizing it.
For this reason, product teams often postpone or halt analytics development cycles. And that leaves engineering teams with nothing but technical debt.
Compare sites like G2 are a great starting point to find the right embedded business intelligence software. But keep in mind that not every tool listed will specialize in embedded BI only.
For example, BI platforms like Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, or Domo are market leaders in traditional BI. Even though they allow embedding, their core focus is still traditional BI. As a result, the user experience caters to data-savvy users. Although very powerful, these tools may be less accessible to non-technical personas.
We recommend starting free trials to assess which embedded analytics solution is right for your use case. Browse their websites to get an idea of their capabilities. Gather all your findings in a vendor comparison matrix like the example below. This canvas is helpful for comparing embedded business intelligence software objectively.
But if you want to get more in-depth with your research, we’ll do that right now.
Let’s say you’re considering several vendors and you’re confused by more than just the price. These are the main factors to consider when making your choice.
How crucial is it for you that your customers can access and build their own dashboards? Some tools, such as Tableau, are incredibly difficult to use for beginners.
If you want to enable your customers to create their own dashboards and interpret them, you should look for a tool that supports this. This BI tool should have impeccable UX, templates and tooltips, and a detailed help section that lets users troubleshoot when they get stuck.
Connecting your embedded business analytics dashboard to your app is a lot easier when it is built with an API-first approach.
For easy integration, make sure the BI tool you choose has API access and plenty of detailed documentation. This will make it easy for your developers to integrate a dashboard into your app and save you massive amounts of time and money.
Some tools such as Tableau or PowerBI are notorious because it can take weeks to set up an embedded dashboard. Ideally, you want a BI tool that is easy to use and allows you to embed a dashboard quickly.
The end goal is not to waste developer resources on embedding dashboards and instead take advantage of the BI app’s API. This ensures you can launch the dashboard feature more quickly and delight your customers.
Your end-users will be concerned about the security of their data, and you should be too. Your BI tool of choice should be up to date with regulations such as GDPR and SOC-2.
Does the tool have mechanisms such as row-level security, role-based security and multi-tenant analytics?
If you’re in a highly regulated industry such as healthcare, checking out the security features of an embedded BI app is a must and should be one of your first considerations. Your end-users will be concerned about the security of their data, and you should be too. Ensure your BI tool complies with regulations like GDPR and SOC-2. Robust security measures can prevent issues like "dns_probe_started," ensuring smooth and secure operations.
For the best user experience, the BI dashboard should feel like a part of your product. Check if the BI tool lets you change the backgrounds, logos, visualization types and more. The end product should seamlessly blend into the rest of your app.
Building business intelligence features for your SaaS product is an exciting journey. With the right resources, you’ll quickly get the hang of it!
Below are a few resources on embedded business intelligence that will set you up for success.
Luzmo is the top choice for embedded BI for many reasons. It’s API first, so connecting your app is a matter of hours - not months. You can embed a dashboard in just a few steps with the help of a decent developer.
It also shines when it comes to report customization, allowing you to choose different visualizations and ways to present your data. And not just you as the app vendor - your users can benefit from the self-service options for creating and customizing embedded dashboards.
If you’re curious to try embedded BI software yourself, Luzmo offers a free 10-day trial. Or sign up for a product demo from one of our embedded BI experts.
What is embedded business intelligence?
Embedded business intelligence or embedded BI is the practice of adding reports, dashboards, and data visualization that are embedded into a product, rather than a standalone tool.
What are the best embedded BI tools?
It depends on your needs. If you want maximum ease of use and great pricing, you should opt for Luzmo. If your focus is more on analytics and less on embedded visualization and you can afford the extra cost, try going for tools such as Tableau and PowerBI.
Experience the power of Luzmo. Talk to our product experts for a guided demo or get your hands dirty with a free 10-day trial.
