What's New In Zoho Analytics

TIMELINE

2024

Sep

Announcing Zoho Analytics 6.0 - An AI Powered Self-Service BI & Analytics Platform!

At Zoho Analytics, our mission is to democratize analytics for everyone. We recognize that team members across an organization rely on data to make both simple and complex decisions every day. These tasks shouldn’t require ongoing support from IT and data teams, even for basic visualizations.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of Zoho Analytics 6.0! This powerful new version brings together business users, data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists on a single platform, making data-driven decision-making easier and more accessible for all. Welcome to a new era of analytics!

Data Connectors and Data Management

New Connectors

We are enhancing our existing portfolio of over 500+ advanced analytics connectors by adding more than 25 connectors to this list. These additions cater to big data platforms and business applications, including Yellowbrick, ClickHouse, Dremio, Oracle Netsuite, Databricks, Monday.com, Airtable, Qualtrics, ClickUp, and several others.

Effectively analyze your data from different business applications by using our pre-built reports and dashboards. Additional features in Zoho Analytics like Sync history, Audit History, and Undo Import allow you to manage all data sources, including the connectors.

Sync History

Get a detailed overview of data synchronization activities using Sync history in Zoho Analytics. It helps administrators monitor the status of each sync easily, as successful syncs are highlighted in green, while failed syncs appear in red, along with reasons for the failure and required actions.
Click here to learn more.

Audit History

Keep a full track of user and system activities using Audit History in Zoho Analytics. it helps you ensure security and resolve issues easily, using the timestamps and details of the administrator responsible for each action.
Click here to learn more.

Undo Import Enterprise Plan

Automated imports can sometimes have errors and inconsistencies in data, and this can affect the data quality and the results. The import rollback capability reverts the current data import version to its previous version without affecting the existing data flow and analysis, ensuring data integrity.
Click here to learn more.

Data Pipelines Premium Plan

Set up and create data pipelines to setup powerful transformations on your datasets. You can create data pipelines with the no-code visual pipeline builder and perform various transforms on your data like join, append, pivot, and unpivot.
Click here to learn more.

With Zoho DataPrep license you can also setup end to end ETL (extract, transform and load) pipeline to move data from a variety of applications to Zoho Analytics or other sources.

Multiple Schedule Intervals for Tables

Syncing multiple tables at the same interval, just because they share a source, isn't always optimal. That's why we've introduced flexible scheduling options per connection. Now, each table can have its own unique sync interval, allowing you to better meet its specific requirements.
Click here to learn more.

Supports Streaming Data Premium Plan

Now you can use Stream Analytics to analyze the data from live streams. The data can be streamed into Zoho Analytics using API and Google Pub-Sub Push Subscription and can be visualized using Zoho Analytics to get real-time insights.

Data Bucketing

Data bucketing in Zoho Analytics allows you to transform your data into categorical bins, reducing distinct values and simplifying analysis. This feature, now built-in, replaces the need for complex formulas.
Click here to learn more.

Dynamic Image / URL

You can now dynamically associate a URL column with a text column in Zoho Analytics. On associating URL as a link or image, the text column will be either hyperlinked or an image will be displayed alongside the text.

Unified Metrics

Unified Metrics in Zoho Analytics consolidates and standardizes all the metrics (aggregates) from different data sources/tables in a workspace. Now you can promote consistency and avoid duplication of metrics across the tables with ease.
Click here to learn more.

Real-time data sync for Zoho CRM Enterprise Plan

You can now analyze up-to-the-minute CRM data in Zoho Analytics. Zoho CRM users can use the Advanced Analytic connector for Zoho CRM to analyze and visually present real-time data effortlessly.

Dataiku Plug-in

You can now analyze and visualize data in Dataiku ML models using the Zoho Analytics Plugin in Dataiku. Zoho Analytics plugin is now available in Dataiku Plugins page.

Enhancement in Live Connect

Zoho Analytics now allows data sources with Live Connect to be added to workspaces alongside other data sources. Previously, Live Connect sources could not be combined with other data sources in the same workspace.
Click here to learn more.

Visual Analytics

Chart Enhancements

New Chart Types

Zoho Analytics supports 7 new chart types (on top of 50+ existing ones) with extensive customization options to enhance the presentation and interpretation of the data.

Sankey charts Sankey charts are ideal for visualizing data flow between nodes and tracking event movement through connected lines. In Zoho Analytics, you can customize node and link colors, adjusting them individually or globally, and set link colors based on source or target nodes. You can choose a basic Sankey chart for simple flows or an Alluvial Chart for complex, multi-stage flows.
Racing charts are animated views that are best suited for visualizing the changes in the data over a period of time where the relative ranking of categories is important. They highlight and help comprehend the fluctuations and progression in the data. These types of charts grab the user's attention instantly, providing an immersive experience and helping craft a compelling story about the data.
Spark lines are compact charts that show the trends and variations in the data without taking up much space. They are widely used alongside pivot tables and help grasp trends and allow quick comparison of metrics across different fields. Zoho Analytics supports three variations that includes line chart, area chart, and bar chart.
Geo Map Layering, add multiple data layers to the geo map to visualize various dimensions of information. This feature includes interactive options for enhanced data exploration.
Sunburst charts represent hierarchical data through a series of rings, or concentric circles. Each ring corresponds to a level in the hierarchy. The central or innermost circle represents the root node, or the top-level category. Moving outwards, each subsequent ring represents a subcategory, where the outermost ring is the leaf node. The size of each arc in the ring is proportional to the value of the data.
Conversion bar charts show the connected stages of a process and the gradual decrease in data as it moves through different stages of the process. Each stage is represented by a bar, with a step or stair case pattern indicating the shift in values (along with conversion percentage) at each stage.
Tree Map is a visualization composed of differently-sized rectangles that represent your data values. This is beneficial when you want to depict the part to whole relationship among various categories.

Interactive Chart Customizations

Experience real-time updates as you customize your chart with the new Chart Settings interface, now available on the right side pane. It provides enhanced customization options with live visual feedback.
Click here to learn more.

Chart Creation as API

Chart creation APIs in Zoho Analytics allow you to programmatically generate various types of charts by customizing data inputs, applying filters, and configuring chart properties. These APIs offer flexibility to create dynamic visual reports directly through code.

Pivot enhancements

Conditional Formatting over other columns in Pivot

This enhancement empowers you to create more dynamic and insightful Pivot Tables by allowing you to apply conditional formatting rules over any column based on the values of another column.
Click here to learn more.

New Conditional Formatting: Color Bands & Icons

Zoho Analytics introduces enhanced Conditional Formatting with Color Bands and Icons in Pivot Tables.This update brings a new level of visual customization, allowing you to highlight critical data points and enhance data comprehension directly within your Pivot Tables.
Click here to learn more.

Data Bars & Waterfall Charts in Pivot

Introducing Data Bars and Waterfall (Bar Range) Charts in pivot tables to analyze complex data sets and highlight key insights directly within your pivot tables. Upgrade your data visualization game with Data Bars and Waterfall Charts in Zoho Analytics. Start transforming your Pivot Tables into powerful storytelling tools today!
Click here to learn more.

Dashboard Enhancements

Add Elements in Dashboard

The Dashboard Designer interface now includes an "Add Elements" section for easily incorporating widgets, text, images, and embedded URLs into your dashboard. Simply drag and drop these elements to add them. The Text element offers enhanced formatting options, while the Image element features a built-in editor for direct image customization.

Enhanced Themes and Background in Dashboard

Want to create stunning dashboards with reports over transparent cards and an image as background? Try our new themes and background card effect feature. With wide customization options to improve the visual aesthetics, this helps enhance the clarity of the reports and widgets.

Changing date functions based on Time Slicer

Enhance user interaction on your dashboard by dynamically adjusting the date functions of reports based on the applied Time Slicer. The selected date function and interval in the Time Slicer will automatically update the date functions across all reports within the dashboard.

Customizing the width of Dashboard Designer Area

You can now customize the width of the Dashboard Designer Area, allowing you to easily design dashboards for embedding in websites or blogs with a specific size. By setting the desired width, you can design your dashboard and directly embed it, ensuring a visually appealing layout.

Widget Enhancements

Image support in widgets: Enhance your dashboard’s visual appeal and user engagement by adding custom icons to KPI widgets to convey information at a glance, without lengthy descriptions. You can use the in-built image customization options like changing color, cropping, etc., to cater your needs.
Widgets with forecast: Based on your current data trend, get a better understanding of how close you are to your goals by adding forecast value to your widgets.

Export as PPT

You can now export a dashboard as a Microsoft PowerPoint file. The snapshot of each view in the dashboard will be exported as an individual slide.

Copy and Paste Reports in Dashboard

Now you can easily copy and paste the reports in your dashboard from one tab to another.

Interactive Customizations

Global User Filter

Expand the functionality of Global User Filters in your dashboard for deeper analysis with our latest enhancement. You can either select common filters across tabs as global filters or apply the same filter to all tabs when they share the same base data.
Click here to learn more.

Sharing User Filter Presets

You can now share saved user filter presets with others alongside the dashboard. Dashboard users can utilize the shared presets or create their own custom presets.

Drill Through

Navigate and view the reports related to the specific data points using the drill through function. You can easily link all the related reports specific to a metric or dimension.
Click here to learn more.

Generative AI Infused Analytics

Diagnostics Insights

Find out the reason 'Why' behind any insight with diagnostic insights. Analyze the key drivers with significant impact and take informed actions based on these insights.

Visual Zia Insights

Zia Insights now provides visual narratives! Visuals help process information far more efficiently than lengthy text descriptions. These visuals facilitate multi-dimensional interpretations like comparison, contribution, distribution, trends and proportions.
Click here to learn more.

Configurable Insights

Customize the insights generated by Ask Zia to focus on the columns of your choice. This feature provides configurable insights tailored to your selected data.

Complex Queries

Ask Zia in conversation mode can now provide you with results for complex mathematical queries to find correlation and trend strength in your data.
Click here to learn more.

Enhancements in OpenAI Integration

Increase the accuracy of your OpenAI results in Ask Zia by using your workspace metadata. This can be done by enabling the OpenAI RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) feature in Organization Settings.
You can now use OpenAI in Ask Zia conversation mode to create formulas and make data preparation easier by helping you build complex queries. Type your needs in simple language and get answers instantly.
Workspace Admins can also use OpenAI integration in Ask Zia.

Click here to learn more.

Ask Zia Bot in Microsoft Teams

Combine the generative AI capabilities of Zoho Analytics' Ask Zia with Microsoft Teams. Get answers to your data queries, access key business insights quickly, predict future trends, and build reports right from within Microsoft Teams with Ask Zia bot.
Click here to learn more.

Auto Analyze 2.0

Zoho Analytics offers enhanced control over auto-generated reports and dashboards. You can choose from a list of generated reports and dashboards before adding them, and also select which columns should be auto-analyzed.
Click here to learn more.

Zia Suggestions

Introducing the new Zia Suggestions, where you can receive smart chart recommendations during the creation process. Zia provides tailored chart options based on your data, allowing you to preview and apply them with a single click.
Click here to learn more.

Predictive AI

Anomaly detection

Anomaly detection allows you to easily identify outliers in your data or metrics. You can now create charts that visually highlight these anomalies for quick attention and action. Zoho Analytics uses advanced machine learning algorithms and statistical models to detect outliers. You can also set data alerts based on anomalies to ensure timely identification of vital change in the key business metrics and potential issues.
Click here to learn more.

Influencing Factors in Forecasting (Multi-variate forecasting)

Try our new influencing factors option in forecasting, that enables you to provide dependent factors for accurate prediction of outcomes. For example, when you forecast a sales metric it will just predict purely based on historical data, but you can get more accurate predictions in forecast by considering influencing (dependent) factors like marketing spending, sign ups, etc.,
Click here to learn more.

Cluster Analysis Premium Plan

Visualize data grouped as clusters using a variety of ML models (k-mean, k-mode, and k-prototype). Intuitively segment and analyze data groups, for common patterns and affinity.
Click here to learn more.

Data Science & Machine Learning Studio

Auto ML Enterprise Plan

Automated machine learning provides a code-free (low-code/no-code) experience to train, verify, and build custom machine learning models with high efficiency. The simple and user-friendly design makes it possible for people with varied data-level expertise to create ML models easily for their custom needs.
Click here to learn more.

Code Studio Enterprise Plan

Develop custom models and data transformations using Python code studio. Build them from scratch or import them from other sources. Integrated Python development environment with Zia code suggester for accelerated development.
Click here to learn more.

Platform Extensibility

Linked Workspaces

Linked Workspaces in Zoho Analytics establishes a connection between two distinct workspaces, allowing them to push views from one workspace to another. In this connection, one acts as a primary workspace and the other acts as a child workspace. The views from a primary workspace can be easily pushed to multiple child workspaces with just a click.

Custom Connector Premium Plan

Build your own data connector for any application using a no-code connector builder. Publish and sell your custom connectors on Zoho Marketplace, if required.

Zoho Flow in Alerts Premium Plan

You can now use Zoho Flow to perform actions in other applications whenever an alert is triggered in Zoho Analytics using Zoho Flow. For example, a ticket can be created in Zendesk based on the alert triggered in Zoho Analytics.

Client SDK for JS API

New Javascript based Client SDK to extend & customize the user experience of reports within embedded applications. You can control interactions like sort, export, user filters, change chart type and other actions with the JS API.

BI Fabric

Create unified BI portals by collating insights from other BI applications such as Tableau and Power BI along with Zoho Analytics. Setup fine-grained access control on the portal for secure access. Unified BI Fabric portal helps in easy access to insights from a centralized portal, breaking the boundaries across BI services.
Click here to learn more.

Security Enhancements

Zoho Directory

Zoho Analytics integration with Zoho Directory allows administrators to setup single sign-on, Active Directory sync, handle user access management and more.
Click here to learn more.

Access Restriction

Zoho Analytics now offers enhanced security controls to setup fine-grained access restrictions at the workspace level. Apart from the organization level access restriction controls, this new update allows you to setup different restrictions for different workspaces.

IP Restriction

Configure workspace-level IP restrictions for enhanced security and prevent unauthorized access. Previously, IP restrictions were available only at the account level.
Click here to learn more.

Other Updates

UI Enhancements

New Intuitive and User-friendly Interface

Zoho Analytics' new user experience features glass-morphism, offering a modern, translucent design that improves visual clarity. This sleek update makes data visualization more intuitive and user-friendly.

Right to Left User Interface

Zoho Analytics now supports a right to left user interface. This option is best suited for languages like Arabic and Hebrew that are read from right to left.

Puvi Font Support

Zoho Analytics now supports Zoho's own font, Puvi. You can try this new font from the Profile tab.

Unused Views in Workspace

Views and tables created in Zoho Analytics may sometimes go unused for extended periods due to reduced relevance. These inactive views and tables are now categorized under the "Unused Views" section at the workspace level, helping you decide whether to maintain or remove them.

Share to Slack

Improve collaboration and improve productivity by integrating Slack and Zoho Analytics.You can now easily share tables, reports, and dashboards to Slack users by this integration.
Click here to learn more.

Aug

Aug 06, 2024

Connect to the data hosted in the cloud without allow-listing the IP addresses

Utilize Zoho Databridge to connect to the data hosted in the cloud. This method is useful for accessing the data in the private network without the need to allowlist the IP addresses. We have also revamped the user interface of the Databases and Datalakes page to establish a connection with the preferred data source seamlessly.

Click here to learn more.

New in-built function for JSON

Extracting data from JSON columns from within Zoho Analytics using the new built-in function extract_json().

Click here to learn more.

String data type in report formulas

Zoho Analytics now supports plain text data types in Report Formulas. This feature is useful for categorizing numeric data values based on conditions, such as performance tracking and segmenting data.

Click here to learn more.

Conditional formatting based on other columns

With the recent update, you can now apply conditional formatting based on other columns used in the pivot table. This enhancement provides more flexibility and makes comparison between the related columns easier.

Click here to learn more.

Static images and custom icons in KPI widgets

Add custom icons to provide visual cues about the type of information contained in the widget without the need for lengthy descriptions. Using icons in the dashboard enhances visual appeal and grabs the attention of the users.

Copy and paste reports in dashboards

Zoho Analytics allows you to reuse reports and KPI widgets by copying and pasting reports to other tabs in the dashboards. This cuts down the redundant work and saves time recreating similar reports.