Logi now Insightsoftware's unified embedded analytics suite
Logi Symphony combines capabilities from numerous Insightsoftware acquisitions and adds support for generative AI so that users can build and embed AI-infused applications.
Insightsoftware launched Logi Symphony, unifying embedded analytics capabilities inherited through a spate of acquisitions under the Logi Analytics name and enabling customers to more easily infuse applications with AI.
Insightsoftware was an ERP specialist before acquiring Logi in April 2021 for an undisclosed amount, which marked Insightsoftware's expansion into enterprise reporting and embedded analytics.
Less than a week later, Insightsoftware acquired Izenda, another embedded analytics vendor. Then in April 2021, Insightsoftware acquired Exago, still another embedded analytics specialist. Both were quickly folded into Logi, which operates as its own brand within Insightsoftware.
Insightsoftware later acquired Dundas Data Visualization in August 2022. But unlike Izenda and Exago, Dundas was immediately integrated within Logi. Users of Logi and Dundas had access to the capabilities of both, but the capabilities were not joined together in a single tool.
On Oct. 10, the launch of Logi Symphony integrated Logi's existing capabilities -- in particular, Composer, Logi's flagship platform for developers -- with Dundas' existing capabilities such as pixel-perfect reporting.
The primary benefit to customers is the progress toward integration of separate capabilities from separate products into a single platform. For customers that were using multiple products, this will make their lives much easier.
David MenningerAnalyst, Ventana Research
The development is significant for Insightsoftware users because it simplifies the vendor's business intelligence suite while giving users of one previously separate platform easy access to others, according to David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research.
"The primary benefit to customers is the progress toward integration of separate capabilities from separate products into a single platform," he said. "For customers that were using multiple products, this will make their lives much easier. For those that were only using one product, they will have access to more features."
Logi, which offers traditional enterprise reporting features in addition to its embedded analytics capabilities, is one of the few BI vendors to make embedded analytics its primary focus and gear its platform toward developers rather than analysts.
Most BI platforms include embedded analytics capabilities, such as Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. But among vendors, GoodData and Sisense are among the few that -- like Insightsoftware through the Logi portfolio -- have made embedded analytics their primary focus.
New capabilities
Embedded analytics is a crucial means of making data-informed decision-making accessible to a broad audience.
For decades, BI adoption within organizations has been stagnant, hovering around a quarter to one-third of employees, depending on the study. The reasons for that stagnation are myriad and include the complexity of many BI platforms, most of which were designed for trained analysts and retrofitted to include some self-service capabilities, as well as the need for extensive data literacy training.
Embedded analytics reduces some of the complexity and prerequisite data literacy training by infusing data into the workflows of business users. It essentially delivers data to them in their normal environment, which eliminates the need to know how to use a particular BI platform, in a way tailored to their experience, reducing the need for data literacy training.
As a result, embedded analytics capabilities have become a virtual requirement for all BI platforms to remain competitive.
Embedded analytics specialists such as Logi, GoodData and Sisense, however, make developers their target audience rather than business analysts. And as TreeHive Strategy founder and analyst Donald Farmer noted, their platforms enable developers to build and embed more complex applications than general-purpose BI platforms.
In addition, while general-purpose BI platforms enable developers to embed data products such as dashboards and reports within the workflows of business users, customers of embedded analytics specialists' platforms are often independent software vendors that develop applications to sell.
Now, Insightsoftware is making its analytics portfolio easier to use by bringing capabilities together as Logi Symphony, according to Lee An Schommer, Insightsoftware's chief product officer.
"It is one product," she said. "It gives the best of [Composer and Dundas] together so users don't have to cobble together a two-part experience."
New customers automatically start with Symphony to get Logi's preexisting capabilities and Dundas' preexisting capabilities in one, Schommer continued. Existing customers, meanwhile, can migrate to Symphony on their own schedule with the assistance of Insightsoftware.
Beyond integrating Composer and Dundas, Symphony also introduces new support for generative AI, according to Insightsoftware.
The vendor does not integrate with any specific generative AI and large language model platform such as ChatGPT or Google Bard, instead remaining LLM agnostic, according to Schommer.
Rather, Symphony now supports all generative AI platforms so that customers can develop and embed applications with Symphony while infusing those applications with the generative AI capabilities of their choice.
"We want to play the field and allow customers to bring their own AI," Schommer said.
Menninger, meanwhile, noted that Symphony represents Insightsoftware's continued investment in Logi since acquiring the previously independent vendor. Rather than take Logi's capabilities, combine them with other existing Insightsoftware capabilities and make the Logi name disappear, Insightsoftware has instead made Logi a priority.
Capabilities that have been added since the acquisition include those from the acquisitions of Izenda, Exago and Dundas, as well as others such as improved data governance and upgraded connectivity with other systems.
The result is a platform with the potential to expand well beyond embedded analytics, according to Menninger. He noted that the platform includes driver-based planning, a framework to plan business performance that most BI platform vendors don't provide.
"The portfolio is impressive," Menninger said. "It covers a very broad spectrum of capabilities. Depending on which strategic direction Logi takes and how much they are willing to invest, they could become a leader in the overall BI platform market, not just the embedded analytics market."
Future plans
While Symphony includes support for generative AI development, it does not yet include any generative AI capabilities of its own.
That will change next year, according to Schommer.
Like many other data management and analytics platforms, Symphony will include natural language processing capabilities that explain data visualizations, surface anomalies and prompt users to take next steps.
"It's all about helping customers have an easy way to consume their data, because right now they're drowning in data," Schommer said.
She added that Insightsoftware's generative AI roadmap is focused on practicality, delivering capabilities that will make users more productive.
Beyond generative AI, Insightsoftware plans to continue investing in Symphony's connectivity to other systems through new and improved integrations and connectors, according to Schommer.
Menninger, meanwhile, said Insightsoftware would be wise to continue working to integrate its many acquisitions now under the Logi name. While Symphony shows progress, it doesn't necessarily represent completion.
"There will be additional work required to integrate more of the capabilities of the various products that have been acquired," he said.
In addition, Insightsoftware's product development plans for Logi rightly include generative AI and should also include scenario planning, Menninger continued.
"As with most vendors, there are many more opportunities to use generative AI to enhance capabilities and ease of use," he said. "I'd also like to see Logi do more to bring the BI and driver-based planning capabilities together."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
