Fintech Buyers Guide to Business Intelligence (BI) Software: A 9-Point Checklist

by James · December 14, 2022

The idea of using data to drive better decision-making is well established. But the traditional approach – centered around Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools – relies on specialist software and highly trained teams.

This creates bottlenecks in the flow of information.

Although traditional BI tools have improved in recent years, there is still too great a distance between the data and the decision-makers.

As a result, we are seeing the rise of embedded analytics to bring users closer to the data – leading to faster and more accurate decisions.

This guide will help you choose the right embedded analytics software.

9 key requirements for BI embedded analytics

If you’re looking to find the best built-in analytics and predictive tools for business intelligence, we recommend asking the following questions:

1. Why should I add BI embedded analysis software?

By embedding BI tools, you add serious, demonstrable value to your fintech product.

In addition to giving end users the ability to create dashboards and visualizations without touching any code, embedded analytics allow more people to see, understand and do more with data.

Built-in analytics allows you to connect and query your data source directly and in real-time for instant data analysis – without moving it. For fintechs, this can support with fraud detection, risk management, monitoring of financial KPIs and facilitating your own business intelligence.

2. How much does business intelligence software cost?

Budget is one of the biggest factors in any decision to purchase BI software. That’s why you need to do your research to ensure you’re getting the most out of your BI tool.

When it comes to cost, consider these three areas:

Value: Consider how the solution compares to other BI providers and older BI solutions.
Scalability: Ensure you can scale to integrate embedded analytics into your applications, websites and workflows with full cost control.
Transparent pricing: Beware of Business Intelligence software vendors that use the “budget airline” pricing model where you pay for the basic service but get hit with expensive add-ons – as soon as you need extra functional tools, or have increased data volumes.

3. What is the ROI for BI software?

In addition to significantly improving your own reporting, as a fintech, adding BI tools to your product offering can be a relatively easy and quick way to open up a new revenue stream.

4. Will data be kept safe and secure?

The security of data is essential. Therefore, keeping data safe should be a top priority.

Look for providers with a safe and secure backend, where client data is kept private.

5. Is the BI software self-service and easy to use?

For a BI tool to be truly useful, it must be usable. You shouldn’t need a PhD in statistics to be able to use the data your analytics software generates.

Look for “no-code” functionality. This makes it extremely easy to build reports, visualizations, predictive models and charts.

6. Can I white label the BI tools and build them into my own software stack?

Being able to customize the built-in analytics tools to your own brand is great for platforms that offer BI to their own customers.

Look for white-label BI functionality that lets you quickly and easily brand their tools with your own branding, so you can create a seamless BI offering.

7. How easy is it to deploy the BI product to my platform?

Speed and ease of deployment are very important factors when choosing the right BI tool.

Look for solutions that can be quickly and easily integrated into your platform with minimal effort.

8. Does BI software come with customer service and support?

If you have questions or problems along the way, you will have fast, friendly and efficient support from your BI software provider. So check out customer reviews online.

9. What is the cost of not providing data insights to your users?

If you are NOT providing valuable insight – you can be sure your competitors are.

Failing to offer your customers the ability to derive value from the data your platform generates means they are missing out on the significant value of that data.

How long will your customers stay with you if you don’t give them the best personal services?

They are likely to soon move to a competing platform that offers them value-added services as part of the package.

Find your embedded analytics solution

There is no doubt that embedded analytics has its advantages. With the right software, you’ll enable end users to autonomously explore real-time data, improve BI with self-service dashboards, and create highly detailed reports in seconds. It definitely has an impact on your bottom line.

Whether your goal is to improve and automate business intelligence or improve the products you deliver to customers, the guide above will help you find the right embedded analytics solution to fit your business needs.