Minimize Tech Debt Risk with Embedded BI

Tech debt is the cost of choosing quick solutions over better ones, requiring future rework. It is a fact of life for developers–when work piles up and deadlines approach, you prioritize what’s most important. In the short term, taking the easy road keeps your release schedule on track and your applications running smoothly, at least on the surface. But after the essential work is done, you’re left with an uneasy knowledge that significant re-work will be required of your team at some point in the future – a technical debt looming over your everyday tasks.

Tech debt can accumulate in a variety of ways. Take for example a developer who isn’t familiar with business intelligence (BI). If they make charts with a freemium product and a simple dashboard, they could run into problems later. Years down the line, that single developer could be the only person on staff who can make changes to the dashboard, and they’re left with the responsibility of maintaining and updating it.

Upgrading the library runs the risk of breaking the dashboard. And if the developer moves throughout the company or leaves their position, it leaves a dashboard that potentially no one else on staff knows how to maintain.

You may be working with an outdated framework that needs updating or old libraries that are no longer being supported, but upgrading takes time you don’t immediately have. How can you reduce tech debt while staying on schedule?

From Tech Debt to Flight Risk

In the current business climate, organizations striving for profitability are placing pressure on their development teams to squeeze more value from their existing technology investments. This can lead to rushed decisions and adding unstable elements to your products to satisfy leadership demand for growth. Previously, using a simple framework like .net or java might have done the job. But as your organization grows certain features only scale so much. Eventually, these frameworks can reach an end-of-life state where they can no longer be updated or supported. At that point, you’ll need to migrate.

While you’re supporting your organization’s growth, adhering to strict product schedules, and fixing bugs, migrating can easily take a back seat. Upgrade delays only contribute to tech debt, and the more you postpone, the harder it is to catch up. And when your framework can no longer install cybersecurity patches, it becomes vulnerable to potential threats.

Maintaining a strong cybersecurity stance is crucial, and it’s top-of-mind for developers. According to insightsoftware and Hanover Research’s latest Embedded Analytics Report, 64% of developers see cybersecurity as a top concern.

IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report reveals the average cost of a data breach for global organizations is at an all-time high at $4.45 million. On top of high costs, data breaches can cause reputational damage that can easily hinder further growth. This is where technology can help. Robust embedded BI solutions have security features baked in, allowing you to reduce tech debt while resting assured your data will remain safe.

How Embedded BI Can Help

Technical debt is hard–if not impossible–to avoid. The best IT leaders will plan on tackling tech debt ahead of time, making smart choices like organizing a “tech debt week” dedicated to reducing buildup. Reducing tech debt may not have an immediate impact on your business, but you will see benefits over time. For example, if your system is built on aging code, installing new updates can be incredibly time consuming. Updating your system or fixing code will make future deployment processes both faster and smoother.

Embedded business intelligence can help reduce tech debt buildup by providing valuable insights while seamlessly integrating with your system and updating automatically. Other advantages include:

• Greater visibility into your organizational data
• Trend detection
• Less data complexity
• Rich visualizations
• More informed decision-making

If you already have built a custom embedded business intelligence solution, regular maintenance and solving challenges can take a considerable amount of time–on average 30 hours or more per week. Tech debt is easy to accumulate when your custom-built solution requires nearly an entire work week to update.

When customers or internal leadership ask for detailed analytics, leaning on outdated or unsupported systems is time-consuming, forcing customers and stakeholders to wait longer than they need to for answers to their pressing business questions.

Embedded BI Made Simple

Investing in a third-party embedded BI solution can solve these problems and rid you of tech debt associated with your analytics functionality. Embedded BI solutions do this by:

• Monthly or quarterly release cycles that keep you on top of cutting-edge technology
• Automatic updates so your BI tool is never out of date
• Compliance with changing frameworks and regulations
• Robust security features

Logi Symphony by insightsoftware is a powerful embedded business intelligence and analytics (ABI) software suite that empowers ISVs and application teams to embed analytical capabilities and data visualizations into their SaaS applications.

Logi Symphony can help development teams and the customers they serve reduce tech debt by providing insight to solve problems, foster more informed decision-making, and providing professional services to help you through the installation process and beyond. With its scalability and ease of implementation, Logi Symphony automatically updates, releases new features on a reliable cycle, and has built-in security features you can trust.

• Automated code generation: Logi Symphony can automatically generate code based on user-defined configurations, reducing the need for manual coding, and minimizing the potential for human errors that can contribute to tech debt.
• Reusable components: The platform encourages the creation and reuse of pre-built, modular components for common functionalities. This reduces code duplication and simplifies future maintenance, preventing tech debt accumulation.
• Visual development tools: Logi Symphony provides visual development tools that allow developers to work with code visually, reducing the need for writing extensive lines of code. This can significantly improve development speed and efficiency, lowering the risk of introducing technical debt through quick fixes.
• Version control and collaboration: Logi Symphony integrates with version control systems, facilitating efficient tracking of code changes and enabling collaboration between developers. This helps maintain code clarity, consistency, and reduces the likelihood of introducing regressions that can increase tech debt.

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