Building solutions with Web 2.0 capabilities and empowering end users by making BI more user friendly seems to be the goal of many BI applications. Traditionally, solutions were targeted towards super users but with the the shift towards BI for the masses and with the increasing use of embedded analytics to help manage performance, end users expect a certain ease of use and seamlessness when applying BI and analytics within their organization.
Depending on the type of offerings, vendors differ on how they are starting to offer these solutions. Aside from embedded analytics, other solutions, such as Information Builders‘ WebFOCUS enable widespread deployments for interactive reporting, etc. making BI for the masses easier. In addition to these two types of deployments that encourage autonomy and interactivity, solution providers such as Actuate are beginning to focus on embedding Web 2.0 components into their solutions for both developers and end users to make their solutions more interactive and easier to develop and deploy. A beta version of their future Actuate 10 release is available for download http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/Actuate_10/.
