David Menninger's Analyst Perspectives

Organizations are continuously increasing the use of analytics and business intelligence to turn data into meaningful and actionable insights. Our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research shows some of the benefits of using analytics: Improved efficiency in business processes, improved communication and gaining a competitive edge in the market top the list. With a unified BI system, organizations can have a comprehensive view of all organizational data to better manage processes and identify opportunities. Zoho is a software company that offers a suite of business applications across various segments. Zoho Analytics is its self-service BI platform that connects to various sources including on-premises and cloud databases, business applications, files and feed and custom apps. The platform enables individuals to cleanse, transform, enrich and catalog the data using its data preparation and management module. It also offers the capability to augment data analysis with artificial intelligence. Line-of-business workers can use its AI assistant to generate automated insights and perform cognitive and what-if analysis. The platform offers a drag and drop interface to create interactive reports and dashboards which can then be shared across the organization. Zoho recently announced the latest version of its low-code offering, Zoho Creator Platform. It enables line-of-business and IT teams to build scalable, low-code solutions that include apps, integrations, analytics and process automation without heavy dependency on IT teams or time-consuming training. With this update, Zoho’s Creator Platform combines application development, integrations, process automation, business intelligence and analytics into a single platform, enabling IT teams to manage security, compliance and governance challenges. In today’s ever-changing business landscape, it is important for organizations to use business intelligence and analytics effectively to outperform the competition. Our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research shows some of the most common complaints businesses have with existing analytics systems, including difficulty integrating with other business processes, not flexible enough when scaling, hard to access data sources and processes consuming too many resources. Zoho customers will find it straightforward to integrate Zoho Analytics with other Zoho products and blend data from various applications in the Zoho suite. Others will find the Zoho Analytics platform easy to use with a broad range of functionality and integrations. The platform can also be deployed on-premises and on third-party cloud infrastructures such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Its data prep solution enables workers to connect, explore, transform and enrich data for analytics, machine learning, migration and data warehousing. The platform also connects to Zoho’s AI-powered analytical assistant, Zia, that analyzes and extracts insights in real time using machine learning to generate reports and dashboards from those insights. Zoho Workplace is its cloud office and productivity suite that enables real-time collaboration on different apps. Line-of-business workers can access all workplace applications through its centralized panel and connect with other team members using its business productivity tools to improve collaboration. Zoho One is a comprehensive suite of all of the company’s 45-plus business applications that further enhance the value an integrated offering provides. Connecting analytics with business applications and collaboration tools enables organizations to move from insight and collaborative decision-making to action. Ultimately, the objective of analyses is to take actions that improve an organization’s operations. Organizations attempting to combine data from multiple applications and run data processes, analytics and BI on a unified platform should evaluate the offerings of Zoho. Regards, David Menninger

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