Since IBM pulled the plug on Db2 Web Query for i on October 10, 2023, LANSA BI has emerged as a transformative solution for modern businesses. It breaks down data barriers by creating intuitive data experiences for all types of users and integrating business intelligence right into their workflows through embedded analytics. LANSA BI is revolutionizing access to actionable insights, enabling smarter decision-making and increased operational efficiency. Talk to a LANSA representative to learn more and get a free POC based on your needs by submitting this form. 

Nowadays, unlocking growth potential hinges on the successful adoption of business intelligence technologies and best practices. Businesses still relying on traditional analytics tools tend to struggle with data integration and analysis, leading to missed opportunities. For instance, traditional BI tools often suffer from complex and cumbersome UI that require extensive training and coding skills. This effectively blocks the productive use of data at the point of decision-making.

With traditional BI tools failing to meet the requirements of today's data analysis, many businesses have started transitioning to modern BI solutions. According to 360Suite’s Business Intelligence (BI) survey, the adoption rate of sophisticated BI technology has increased by over 80% among companies with more than 5,000 employees. With the ability to process big data from multiple sources, businesses can quickly uncover bottlenecks, redundancies, and areas of inefficiency. 

More than data integration, AI-powered solutions like LANSA BI help end-users with instant data visualization and insights generation. Eliminating steep learning curves, it queries data in conversational English and facilitates dashboard building with simple drag-and-drop wizards. Unlike traditional BI approaches that generate static reports, users can now collaborate on data presentations and rely on real-time database connections to keep everything up-to-date. LANSA BI also automatically uncovers data patterns and trends, alerting every department from sales, operations, customer service, and beyond with much-needed information to remain agile in today’s competitive landscape.

Unlock BI Benefits with an Integrated IBM i Solution

LANSA BI seamlessly integrates with the Db2 database as well as other sources, providing an efficient solution for consolidating data. This enables businesses to simplify data management and ensure comprehensive insights. By breaking down data silos, LANSA BI grants stakeholders real-time access to critical business intelligence, enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency.

Together with LANSA's professional low-code development tools for the IBM i, LANSA BI simplifies the addition of business intelligence capabilities to mission-critical IBM i applications. It facilitates rapid development and deployment of BI features without the need for extensive coding knowledge. As a result, businesses can quickly adapt to evolving needs and seamlessly integrate robust analytics into workflows with minimal disruption.

Read on to explore the many benefits of transitioning to LANSA BI below.

Democratize Access to Data

Before the advent of modern BI tools, data was mostly kept in the hands of a few data analysts with the skills and understanding necessary to properly collect, organize, analyze, and interpret it for their organization. Many businesses failed to realize that this slowed down the decision-making process, leading to missed opportunities and slower responses to market changes. LANSA BI's Natural Language Query (NLQ) eliminates this dependency by allowing everyone in the organization, from top executives to front-line employees, to access and analyze data quickly. 

With the NLQ feature, end-users can get insights by simply writing data requests or asking questions in plain English. For example, if you write, "Give me the total sales made in the last quarter," LANSA BI can instantly return the results.

Figure 1 - NLQ Feature

Enhance Data Visualization and Reporting Capabilities

Even though data quality and analytics processes are essential, effective data visualization is essential for communicating complex information to decision-makers and turning critical insights into action. Besides, if the insights are not presented in a simplified and easy-to-understand way, it may confuse stakeholders and make it difficult for them to make informed decisions. LANSA BI resolves this issue by offering a user-friendly dashboard.  With LANSA BI, users can easily create interactive dashboards using simple drag-and-drop actions. These dashboards present diverse and complex datasets using charts, graphs, and interactive maps for easier interpretation and analysis. 

LANSA BI also offers advanced filtering and data drilling options. It helps users explore data from different angles, enabling them to dive deep into the data to understand the underlying factors driving business performance. By creating a dashboard, stakeholders can view the most relevant information in a central location, making it easier to grasp complex data and identify key trends and patterns.

Figure 2 - LANSA BI Dashboards

Accelerate Decision-Making

One of the major drawbacks of traditional BI tools is their cumbersome and time-consuming process for analyzing data. Users often need to create or request new reports to gain deeper insights. This process can be inefficient, significantly slowing down decision-making due to the extensive effort required to extract, transform, and load data again for analysis.

LANSA BI overcomes these limitations through embedded analytics, allowing end-users to access data directly within their business software. This integration simplifies workflows by eliminating the need to learn new software or switch between different solutions. Users can leverage business intelligence seamlessly as they go about their daily tasks, using real-time insights to make informed decisions and set priorities. This accessibility encourages wider adoption by making analytics more intuitive and reducing the learning curve, ultimately improving productivity and ensuring that decisions are based on accurate information.

Improve Collaboration

When compared to modern business intelligence solutions, traditional BI tools make it difficult for users to share insights and reports with team members and stakeholders, hindering effective communication. LANSA resolves this issue by offering real-time collaboration features within the BI tool. Data stories bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders by translating complex data analysis into compelling narratives. It enables different teams and departments to collaborate more seamlessly and understand each other's perspectives.

Along with its collaboration features, LANSA BI enables users to create data stories that combine contextual information, visualizations, and user-driven exploration. This innovative approach not only promotes a deeper understanding of data but also encourages cross-functional collaboration by allowing stakeholders to share their perspectives and interpretations. By facilitating this collaborative sense-making process, LANSA BI encourages diverse viewpoints and fosters a culture where data is seen as a shared asset. This, in turn, drives the organization toward a more cohesive and effective decision-making environment.

Achieve Scalability and Handle Larger Data Volumes Efficiently

Unlike modern business intelligence solutions, traditional systems have difficulty scaling up to huge amounts of data. On top of that, traditional BI tools can be too slow to interpret data. They are suitable only for observing standard metrics from aggregated data at a high level but incapable of answering why things are happening and how they can affect change in business performance. This leads to missing vital insights as non-technical users have to wait for the data experts to prepare and share reports. 

LANSA BI’s assisted insights generation offers an effective way to process large volumes of data, identify patterns, and extract insights that companies can use to improve business performance. Not only does this tool help find hidden insights in your data, but it also explains and compares data points and automatically sends alerts to users about significant anomalies or trend shifts.

Figure 3 - Comparing Data with Assisted Insights Generation Using LANSA BI

Maintain Compliance with Evolving Regulatory Standards

With increasing data privacy and security concerns, navigating the intersection of business intelligence and data privacy has become a daunting task. Furthermore, traditional BI solutions tend to struggle in maintaining compliance with ever-changing regulatory requirements. LANSA BI addresses this issue by offering a fully integrated QHSE Risk and Compliance Management System solution to meet the evolving standards. This business intelligence solution provides robust data governance features like audit trails, data lineage, and automated compliance reporting. While audit trails help businesses record all data access and changes, data lineage tracks data flow over time and ensures that data transformations are documented.

Upgrade from Legacy BI Solutions and Address IBM's End of Support for Db2 WebQuery

Transitioning from legacy BI solutions like Db2 Web Query to LANSA BI represents a pivotal upgrade to a modern data ecosystem. LANSA BI offers a streamlined and cost-effective solution, ensuring smooth BI implementation with its pre-built features that accelerate data utilization. By simplifying data experiences, LANSA BI enhances operational efficiency and liberates IT teams to innovate rather than navigate deployment complexities. This transformation enables organizations to adapt swiftly, seize opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge in today's digital landscape. Embrace LANSA BI to revolutionize your BI strategy and unlock agile, data-driven insights that propel continuous growth and success. Talk to a LANSA representative now for a private demonstration and a free POC to get started.

LANSA is a low-code, high-productivity software development platform for mobile, web, and desktop applications. Visual LANSA's unique low-code development platform, system integration, and digital transformation technologies reduce hand-coding, support multiple languages, and empower development teams to build applications up to 10 times faster. More than 8,000 organizations in 65 countries use LANSA's platform to develop, maintain, and integrate their business applications, ensuring a consistent look and feel with minimal coding. Customers include JPMorgan Chase, Kawasaki, TruGreen, Vistar, and Walt Disney, among others. LANSA is a division of Idera, Inc.