Quick start guide to embedded reporting

Data analytics has exploded in popularity as businesses seek new ways to strategize and make more informed decisions. Product managers can cater to this demand by including reporting, data visualization, and analytics tools in their software to enhance their customer's experience and gain a competitive advantage. However, it's not always easy to choose the right reporting solution.

This guide outlines key factors to consider while exploring embedded reporting solutions. We also highlight Jaspersoft's capabilities as the most flexible and customizable business intelligence reporting platform available.

Get started with embedded reporting

As the name suggests, embedded reporting integrates powerful business intelligence (BI) tools into software applications. These solutions allow end-users to analyze data and generate reports without navigating to a separate platform or application.

Product managers and software developers often embed reporting to create a more seamless user experience. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to integrating this functionality into software, so there are several options to consider.

Decide between build vs. buy

There are two ways to add embedded reporting to software: building a custom tool from scratch or purchasing a pre-built platform.

The builder's journey

Building embedded reporting tools offers several benefits. This approach provides complete control over the tool's design and functionality as development teams can create a custom tool to meet specific requirements and business needs.

This process can involve:

• Defining project requirements
• Designing the tool's user interfaces and layouts
• Coding the necessary reporting features
• Testing and refining the embedded reporting functionality
• Deploying the tool in the application
• Maintaining and updating the reporting tool

This approach typically has unpredictable costs and requires a higher initial investment as compared to buying a pre-built tool. Companies must factor in ongoing maintenance and development expenses, as well as a delayed time to market. However, the product developer won't need to pay licensing fees or subscription costs.

Additionally, homegrown tools often lack advanced functionality. Building efforts may force businesses to shift attention and support away from other critical IT projects, like refining the user interface or improving the user experience, leading to missed opportunities and higher costs.

The buyer's journey

Buying an embedded reporting solution can be a much simpler and faster process while allowing product managers to focus on their core business. Buyers must simply:

• Research available reporting tools
• Choose a user-friendly solution that fits the project requirements
• Integrate the tool into the application
• Receive vendor training to learn how to use the product's features effectively and support end-users

Choosing a pre-built reporting and embedded analytics tool can significantly reduce application development and integration time. Time is money in the competitive software market, so the time product managers save going to market with an established solution can give their company a significant advantage.

Many vendors also provide ongoing customer support. This assistance may include one-on-one consultations with the vendor's technical team, community forums, instructional webinars, and other helpful resources. These various customer support solutions can help developers increase productivity, diagnose and resolve issues quickly, and reduce downtime.

However, a pre-built embedded reporting tool can have more constraints than a custom-built tool. For instance, users must wait for the vendor to make updates, and the product may have fewer customization options to meet specific requirements.

Comparing purchase options

Product managers who buy an embedded reporting tool must decide between two types of solutions: open source or commercial.

Open source

There are many free, open-source BI reporting tools, including Apache Superset, Jaspersoft, and Metabase. Users can access the source code to customize the tools for more customization.

Communities of software developers and other product users, who often provide free advice and resources, build and maintain open-source tools. However, you get what you pay for. These tools often lack dedicated professional support, and users may experience significant challenges when integrating them into existing applications or long resolution times for complicated issues.

Commercial

Many vendors have developed commercial embedded reporting tools. Commercial solutions typically have more convenient functionality and advanced features than open-source tools. Vendors also tend to provide frequent updates and dedicated support.

Of course, these benefits come at a cost. Most commercial products have monthly or annual subscription fees. Additionally, commercial solutions typically do not provide source code, which limits a developer's ability to build custom features.

Evaluate your use case requirements

As you compare options, keep your use case requirements in mind. Important factors to consider include:

• APIs: Assess how deeply and seamlessly you can embed the reporting tool into your application. The most effective tools also allow you to natively embed analytics and visualizations in your own branding and style while also giving you control over features like toolbars and navigation.
• Flexibility: An architecture-agnostic reporting tool provides flexibility for integrating into different environments and systems. The tool also needs to be able to adapt to various platform needs and connect to many different data sources.
• Security integration and support: Reporting tools should have advanced security features to protect data and prevent unauthorized users from accessing confidential information. The most secure tools allow administrators to authenticate user accounts, encrypt passwords, define access permissions, and enforce data-level security.
• Customization: Customizable reporting tools allow developers to tailor the user interface, report configurations, and other elements with pixel-perfect precision.
• Pricing: Choose a vendor with transparent pricing and services that fit your budget and reporting needs. Some vendors offer original equipment manufacturer (OEM) licenses, which allow clients to resell their products as part of their software.
• Scalability: Embedded reporting tools that can deploy in cloud environments can scale computing resources quickly and cost-effectively to enable flexibility and support more data or user activity.

Identify partners that meet, and exceed, your requirements

Many product managers prefer Jaspersoft's highly flexible, API-first approach that allows them to deploy reporting into any environment. Jaspersoft is open source and can be customized to your exact, evolving needs. In addition, their solution offers advanced multi-tenant support and identity management integration.

Additionally, Jaspersoft commercial edition offers dedicated professional support and has a vibrant, global community where users can find helpful how-to guides, access code samples, and discover best practices.

This winning combination allows you to customize the tool to meet your requirements without taking away the safety net of reliable vendor assistance. You can experiment with confidence, knowing that Jaspersoft is 100% focused on helping you design, embed, manage, and deploy high-volume, pixel-perfect reports, self-service ad hoc reports, and dashboards with developer-level control on the most flexible and customizable BI platform available.

Make the best embedded reporting decision

While there are many factors to consider when choosing an embedded reporting solution, for most commercial applications, partnering with the right software vendor offers the most advantageous, efficient, and overall affordable solution. Pre-built reporting and embedded analytics platforms like Jaspersoft have robust features and comprehensive support while still offering developers flexibility and scalability.

Ready to get started with Jaspersoft Reports? Start a free 30-day trial, or contact us to learn more about our products, features, and pricing.