A Complete Overview of Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is one of the finest self-service BI and data analytics software that allows you to analyze data, create amazing data visualizations, and discover hidden insights within minutes. It provides cutting edge analytical solutions that are needed to transform raw data into actionable insights. 

Zoho Analytics also allows users to fetch data from any data source and analyze it visually for making informed and data-driven decisions. In addition, it also allows the user to easily share insights and collaborate. 

A great feature about Zoho Analytics software is that it allows the users to create visualizations and dashboards to present data via a quick, easy and self-service model. It also brings detailed insights and analysis to an organization’s business data on demand without any help of IT assistants or data analysts through extensive automation efforts all across the analytical process.

The users can crunch large datasets, clean and blend data, perform different analytical tasks and also visualize the results in dynamic graphics to extract insights. They can also make informed decisions in a stand-alone or embedded environment with the support of mobile devices. Additionally, it comes with a flexible on-premise and cloud deployment model. 

Features of Zoho Analytics

1. Data Integration

You can get your data analyzed wherever it may be using over 250+ data sources of Zoho Analytics. You can connect to data from files, feeds, web URLs, databases, business applications, and much more. 

• Files and Feeds: Zoho Analytics allows you to upload data from spreadsheets and flat files such as Microsoft Excel, HTML, CSV, XML, JSON, text files and more. The data can be easily fed from online storage services such as Zoho Docs, Box, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, etc. It is easy to pull data from web URL feeds. 
• Databases: You can connect with popular business applications in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Help Desk, IT, HR, and many more with the ready-made connectors. 
• Custom Apps: Zoho Analytics software offers powerful data import and integration APIs for building a connector quickly, and getting data from any offline/online application for analysis. 

2. Data Preparation and Management

You can use the self-service data and management application called Zoho DataPrep very easily with Zoho Analytics. This is a good way to get your data cleansed, transformed, enriched for easy and better analysis.

• Auto Model: Zoho Analytics is a business intelligence software that automatically identifies data types. You can get suggestions for joining datasets and create custom data types for identifying and fixing invalid data. 
• Smart Cleanse: You can filter and cleanse data using intelligent suggestions. Improve the quality of your data by removing duplicates and invalid entries. 
• Transform: You can format and change your data without any need for coding. This will also help you reshape your data using over 250+ functions like summary, pivot, unpivot, etc.
• Enrich Data: Zoho Analytics also allows you data with ML/AI-powered transforms such as sentiment analysis, keyword extraction, language detection and more.
• Catalog Data: The use of Zoho Analytics software also enables you to manage your datasets by categories, custom tags, data readiness, data quality, and more. You can also use the search capabilities of Zia which is Zoho’s smart AI assistant for performing system-wide metadata searches.

3. Visual Analysis

The data visualization is one of the best features of Zoho Analytics. With the use of this feature, it is possible to slice and dice your data while analyzing it visually with a wide range of visualization tools. 

• Visualization Options: Zoho Analytics allows you to use a wide range of charts, widgets, summary, pivot, and tabular views for creating insightful reports and dashboards. 
• Drag and Drop Report Creation: Zoho Analytics also enables the effortless creation of meaningful reports and dashboards with the intuitive drag and drop interface. 
• Tabbed Dashboards: With Zoho Analytics, many reports can be combined into tabbed dashboards using a drag and drop designer. You can insert images, formatted texts, web components and widgets in a flexible designer layout. You can make this easy for your executives and users to track KPIs effectively.
• Dynamic and Interactive: Zoho Analytics is a reports and dashboards BI software that allows you to use a wide range of interactive options such as view underlying data, drill down, contextual filters and many more for performing ad-hoc exploratory analysis. 
• Geo Visualization: You can analyze your geographical data with interactive map charts. You can compare and measure key metrics across countries, regions, states, postal codes, and latitudes and longitudes.
• Image-Based Visualizations: Zoho Analytics helps in plotting location data spread over custom image boundaries such as basketball courts, city parking lots, roads, etc. This includes image visuals in your reports to enhance visual appeal and readability.

4. Augmented Analytics

Zoho Analytics software augments your analysis of data with the technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, natural language processing and generation, and getting quick insights from your data. 

• Zia Insights: It is possible to get contextual and actionable insights that go way beyond visualizations in the form of digestible narrations with zero interactions. 
• Conversational Analytics: Zoho Analytics allows you to engage in colloquial conversations with Ask Zia so that you can get relevant reports as answers. 
• Automated Reports: With a single click, you can generate a valuable set of auto-generated reports on whatever data you may have when you are beginning your analysis.
• Predictive Analytics: You can also apply custom forecast models and forecast values of business metrics while predicting the upcoming trends. 
• What if Analysis: Zoho Analytics helps in simulating complex scenarios, and finding optimal business outcomes with the use of what-if analysis. 
• Data Alerts: With the Zoho Analytics self-service BI, you can get notified automatically on important changes to your KPIs, anomalies, goal achievement, etc. This helps in staying on top of your business. 

5. Unified Business Insights

It is possible to unify the business data across an organization from various functions such as marketing, support, finance, sales, etc. You can easily analyze this unified data and unearth end to end insights.

• Easy Connectors: Connect to 50+ popular business applications within a few clicks. Auto-sync and unify data from various business applications in hourly intervals only.
• Pre-built Analytics: Zoho Analytics software helps you instantly begin your analytics journey with much valuable pre-built visualization that offer a comprehensive view of business health. You can build your own ad hoc reports and dashboards to suit your specific needs perfectly.
• Data Blending: Zoho Analytics also helps in the automatic blending of data from various applications. It is also possible to define metrics that span across the data from multiple departments. You can create reports and dashboards with these metrics and offer end to end insights across a business. 

6. Collaborative Analysis

Zoho Analytics is a business intelligence software that makes collaboration an important part of data analytics. You can easily democratize data, allow pervasive BI and analytics in your organization.

• Share Reports and Dashboards: Zoho Analytics allows you to share reports and dashboards that you create with your colleagues, and collaborate with them.
• Best Access Control: You have complete control over what your colleagues can see and do with the data and reports that you share with them. The fine access control with specific options such as read-only, read-write, report authoring, export, and drill down is excellent assistance. 
• Easy Commenting: Zoho Analytics helps you to share contextual comment threads and instantly collaborates with peers on a report or dashboard. You can add and annotate images or go back to see the entire document history anytime and anywhere. 
• Printing and Emailing: With the use of Zoho Analytics, it is also possible to schedule your reports and dashboards to be emailed automatically. You can export and print reports for offline access as well. 

7. Data Storytelling

Zoho Analytics allows you to tell interesting stories by using the data. You can present and publish analytical insights in the context of familiar business workflows. This will make the process of data analytics a lot more efficient and enjoyable. 

• Slideshows: Zoho Analytics is an excellent tool to craft immersive analytics presentations with the use of Zoho Show, an online presentation service. You can add rich narratives in the form of text, images, shapes, etc along with reports and dashboards. This helps in weaving data stories to your audience.
• Web Portals: You can create purpose-built data analytics portals using the site builder called Zoho Sites. This will make it easy and exclusive for your users to analyze the data with visualizations.
• Ask Zia: It is possible to embed the AI assistant of Zoho Analytics called Ask Zia along with Zia insights anywhere in the business workflow. You can allow data-driven decision making at all endpoints.

8. Mobility

Zoho Analytics helps in accessing and interacting with data, reports, and dashboards from phones and tablets. 

• Mobile Applications: It is possible to access and interact with the reports and dashboards that you have created in Zoho Analytics on the move from your iOS and Android powered mobile devices.
• Dashboards Application: This one is a purpose-built and immersive mobile application to access and explore the dashboards that you have in Zoho Analytics. Creative features support the inviting fluid interaction and analysis. 
• Conversational Analytics: This feature allows you to speak with Zia on the go. You can ask questions and get precise insights as answers in the form of reports and widgets.
• Mobile Collaboration: Zoho Analytics helps you add comments to reports, and hold meaningful conversations with your peers. 

9. Embedded Business Intelligence

Using Zoho Analytics software, you can offer a white-labelled BI and analytics application under your brand name. You can also set up a standalone analytics portal and embed it within your application. 

• Embedded Analytics: It is possible to integrate a full-featured analytics platform within an application using the single sign-on API and SAML authentication.
• Self Service Analytics Portal: You can set up a rebranded analytics portal and customize it with rich design elements while seamlessly making it accessible with the use of web and native mobile applications. 
• Augmented Business Intelligence: Zoho’s smart AI assistant called Zia can be easily embedded for getting automated insights from any reports and dashboards. You can take advantage of Zoho Analytics by using features such as smart forecasting and ML-based predictive analysis.

10. Security and Governance

Zoho Analytics software is used by strong Zoho security practices including the support for redundancy, backup, confidentiality, and privacy. This helps in ensuring that the data is safe and secure. 

• Data Security: Zoho Analytics has a privacy by design model which allows the customers to have better control over the data. The time tested and accredited enterprise grade security features and governance framework makes sure that continuous data is managed.
• Data Backup: The data can be stored in Zoho Analytics cloud version and it can be backed up each day in the data centres. You can do a periodic backup as well.
• Roles: The users, viewers, and administrators role at the workplace, organization, and accountant labels are present. There is a clear segregation on who can do what based on the roles.
• Logging: Zoho Analytics software offers all user activity and access within the application. Hence, it is possible to know which user logged in at what time, which user has access to which functions and much more. All this ensures security and accountability while the auditing is going on.

11. Deployments

You can effectively deploy Zoho Analytics according to the needs that you have. It is also possible to subscribe to Zoho Analytics cloud, and install it on premise in your servers. It can also be deployed in public clouds such as Azure, Google, and AWS. Lastly, you can also use the white labeled version of Zoho Analytics.

• Cloud: Zoho Analytics offers easy access to a full fledged self service BI and analytics service that is hosted in Zoho Cloud with just a browser and a mobile application. There is no upfront cost and you can pay as you go ahead with either monthly subscriptions or a yearly lock in.
• Onpremise: You can easily install Zoho Analytics behind the firewalls and on your own servers. This also helps you analyze the data in house. 
• Public Cloud: Zoho Analytics software can be deployed on the public cloud of your choice. This is similar to AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. 
• Embedded: Zoho Analytics offers a complete analytics application in your brand name. There is a choice to either go with the standalone analytics portal or an embedded one with your own application. The white-labelled version is available in the cloud and on-premise models both.

12. Extensibility and Elasticity

Zoho Analytics is an excellent data analytics application that is a full-fledged, scalable, and powerful analytics platform. It helps the developers and system integrators to develop and deploy custom analytics applications and integrations. 

• APIs: You can use a robust set of APIs for the purpose of authorization, custom styling, data integration, and dynamic reportings embedding to build custom analytical applications of integrations. This also allows you to maximize the potential of extensible low code or no-code integration with a tech stack. 
• Zoho Marketplace: You can choose to complement your analytical abilities with a wide range of analytical applications available in the Zoho partner driven Marketplace. There are domain-specific and purpose-built native analytics applications also available in third-party marketplaces.
• Big Data: Zoho Analytics allows you to analyze your big data with ease and derive key business insights. The data can be present in big data sources such as relational, NoSQL and cloud databases or popular business applications. 

Conclusion

Zoho Analytics is designed to benefit businesses from deep analytics using data interpretations, auto-generation of reports and other such features that can help in automatically blending data from various apps for cross-functional analysis. This helps the user to get a comprehensive view of the business. 

The implementation of Zoho Analytics can help you derive business metrics and capture key performance indicators as well. You can plan for future events with forecasting and predictive capabilities, ask questions and get analysis from Zia, and do much more.

If you haven’t already got Zoho Analytics implemented, now is the time to get in touch with a certified Zoho partner such as Encaptechno and get things going. You will be amazed at what all you can do with the use of Zoho Analytics and how it can benefit your business.