Unlocking the power of data has become a cornerstone for modern businesses seeking informed decision-making. Embedded reporting, seamlessly integrating reporting and data visualization capabilities into existing software applications, emerges as a transformative solution.

In this article, we delve into the essence of embedded reporting, exploring how it not only provides a window into critical data but also revolutionizes how businesses embed reports for leveraging insights within their everyday applications.

1. The Definition of Embedded Reporting

Embedded reporting seamlessly integrates reporting and data visualization capabilities into another software application, providing end-users with a window into the data held within a particular software application.

Typically, IT departments assist in incorporating reporting tools, such as embedded reports, dashboards, and charts, into existing software.

This approach makes it easier for users to access data in context, enabling more efficient analysis and issue identification within the applications they use every day.

2. Benefits of Embedded Reporting

2.1 For Software Vendors 

Today, more data is appearing than ever before, and companies pay more attention to data visualization and data analytics. 

By embedding the modern reporting platform into your product, you can deliver value-added capabilities and offer your clients new technology to get visual and in-depth insights. It will give you a competitive edge over competitors who may only be giving basic features.

Besides, when you choose to embed a highly flexible reporting platform, such as FineReport, a Java reporting tool that can be seamlessly integrated with any platform, you will use up fewer development cycles to add value to your product. It will give you a sustainable advantage over your competitors.

2.2 For Business Departments 

There are many reporting tools on the market. However, without embedded reporting capabilities, business departments need to create view reports in multiple tools. 

For example, it is common to store sales data in the CRM system and store financial data in the ERP system. In this situation, users must export data from different systems to the reporting software, generate reports, and analyze the information separately. 

Embedded reporting tools make it possible for users to generate and view reports directly in the CRM or ERP system. It removes the hassle and improves the user experience greatly.

2.3 For IT Departments

As mentioned above, business departments may have demands to embed the reports into business systems. The development cycle is long, and the cost of maintaining the system is high.

If you choose vendor-guaranteed embedded reporting software, it will be future-proofed, which will free your developers from the burdens of fixing bugs.

The modern embedded reporting platform also offers an enhanced user experience with improved UI and flexible design options.

3. How to Choose the Right Embedded Reporting Tools?

More and more reporting tools offer reporting capabilities. However, the leading platforms will deliver more. You should check out the following four features to ensure the performance of your embedded reporting solution.

3.1 Flexible Deployment 

The right embedded BI reporting software should be one that developers can easily embed anywhere they have any application with any user type. The tool should easily integrate data from different sources, whether deployed internally or in a cloud/SaaS application environment. In this way, users only need to care about the information concluded from the data. 

3.2 Convenient Operation and Maintenance

It is common for IT departments to maintain the system after the reporting system is in use. The time spent on operations and maintenance is no less than that of developing systems. 

Therefore, a convenient O&M is very important when you select an embedded reporting system. 

For example, FineReport’s intelligent operation and maintenance features allow operation staff to monitor which templates in the current system have problems. You can also track which templates are at risk of problems, whether the hardware and software configuration can support the practical scenarios, or whether the system has a potential risk of a crash.

3.3 High Security

Embedding the reports in other software applications may cause a security problem. 

A good embedded reporting tool should be easy to incorporate into your security policy, user management, and management system. In addition to supporting single sign-on, the device should allow you to adjust user roles, set permissions to access reports and secure other user data from multi-user environments.

3.4 Scalability

High availability, load balance, and scalability are all critical attributes of the clustered report server architecture. The property of scalability gives the reporting system the ability to be modified with changing business requirements, such as FineReport, which provides rich APIs for customization to meet increasing needs. 

4. Benefits of FineReport Embedded Reporting Software

Successful embedded reporting projects have more than the features mentioned above. Here are some additional advantages of using FineReport to embed reports into your application.

• A simple drag-and-drop operation mode

FineReport offers an Excel-like drag-and-drop interface that users can create a web report with low code.

• Flexible data reporting design

FineReport offers three design modes: General Report, Aggregation Report, and Dashboard, catering to the diverse needs of all report types.

• Cool visualization and interaction

There are 19 categories of HTML5 charts with dynamic interactions and cool 3D effects for you to choose from to display visually appealing reports and dashboards.

• Powerful data entry

With FineReport, you can write data back to the database via online reports directly in your third-party applications such as CRM.

• Perfect multi-screen application

The embedded reports can be displayed smoothly on PC, mobile, and large screens. 

5. A Conclusion of Embedded Reporting

Embedded reporting tools allow you to embed the reporting capabilities into your software application, which provides a more user-friendly way for end-users to access reports and makes software vendors more competitive. 

I hope this article gives you a view of embedded reporting, and you can find suitable software to implement it.