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The Aptitude Blog

Headless BI Module for Revenue Management

March 6, 2024
Posted by James Tweedy

This week we released the Headless BI Reporting Module for AREV. This innovative tool will empower Aptitude RevStream (AREV) clients to seamlessly integrate their preferred Business Intelligence (BI) tools with AREV, delivering faster reporting times, increased data accessibility, enhanced customization and the flexibility to connect best-of-breed tools to the reporting dataset.

 

What is Headless BI? 

Headless Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a BI system or module that operates without a traditional user interface (UI).  

In a headless BI architecture, the backend data analytics and reporting functionality are decoupled from the presentation layer, allowing users to integrate the BI capabilities into various applications, platforms or interfaces seamlessly. 

The term “headless” implies the absence of a graphical user interface (GUI) or a traditional front-end, providing flexibility and allowing developers to embed BI functionalities directly into other applications or systems. This approach is particularly beneficial in scenarios where organizations want to customize the user experience or integrate BI capabilities into existing workflows. 


The diagram below illustrates what this looks like for AREV:

 

What are the benefits of Headless BI? 

Traditional Business Intelligence tools have a graphical user interface (GUI) or front-end that is tightly integrated with the backend analytics and reporting functionality. In a traditional BI setup, users interact with the system through a visual interface provided by the BI software. This interface typically includes dashboards, charts, graphs, and other visualizations that help users analyze and interpret data. 

Separating the backend analytics from the front-end interface gives finance teams greater flexibility, especially around customizations, integration with other applications, and the ability to use a variety of visualization tools tailored to specific user needs.

 

The Data-Driven Future of Finance

Today’s enterprises are eager to leverage their data for deeper insights and more informed decision-making and Finance departments, armed with rich data, are poised to play a crucial role in this transformation. According to EY, future finance departments will spend 60% of their time supporting decision-making, a significant shift from the present 10%. 

But actually turning that data into insights isn’t as easy as it sounds. First, transferring data to a reporting server is too slow, leading to lengthy, end-to-end reporting times. Often times protections put in place by vendors can limit an organization’s access to their own data. 

Finally, forcing the linkage between the accounting and data and a vendor selected reporting tool limit’s the ability of the finance team to build a composable, best-of-breed finance architecture which increases costs and resource requirements.   

 

Key benefits of the AREV Headless BI Module 

The ability to use a marketing-leading revenue management solution like RevStream alongside the preferred BI tool of choice means better results for finance teams. Key benefits include: 

  • Significant reduction in reporting data export time 
  • Improved control over data transformation and manipulation 
  • Access to 34 core AREV tables for reporting 
  • Ability to connect a client selected BI tool, reducing the learning curve of upskilling on a new tool.

 

Request a Demo 

To experience the transformative power of the Headless BI Module, click here to request a demo. 

 

Conclusion 

Aptitude Software’s Headless BI Module addresses the pain points of traditional reporting solutions. As the finance landscape evolves towards a data-driven future, Aptitude Software remains at the forefront, empowering organizations to unlock the full potential of their data. 

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This blog post was written by:

James Tweedy
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