Posts tagged: BI4Web

Data analytics continues to gain ground within companies and has evolved from an attractive add-on to becoming an indispensable element for decision-making and business operations.

In this context, CRM and ERP product developers face the need to integrate data analytics into their solutions. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) must therefore choose between building an in-house solution or integrating third-party tools, which we call embedded analytics.

In many cases, in-house development is ruled out because it is not cost-efficient and takes longer. It also requires dedicating internal resources to ongoing development and support.

Integrating third-party tools or components improves delivery times and allows the ISV to focus on developing and supporting its own products.

What is embedded analytics?

Embedded analytics refers to analytics built into tools or solutions whose primary purpose is not data analysis, for example, a CRM or an ERP. This allows users to access analytics without leaving the product. From the user’s perspective, charts, reports, and dashboards feel like a native part of the software.

What are its main advantages?

Using embedded analytics in your products directly impacts competitiveness and increases perceived value. Here are its key advantages:

1. Improved perceived product value

Integrated analytics makes the software no longer seen just as a management tool but also as a decision-making support tool. This empowers users to extract value from data within the tools and applications they already use. The increase in perceived value can also open the door to creating premium pricing options with advanced features.

2. Increased engagement, loyalty, and reduced churn rate

Expanding the product’s scope from management to decision-making means users rely on it for more critical tasks, such as marketing budget allocation, stock strategy, etc. As a result, usage frequency increases and the likelihood of switching to another product decreases.

3. Faster decision-making

Without embedded analytics, the process of leveraging data for decisions can be as long as exporting, cleaning, analyzing, and finally deciding. With embedded analytics, users can view key information within the application and quickly move into analysis and decision-making.

4. Reduced friction and improved user experience

With an integrated analytics solution, everything retains the same look, design, and flow as your main application. There are no new interfaces or learning curves—allowing for a smooth, simple, and intuitive experience.

5. Improved core product functionalities

By delegating data analysis to expert companies with mature products, ISVs can devote 100% of their resources to developing new features that keep their product competitive in an increasingly fast-evolving market.

What challenges may arise when using embedded analytics?

We’ve already covered the benefits for both ISVs and end users. Now let’s look at some challenges that may arise—and how to overcome them.

What should you consider when choosing an embedded analytics solution?

There are many providers offering embedded analytics solutions. Here are some criteria to help you make the best choice:

Easy integration

Choose options that allow integration without unnecessary additional steps and that make it easy to embed data analytics into your product.

Customization level

Another key factor is how flexible the tool is when integrating into your user interface. This helps reduce friction and improve user experience.

Licensing flexibility

Every business model has specific needs, so we recommend choosing a licensing model that fits your model—or can adapt to it. This gives you the freedom to make product decisions that keep it competitive.

What is the outlook for embedded analytics?

Embedded analytics will continue to gain traction, as reflected in the Data, BI and Analytic Trend Monitor 2025 survey conducted by BARC. In this survey, 30% of companies reported already using embedded analytics, and 16% said they are planning to implement it within the next 12 months.

With BI4Web, you can enjoy easy integration, world-class features, and the licensing flexibility you need. Contact us, and our team will help you begin your journey into embedded analytics.

As we mentioned in the news about BI4Web version 25, this new release introduces the Gantt chart as a new control. Here, we’ll explain in more detail what this control is and what its main benefits are.

What is a Gantt Chart?

Let’s start with a basic definition. The Gantt chart is a widely used visual tool for project tracking. It helps map out the tasks required to carry out a project, the dependency relationships between them, and the time needed to complete each one.

How Does It Work?

On the left-hand column, you list all the tasks, while the top section shows the time axis. The duration of each task is represented by the length of the horizontal bar displayed in front of it.

How to Use the Gantt Chart

Here are a few simple steps to help you use it effectively:

1. Define the tasks. Break the project down into specific tasks.
2. Set the task duration. The time can be expressed in days or weeks — the key is to make a realistic estimate.
3. Set dependencies. Define which task or tasks must be completed before the next one can begin.

When Should You Use a Gantt Chart?

It’s highly recommended for projects that include multiple tasks with deadlines. Here are some of the most common use cases:

• Product launches. The Gantt chart is very useful for mapping all tasks — for example, market research, prototype development, testing, marketing, and distribution.
• Event planning. These can include corporate events such as a product launch party. Some of the tasks you could define are venue rental, hiring presenters, and so on.

Best Practices for Using the Gantt Chart

Now that you know how it works, here are some tips to help you get the most out of it:

• Break down tasks: Make sure tasks are small and manageable. Tasks that are too general tend to be difficult to manage.
• Set clear dependencies: Take the time to verify that dependencies are correctly connected. This will help you avoid unexpected delays and give you a more realistic view of the project’s progress.
• Use management software: For example, the Gantt chart included in BI4Web version 25 lets you track all tasks in real time, explore possible scenarios, and identify the critical path.
• Be realistic with timelines: Allow some buffer time for tasks — overly tight deadlines can create unnecessary bottlenecks.

What Are the Advantages of BI4Web’s Gantt Chart?

One of its main advantages is that it allows users to explore hypothetical scenarios without affecting the data sources. For example, you can see how delaying a task by two days would impact all dependent tasks. It also makes it easy to identify the critical path, the longest sequence of interdependent tasks whose delay directly affects the project’s overall timeline.

If you want to discover all the advantages of BI4Web, including the Gantt chart, request a free trial today.

Having business intelligence in your company is a key element for improving decision-making capabilities. But who should you give the keys to your BI within your organization? Do all employees need access?

Well, we can start by saying that free access without any governance will overshadow the benefits of BI in the company. That’s why having an adequate data governance strategy is essential to make the most of it.

Here are some recommendations you should consider when determining who should have access to your BI.

First, properly structure your company’s information

With a clear definition of the data your company will work with, it becomes easier to establish the level of access each employee should have. Let’s look at an example: if your company has a sales team organized by countries, regions, and cities, you can group data by that structure and provide access for each team member accordingly. This way, a salesperson with a smaller scope will only be able to access their own sales data, while someone managing multiple regions will have broader access privileges.

Think about making your employees’ work more efficient.

Evaluate each employee’s role and how they currently perform their tasks. Ask yourself if you can make it easier for them to access the information they need to do their jobs. This will help you identify opportunities to grant the right level of access to the right people in less time. A BI tool that provides valuable information to its users becomes an indispensable part of their work, leading to greater efficiency and faster response times.

Here are some examples of the types of information different roles may need access to:

Executive management: They need consolidated reports to make strategic decisions. With BI4Web’s pyramid navigation, they can move from a global overview down to the level of detail necessary to understand what’s happening in the company.

Department managers or process leaders: They need access to specific data to manage teams and projects. You can make their work easier by providing access not only to their areas of responsibility but also to related data from other departments that impact their work—always with a clear governance strategy so they don’t end up overwhelmed with unnecessary information.

Data analysts: They perform more specialized analyses, so their access should be limited to their analytics area.

Follow the principle of least privilege.

This principle states that each person, application, or system should have only the permissions and access strictly necessary to perform their functions. A simple example: if someone’s role is to analyze sales, there’s no need for them to access HR data.

Ensure confidential and sensitive data is protected.

In addition to making sure every employee sees information relevant to their role, you must also consider that some data requires additional protection due to its confidentiality or sensitivity.

Examples of confidential information include financial data, key client data, or HR reports.

Control the level of access.

Viewing data is not the same as modifying or deleting it. Therefore, each role must have the appropriate access level according to its responsibilities within the company. Here are some examples of access levels a user might need:

A. Read-only
Allows employees to view data without making any changes. Ideal for those who need to make data-driven decisions but are not supposed to modify the information.

B. Creation of analyses or reports
This level of access allows users to create dashboards and data visualizations.

C. Full or administrative access
These users can configure the system, manage permissions, and perform critical BI maintenance tasks.

Choose a BI solution that makes all of this easy.

With BI4Web, you can securely provide your employees with the data access they need. Request a free trial and see for yourself how you can start making data-driven decisions safely.

We have excellent news for our entire community. BI4Web V.23 is now available with multiple innovations and improvements. We share the most prominent ones here:

A renewed experience

BI4Web V.23 is available as a PWA (Progressive Web App). It allows you to access it more easily from any mobile or desktop device without installation and with an experience much closer to the applications we already know.

Another advantage of PWAs is that you can add their icon to both the home screen and the device’s taskbar. It facilitates access since only one click is needed to launch the application.

A new dimension in data analysis

This new version incorporates the functionality to calculate and represent trend lines. It will allow users to identify patterns and predict future behaviors based on historical data. These patterns can be upward trends, downward trends, seasonalities, and cycles.

Improved style application

Simple data control applies all styles correctly. In this version, we fixed those few cases where styles did not work properly. Moreover, helpers have improved by having an alignment that favors their presentation.

Enhanced Excel export

In BI4Web V.23, the export to Excel format has resolved export errors that happened when exporting from the grid or pivot grid control, and the cell with numeric values was a string (Alphanumeric).

Additionally, unlike previous versions, the width of the columns adapts to the length of the length value in every row. It makes the exported document look much better and prevents values from being unorganized.

Another detail of this version is that the values totals in Excel-exported documents are highlighted in bold to make them easier to differentiate from others.

If you want to update to the new version, contact your BI4Web distributor or contact us by writing to rcm@rcm.es

To read the complete documentation of the new version, click here.

Decisions made by financial management have a significant impact on a company’s operation, development, and growth. For this reason, any improvement that enables more assertive decision-making holds considerable value. In this regard, companies with Business Intelligence solutions in their financial management can access pertinent, up-to-date, and accurate information that strengthens the decision-making process.

This article will discuss the impact of improvements driven by Business Intelligence in financial management.

Understanding Financial Performance

BI offers a clear and comprehensive view of relevant financial metrics, such as revenues, expenses, and profitability. It assists financial teams in identifying opportunities to save costs and create new revenue streams.

It is possible through dashboards and financial reports developed within the BI system. These provide stakeholders with the information they need to detect patterns and trends, enabling them to initiate necessary actions.

Some of the ratios that can be highly useful for financial management are as follows:

1. Solvency or Liquidity Ratio measures the company’s ability to meet short-term debts. If this indicator is below one, the company is technically facing insolvency; if it’s above two, there are excess circulating idle assets.
2. Quick Ratio: This assesses the company’s ability to meet short-term debts without considering stocks. If this indicator is below one, the company is technically at risk of insolvency; if it’s above two, there are excess circulating idle assets.
3. Immediate Liquidity: This evaluates the company’s ability to meet debts considering only the money in banks and cash. If this indicator is below 0.1, there are liquidity problems; if it’s above 0.4, it indicates idle treasury.
4. Debt Ratio: This indicates the level of the company’s indebtedness, with an appropriate debt level at 0.5. Higher values suggest excessive indebtedness, while lower values indicate idle equity.
5. Economic Profitability: This reflects the profitability the company gains from its typical activities. An indicator below 0 represents unprofitable productivity, while above 0 represents profitable productivity.
6. Financial Profitability: This indicates the profitability of own capital. If it’s above 0, productivity is profitable.
7. Net Profit: This measures the net profit obtained from company sales. Values above 0 indicate positive profitability.

Analyzing for Better Decision-Making

The analytical power of BI allows finance professionals to compare budget forecasts with actual budgets, helping them identify discrepancies and implement necessary corrective measures. However, the analysis goes beyond identifying disparity; it’s also convenient for making forecasts based on historical financial data, including sales, expenses, and profitability. It enables financial teams to create a more precise outlook and strategic planning.

Enhancing Customer Understanding

Understanding customer behavior is crucial for defining pricing, marketing strategy, and product characteristics. From a financial standpoint, BI can assist in understanding customers in the following ways:

1. Customer Segmentation: This involves grouping customers based on characteristics, for example, location, purchase frequency, age, etc.
2. Customer Behavior Analysis: Analyzing factors like purchase frequency can lead to a better customer experience and increased profitability for the company.
3. Predictive Modeling: Predictive models help forecast how customers will behave in the future, allowing adjustments to financial strategy for better results.

Regulatory Compliance

BI can aid in regulatory compliance by adjusting reports to meet legal standards or guidelines from government agencies. Additionally, alerts can be set up to prompt actions when there’s a risk of non-compliance with monitored regulations.

Risk Management

With BI, you can proactively detect risks in departments like credit, market, or operations. The analysis provided by BI also helps quantify the impact of risk, allowing for prioritization in risk management planning.

In conclusion, BI significantly enhances the ability of finance teams to efficiently manage company resources by bolstering the analysis of financial information and its impact on the company level. With tools like BI4Web, it’s possible to equip your finance team with the analytical and data visualization capabilities needed for highly competitive financial management. Contact us for a free demo.