Data analytics solutions are a crucial part of the success of any organization. They help businesses understand their customers better and make better and smarter business decisions based on hard facts.
But that’s only when the data analytics solution is modern and supports a full stack of integrated analytics functions. A legacy platform, on the other hand, could be that element of your business that is holding you back.
So, how could your legacy analytics solution hurt your business? These are a few examples of how and why such platforms are turning into a roadblock on your path to success, and why you need to replace your legacy system with a modern embedded analytics solution:
But first, here’s a quick definition of what a legacy analytics system is.
We say that one analytics solution is a legacy system when it is made out of complex and outdated systems and technologies that no longer meet user expectations. These legacy solutions are functioning and still perform the tasks that they were designed for, but they don’t integrate with new technologies, have stopped maintenance, and typically offer very limited analytics and reporting capabilities that only technical users can utilize.
Limited integration capabilities
Integration capabilities are essential to ensure that an organization’s processes run smoothly. By continuing to use your legacy solution, however, you limit your business of considerations to the most modern and innovative integrations available. Modern software systems and technologies will often not support interactions with old, outdated, legacy systems as they, among other things, have limited abilities to adapt and grow. This leaves organizations in a difficult position, where they must choose between ditching their legacy solution and upgrading to a modern stack one or continue using their old system and remaining stuck or even falling behind as long as it exists.
Wasted data
Data loss is something that all businesses should fear. Think of how much data your organization generates, and how much of that data your legacy solution has the resources to analyze. By using a legacy analytics solution, you limit your business from the opportunity to make the most of the data it possesses. Sometimes your legacy solution might do the job, but most often you’ll waste key business insights.
High maintenance
Over time, legacy systems become difficult to manage. Every alteration adds complexity and becomes a time and money consuming task. And in time, and with technology advancements, time and money that go to waste for maintenance will inevitably increase. The best solution is to be proactive and upgrade to a new and modern stack solution as soon as possible.
Security issues
Analytics solutions from the past are often created with limited security in mind, which makes them more vulnerable to hacking attacks than modern systems. Go on using your legacy analytics solution and your business will be at risk of security breaches and data leakage. Protecting and securing an outdated system will require continuous, high costs, which will be nothing in comparison to the cost of losing clients and their trust in the event of an attack.
Choose a Modern Embedded Analytics Solution
Compared to the restricted analytics platforms of the past, modern embedded analytics solutions are packed with interactive data visualization and reporting capabilities, self-service and white-labeling functions, collaboration, alerts, data preparation, data blending, dashboard linking, and more on a unified, scalable architecture with common management and administrative functions.
Self-service analytics means that modern analytics solutions give end-users the freedom to edit and create their own visualizations and dashboards. That way business users can save time on waiting on IT and data analysts to do that for them and can extract insights and actionable information in the moment when they need them.
Furthermore, the two of the most important and most valuable data analytics technologies – AI and machine learning – play an imperative role in modern stack solutions. Their ability to automatically analyze real-time plus historical data allows businesses to easily spot trends and patterns to forecast future events.
Conclusion
By sticking with your legacy platform, you predispose your business to failure. Legacy analytics solutions only cost money and force businesses to miss key opportunities, so you inevitability need to make a change and take a step forward to modernization. Why don’t you start now?