With data becoming a strategic asset for many organizations around the globe, more and more business owners are turning to BI solutions to extract valuable insights and make informed decisions. BI tools not only facilitate the consolidation and analysis of large datasets from multiple sources, but also enable users to identify potential revenue streams or opportunities.
Where these solutions fall short, however, is when users have to switch between their workflow interfaces and data tools to view the data and apply insights to the job they are performing. Needless to say, this leads to inefficiencies and hinders the seamless integration of data-driven decision-making into daily operations. LANSA BI’s embedded analytics solves this.
With LANSA BI’s embedded analytics feature, you can tap into all the power of traditional BI–along with live data from sources or monitoring tools–without moving that data outside your system for analysis. The cutting-edge embedded analytics tool resolves many shortcomings of traditional BI dashboards and reporting systems and has worked to solve the problems associated with identifying and normalizing data feeds to remove the noise. By bringing real-time insights directly into these applications, LANSA BI not only helps users make informed decisions effortlessly, but also elevates their analytical capabilities to new heights.
6 ways LANSA BI helps with high-impact embedded analytics
LANSA BI integrates analytical capabilities directly into IBM i applications. This integration allows developers and business analysts to leverage analytical tools and features seamlessly without switching to a separate BI application. From an enhanced user experience to increased profits, businesses can get a lot from this cutting-edge analytics tool. Let’s explore some of these key features:
Data integration
LANSA BI offers powerful data integration features that enable organizations to consolidate all their data sources and bring them together in one place for accurate analysis. Whether it’s structured data residing in relational databases, unstructured information from cloud storage, or even real-time data streams from IoT devices, LANSA BI’s robust integration framework ensures that no valuable data is left behind. It allows users to get data from different departments and systems within the organization, breaking down data silos and ensuring that all relevant information is available for analysis.
While connecting all of your organization’s data is important, it is equally crucial to structure the data in a way that can be easily used and analyzed by end users. LANSA BI’s data integration feature enables users to transform, normalize, or prepare data for analysis. For instance, a healthcare provider can use LANSA BI to integrate patient data from different electronic health record systems, standardize formats, and resolve discrepancies to create a unified patient database. With all relevant patient information in one place, healthcare professionals can make more informed decisions and provide better patient care.
Data discovery
Let’s face it, uncovering insights hidden within the vast volumes of data can be a daunting task. With Guided NLQ (natural language query), users can express their queries in everyday language, and the system intelligently interprets and translates these queries into structured data requests. By enabling users to ask questions in their own words, LANSA BI makes data analysis more accessible and user-friendly. Instead of learning complex query languages such as SQL, users can simply type their questions, and the tool searches for relevant answers.
LANSA BI seamlessly integrates this feature into IBM i applications. This empowers users to discover valuable insights within their IBM i applications and lets them share as well as disseminate the insights securely. It helps organizations make informed decisions and gain a competitive edge in today’s data-driven business landscape. By harnessing the power of data discovery through NLQ, companies can easily unlock the full potential of their IBM i applications and drive innovation across all of their operations.
Data visualization
Every day, your business generates more data on sales revenue, inventory levels, customer interactions, marketing performance, staffing levels, production metrics, and other KPIs. However, with so much data to sift through, it can be difficult for users to see the story it tells. Data visualization helps users turn all granular data into intuitive and compelling charts. LANSA BI offers a robust platform that allows users to transform this raw data into meaningful insights through self-service reporting modules. It comes with a range of tools and templates that enable even non-technical users to create standout infographics.
With a simple drag-and-drop interface, users can select the data they want to visualize and choose to lay it out in bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and more. Moreover, LANSA BI provides customization options, allowing users to tweak colors, labels, and other design elements to fit their needs or branding requirements. For example, a manager at a retail company may want to analyze the sales performance of different product categories over the past year. With LANSA BI’s data visualization features, they can create comparative graphs that would help review outcomes faster.
Dashboarding
Dashboarding is the practice of creating interactive, visual displays of data that offer real-time access to information, empowering businesses to make informed decisions quickly. In today’s fast-paced business landscape, the ability to swiftly analyze and respond to changing trends is paramount. LANSA BI is a powerful tool that enables users to design customized interactive dashboards, providing an actionable representation of complex data sets. These dashboards not only provide a comprehensive overview of key performance indicators but also enable users to drill down into specific metrics, facilitating a deeper understanding of the business operations.
Whether reporting on sales trends, optimizing production workflows, or evaluating the effectiveness of marketing strategies, LANSA BI can help every end-user analyze data in a glance. In addition to its advanced dashboarding capabilities, LANSA BI also offers users the ability to set up alerts. These alerts are crucial in ensuring that businesses can proactively respond to critical events or changes in their data.
Data analysis
With assisted insights generation, organizations get actionable insights from their analytics faster. Packed with AI-powered features, LANSA BI can compare and interpret data, empowering end-users across various roles to effectively make informed decisions without waiting on technical support.
LANSA BI organically makes it easier to uncover valuable trends and patterns. Imagine a retail manager who wants to understand sales trends for a specific product category over the past year. Without extensive development skills, they can use LANSA BI to access relevant data, apply predefined sources, and quickly discover insights. The platform can highlight key performance metrics, such as year-over-year sales growth, peak selling seasons, and bestselling products within the category. It enables the retail manager to make strategic choices to optimize inventory levels or plan marketing campaigns.
Security
In a digital landscape where data breaches and privacy concerns are paramount, LANSA BI’s embedded analytics feature stands out as a reliable solution that prioritizes data security. By granting organizations the ability to restrict data access and manage permissions through custom applications, LANSA BI ensures that sensitive information remains shielded from unauthorized individuals. This layered approach to security minimizes the chances of data leaks and unauthorized use. Additionally, by embedding analytics directly into existing IBM i applications, LANSA BI mitigates the need for data to be transferred between different platforms, reducing potential points of vulnerability.
Integrating LANSA BI into IBM i applications
LANSA BI enables users to integrate analytical capabilities into both existing and brand-new IBM i applications. Let’s explore how.
Integrating BI into green screen applications
Organizations may find themselves bound by traditional green screen applications, sturdy but lacking the analytical prowess demanded by the modern world. Luckily, you can seamlessly transform these text-based legacy systems into web applications with LANSA’s professional low-code solutions. This transformation is not merely a cosmetic upgrade; it’s a strategic shift that revitalizes your organization’s ability to thrive in the data-centric era.
LANSA provides a comprehensive framework to guide you through the entire process, from refacing your 5250 screens to seamlessly integrating business intelligence. This approach modernizes your systems while ensuring the retention of core business logic and avoiding disruptions. You will achieve web-enabled agility and unlock the potential of integrated business intelligence. With LANSA BI, you can embed advanced BI capabilities and turn your IBM i applications into a powerhouse of data-driven decision-making. Empower your team with real-time insights, historical data, and predictive analytics, all while providing an enhanced user experience.
Integrating BI in modern applications
LANSA BI is a versatile business intelligence solution that can be used to embed analytical capabilities into web, desktop, and mobile applications. This tool provides a range of integration options and features that make it suitable for various platforms. Developers can use LANSA BI’s APIs and SDKs to seamlessly embed charts, graphs, and interactive dashboards, ensuring that users can access critical data without switching between different applications.
By utilizing LANSA BI, organizations can not only enhance the functionality of their IBM i applications but also stay competitive in the modern business landscape by delivering data-driven insights directly to their users. Moreover, it opens up a new realm of possibilities for businesses by enabling them to access real-time data insights directly on their mobile devices. This transformative feature allows professionals to stay connected to critical business information anytime, anywhere, ensuring timely decision-making and enhanced responsiveness.
Developing new IBM i applications complete with analytics
If you’re thinking of developing a brand new application, then there’s no better solution for you than LANSA BI. It integrates with our professional low-code platform, Visual LANSA, which seamlessly empowers developers to create robust IBM i applications infused with advanced analytics capabilities. Visual LANSA simplifies the development process not just with drag-and-drop modules but by extending a single language for advanced full-stack development, a scalable business rules engine, and an integrated environment for cross-platform deployment. This platform allows developers to seamlessly incorporate LANSA BI’s analytics features into their applications, enabling them to harness the power of data for better decision-making. Whether you need to build dashboards, reports, or data visualizations, LANSA BI, in conjunction with Visual LANSA, offers a streamlined and efficient development experience that ensures your applications are not only functional but also insightful.
Exploring practical use cases for embedded analytics
The rise in demand for meaningful and dynamic business intelligence across diverse industries and platforms is being met by solutions like LANSA BI, which offers integrated analytics capabilities alongside the advent of embedded analytics. Let’s have a look at how businesses use LANSA BI to embed analytics in various business applications:
Use Case 1: CRMs
Embedding analytics in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems helps businesses gain actionable insights from their customer data. This analytics tool can look at past sales trends, current leads, and opportunities and identify patterns in customers’ behavior that might be hard to spot. By using this CRM analytics tool, businesses can predict the likelihood of patterns in customer behavior to foresee future outcomes. It allows them to get ahead of their competitors and make the most out of any opportunity.
Furthermore, analytics in CRMs help businesses monitor customer service efforts, validate customer data, analyze customers’ habits, and generate better leads. For instance, a sales representative can view a customer’s purchase history and preferences directly within the CRM. It not only enables them to tailor their sales pitch effectively but also helps them to improve customer engagement. Overall, embedding LANSA BI in CRMs can empower organizations to leverage their data to enhance customer experiences and accelerate sales.
Use Case 2: ERPs
Embedding analytics in ERP systems is a strategic move that enhances data-driven decision-making within organizations. For example, consider a manufacturing company that has embedded analytics into its ERP system. Production managers can instantly track real-time data on machine performance, downtime, and quality control metrics within the ERP dashboard. This means they can make on-the-spot decisions to optimize production efficiency, reduce downtime, and maintain product quality, all while staying within the ERP environment they are already familiar with.
Furthermore, integrated analytics in ERPs democratize data access, offering users interactive dashboards for real-time insights and informed decision-making across all organizational levels. In retail companies, ERP systems streamline departments like finance, HR, supply chain, and procurement. This seamless integration empowers the finance team to leverage critical data, such as sales trends and inventory turnover rates, for more informed financial decisions, budget management, and stock level optimization. For HR, ERP systems automate payroll processing, track employee performance, and simplify workforce scheduling. In the supply chain and procurement departments, ERP systems facilitate seamless coordination of inventory levels, supplier relationships, and procurement processes.
Use Case 3: Inventory Management
Embedding analytics in inventory management empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions and optimize their supply chain operations. By integrating analytics tools directly into their inventory management systems, businesses can gain real-time insights into their inventory levels, demand patterns, and operational efficiency. For example, a retailer might embed predictive analytics algorithms into their inventory management software to forecast demand for different products based on historical sales data, seasonality, and market trends. It enables them to make informed decisions about when to reorder items, reducing the risk of overstocking or stockouts and improving customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, embedding analytics in inventory management allows for dynamic monitoring and alerting. A manufacturer can trigger alerts when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold. This proactive approach can help prevent production disruptions and enable timely reordering of materials to maintain a smooth production flow. It not only enhances decision-making but also streamlines operations, reduces costs, and ensures that businesses can respond swiftly to changing market conditions.
Transformative solutions for data-driven success
In today’s era of cut-throat online competition, leveraging your data in an intelligent way can give you a tremendous competitive advantage. LANSA BI offers a smart solution that integrates real-time insights into IBM i applications. By providing businesses with the tools to unlock the latent power of their data, this cutting-edge tool enables decision-makers to make informed choices strategically. The seamless integration of embedded analytics enables businesses to harness the full potential of their data and to stay ahead in the modern competitive landscape.
Recommended: See how LANSA BI works in action! Watch the recorded webinar here.
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LANSA BI seamlessly integrates analytics capabilities into IBM i applications to deliver dynamic visualizations, dashboards, and reports. Take the first step towards a data-driven future today and elevate your business intelligence to new heights. Contact us today to get a demo and learn more about how LANSA BI can empower your organization.
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