Analytics tools and business intelligence in Salesforce

In the mid of 2017, Salesforce, the world's number one CRM service provider, released their updated data analytics tools for visualizing data - Einstein Analytics which was earlier known as "Wave analytics". People who use Salesforce platform have probably heard of Einstein AI, but what is "Einstein Analytics"? 

The easiest way to describe it is a business intelligence (BI) tool from Salesforce optimized for mobile access and data visualization. The analytic tools are used to visualize the activity occurring in your Salesforce ecosystem, which enables business users to make informed decisions. It doubles as a visibility tool to offer insights like contacts, campaigns or accounts into your user’s data on the CRM. The upside of using Einstein Analytics is that it is not just restricted to local Salesforce sales, service and marketing data. It can also be used to analyze external data or old data that is imported into cloud analytics. 

Salesforce markets the tool as an “AI-powered advanced analytics” solution with reports and dashboards, graphs, and other data visualization opportunities to give you a pattern in which your users are using Salesforce services. For example, a salesperson from your team can create visual diagrams that depict open pipelines in dollars, win rates, average sales cycle, etc.

 

Salesforce Einstein Analytics: Bring data together

The quantity of user data is growing subsequently. Global market intelligence firm IDC estimated that the cumulative sum of the world’s data will grow from 33 zettabytes to 175ZB by 2025, which means a growth of 61% each year.  It will also make it harder to explore this huge amount of data manually. With Einstein Analytics, Salesforces has tried to come up with a solution to this issue. It consists of a collection of advanced analytics apps, powered by AI, that enables users to explore data and insights – from a single sales pipeline report and dashboard to complex prediction decisions. Einstein Analytics is built at the core of the Salesforce platform and presents Sales Managers, Service Agents, Marketeers and Analysts the best insights to make their interactions with customers better, provide personalized services and make the right choices.

Graphical representation of insights on your business including win rate, average sales cycle, open pipeline, etc

We know that its fundamental features, reports, dashboards and functionalities allow you to visualize your data in many various ways. But Einstein Analytics goes further than that, to the extent where it’s not just a tool, it’s a platform. Not only does it draw data from your Salesforce orgs but also lets you import and examine external data from well-known sources like Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Dynamics and Google BigQuery. To top that, it's out-of-the-box connectors doesn't require any sort of coding, with just a few clicks you can connect new data sources.

 

Integrate analytics into existing applications 

Dashboard overview of usable data for employees, clients and partners after Einstein Analytics integration

 

Because of Einstein Analytics seamless integration options, its dashboard can be embedded across the entire Salesforce platform to provide a uniform view of usable data to your employees, clients and partners. Before this, users have to manually switch between different systems and solutions for required work data.  But with the implementation of analytics into the platform, all necessary data and information sources are accessed from one place.

So whether you want to add dashboards to user records or share Analytics with communities to allow external users to see apps, you can do that by integrating Einstein analytics into existing applications. Furthermore, it is created to follow API-first approach and with the Analytics Web SDK, you can embed Analytics in any web page or web app. You can then define a list of trusted websites in the Analytics whitelist to integrate dashboards directly into your website while your data remains fully secure.

 

Measure performance, success, and identify business opportunities with insights

Why does data visibility matter for your organisation? It's simple, you can't secure something that is not visible to you. Because if you can't see what is going on with your applications, you won't be able to keep track of their performance. You will also not be able to recognise the origins of the security concerns, the main focus on training methods or the practices of successful team members. 

Concerns that are related to security, usage and adoption, performance and compliance can be cleared with the data from your Salesforce org. For example,  Event Monitoring data can answer questions like, who logged in this week and who didn't? Or if your employees are sending out any sensitive data before leaving.  

Business opportunity graph to measure performance, success and failure

 

Business Intelligence tools for Analytics

Business Intelligence first came with the intention to transform data into information beneficial for decision-making. And if you analyze and process that information well, you can contribute a lot in improving a company's strategic development. But before we jump into writing down all the benefits that come with adopting these technology tools that come with it, we should know what exactly Business Intelligence is. 

Business Intelligence (BI) is a term that refers to the use of approaches and tools that are used to convert data or information into a usable asset for a company.  Its main goal is to enhance a company's decision-making techniques and performance side by side. The companies that operate their internal processes under BI analytics make better use of their resources in the long run. With all the information they have at their disposal, they can perform a detailed market analysis and up their corporate strategy game. So it goes without saying that with correct usage and all the essential resources, it can be a valuable tool to have. 

Benefits of Business Intelligence tools

Firms growth is completely logical, and BI offers them a chance at improving their performance and puts them ahead of their competition. The fact is everybody wants that and here are some of the notable advantages Business Intelligence tools can offer a firm to do just that. 

 

Analytics apps for sales, service, marketing

Salesforce has transformed CRM analytics with role-specific, native analytics apps. It has removed the barriers of data accessibility, research and actionability for Salesforce users. Einstein Analytics apps are also built with role-specific KPIs in Salesforce so that its users can follow an automatic, self-service approach of finding up-to-date data. It helps them gain insight, collaborate with others and take immediate response from any device.

Sales Analytics contributes to helping sales reps and managers to manage estimates, pipelines and team performance. On the other hand, Service Analytics is for service agents and call- centre managers to enhance customer satisfaction and pipeline optimization. B2B Marketing Analytics delivers insights to data-driven marketers on their engagement, pipelines and campaign performance. For customers, it gives them an ability to build and customize their analytics apps on the Salesforce platform with the help of analytics app designer, visual data prep and external data connectors.

 

Summing up Analytics tools in Salesforce

Einstein Analytics is a hugely successful product from Salesforce for all your analytics needs, and it has already built a place in the global enterprise market and used by several Salesforce consulting companies. This is a highly user-friendly tool that evolves with each update and learns as you use Salesforce services. The Salesforce team has put together a unique product by keeping the needs of end-users in mind. Additionally, the capacity to obtain third-party data and efficiently integrate with other tools gives Einstein Analytics an edge over other products. Its mobile-enabled features help executives on the move to be on top of all activities. As the initial adoption challenge, companies need to define a viable use case. The second challenge is to have enough data for Einstein analytics to look for patterns and analytics that support those use cases and eliminate hypothetical analysis.

Evon Technologies provides end-to-end Salesforce development services in India and to global enterprises. We understand that implementing Salesforce Analytics tools can be a challenging process, if not mapped correctly. We can help you develop a clear strategy and provide expert guidance for Einstein Analytics implementation. Our Salesforce business analyst with expertise in AI, machine learning, and predictive analysis will help you define personalized use cases for your company. It will help you fully optimize your Salesforce platform to work better by leveraging Einstein AI in your workflow. To learn more about our Salesforce solutions, contact us or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.