The 2016 Logi User Conference has come to an end—and I for one am thrilled to have met so many of our amazing customers. It was wonderful to be able to see what unique things our customers are doing with the Logi platform.
In getting to see what kinds of innovative apps our customers are creating, I noticed a few key trends. The best apps we’ve seen—the most successful ones out there—are what we call genius apps. What exactly is a genius app? Over the past few days, I got to see firsthand four elements that all these apps have in common.
1. They’re Insightful
First of all, genius apps deliver insightful analytics that are far more effective because they’re embedded in the applications people use every day. For years, we’ve noticed that the customers of ours who were most successful were the ones that weren’t just setting up standalone reporting centers. They’re the ones creating purpose-built operational apps or ones that feature analytics embedded directly in existing applications. That’s the usage pattern that has driven the best user adoption.
2. They Put Information in Context
Information that exists in a vacuum is essentially useless. End users want to see that information in the context of other data they use on a regular basis. By embedding analytics in applications users already use, companies empower users to stay in the context of the app they were in. Genius apps deliver all the information in context so your users can make better decisions and take action without ever leaving the business applications they work in every day.
3. Everything Is in One Place
No user wants to switch from their regular applications over to a separate standalone analytics app just to get the information they need. To ensure users actually adopt the analytics tools you give them, you have to put those tools in front of them at all times. We keep hearing that the best BI is invisible—and that’s true for every genius app we’ve seen our customers create. When analytics disappears into the fabric of an application, users will inherently start to leverage the data and come to expect it in their regular workflows.
4. They’re Personalized
The people who own applications—from product managers to development team members to IT directors—face a number of challenges that a genius app can help address. The most difficult of these challenges is meeting the diverse needs of all their customers and users who have different functions, different jobs, and different skills. Genius apps all look and feel different, because they’re purposely designed to meet their specific users’ needs.
