Embedded Analytics Goes Mainstream

Embedded analytics, the integration of analytic capabilities within business applications, are becoming more pervasive as software vendors and software-as-a-service providers embrace the approach. According to a new survey, embedded analytics is poised to overtake traditional business intelligence tools as it is folded into more applications and as users seek greater functionality.

In its third annual survey of the embedded analytics market, Logi Analytics also found that fully 65 percent of application providers it contacted embed business intelligence and analytics into their products and services. What’s more, the rate at which embedded analytics is being adopted has grown to 40 percent of respondents’ total base of business analytics users. Logi Analytics said that total is 10 percent higher than adoption of traditional business intelligence tools.

Moreover, 62 percent of application providers surveyed said they plan to invest in embedded analytics over the next year.

The upshot is that “all software applications are becoming analytic applications,” Alvin Wong, Logi Analytics’ product marketing manager, asserted in releasing the survey results.

The survey also found that dashboards are top embedded analytics capability, followed by self-service analysis and reports. “Application providers are trending towards infusing analytics as a natural part of the their application workflow,” the survey found. “This is especially true among those who have already embedded analytics, compared to those who have not.”

Almost two-thirds of software applications now embed business intelligence and data analytics, according to the embedded survey. Financial services, technology and manufacturing were the leading adopters, followed by health care, business services and retail.

Among the biggest potential investors in embedded analytics over the next year are the technology sector (80 percent), business services and retail (70 percent) and the construction sector (67 percent), Logi Analytics reported.

“The top reason to utilize a third-party product to embed business intelligence and analytics is to get to market faster,” the survey found. That result was expected “since competitive pressures and customer satisfaction drive the need to embedded analytics, and time-to-market is key to successful delivery.”

Moreover, functionality and “ease of integration” with existing platforms trumped price as the most important factors in selecting a third-party provider of embedded analytics tools. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said functionality remains “very important” as a rationale for investing in embedded analytics.

In the three years the survey has been compiled, Logi Analytics said functionality has remained the top criteria for embedding analytics products.

Logi Analytics, McLean, Va., said its 2015 embedded analytics report was based on an online survey during February of more than 500 business and technology executives representing independent software vendors and software-as-a-service providers. Respondents included C-level executives, product managers and developers along with software engineers.

Ninety-three percent of commercial ISVs and SaaS providers said they have boosted revenues by charging an additional 25 percent for embedded analytics tools as compared to a 15 percent increase last year over the cost of their core offerings.

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