Blog post

What you should know before you implement embedded analytics

By Kit Germeroth

There’s no question that data is incredibly valuable to your business. When you have the right tools and processes in place to make your data accessible, every department can draw insights to make decisions that will increase ROI and support growth. Interactive dashboards can show you detailed information about your customers, how your products are selling in different locations, the ROI on marketing initiatives, and more.

But data analysis and dashboards aren’t just for internal use. With embedded analytics, you can deliver visual analytics to your customers too. By integrating BI capabilities directly into your applications, products, and web portals, embedded analytics makes data analysis possible for any kind of user. If you’re already providing data for customers, an embedded solution will improve efficiency while delivering a better user experience.

Questions to ask before you get started

When deploying analytics to your clients, you have to get it right the first time to limit operational and reputational risk. The first step toward ensuring project success is proper planning. Use the following questions as a guide as you prepare for your initiative.

Security

• Are we sharing the data privately or publicly?

• Are we integrating with security in a web portal?

• What data should each user and client be able to see?

Change management

• How should we phase our clients' onboarding to the new platform?

• Who are the strategic contacts at top customers who will act as champions of the new solution?

• Are we ready to handle external customer technical support?

Monetization

• How are we calculating the value of the data internally and externally?

• Is this an add-on or a brand new solution for customers?

• Will costs be passed through to customers? If so, how?

• Will costs be tiered to cater to different types of customers?

Marketing

• How will we drive interest and awareness?

• How will we communicate the value?

Training plan

• Does our training plan cater to users of all technical skill levels?

• Are all of our functional user personas included in the training plan?

Focus group

• Who should we recruit as a representative sample of customers/user personas?

Take the next step with embedded analytics

After you’ve answered the key questions around your initiative, you can get started with a project plan that outlines development and roll out. A strong plan will include dashboard designs, details about where the dashboards will be integrated, a schedule for testing and updates, and a customer training plan.

When selecting a tool for your embedded solution, pay close attention to how it will integrate and what kind of user experience it offers. Tableau is a favorite because it integrates with simple web pages, custom web portals, third-party applications, and customer-facing products. You can quickly build powerful dashboards and create custom content so customers only see the data that’s meant for them. Tableau also has a vibrant online community; most of the questions you'll have have already been answered through the community.

Remember: the key to success with embedded analytics is listening to your customers and what their needs are to provide the best possible experience.

To see embedded analytics in action, check out how our team helped Advantage Group implement a Tableau system that saves more than 40 weeks per year of manual effort.