Mobile Business Intelligence and the Trends Enveloping the IT World
Solutions
The Mobile World Perspective 27%
Mobile workers exist out of total workforce
40%
Mobile workers spend time away from the desk
60%
Midsize organizations support mobile devices
75%
US businesses use at least one wireless data application
80%
Organizations found mobile apps to meet expectations
Of all US businesses, 75% of them make use of at least one wireless data application and nearly 80% of the organizations who have deployed mobile apps report that the results have added value to their business. Many technology initiatives have previously failed to retain and add value to their investments. Clearly, mobile applications have satisfied many companies and the trends are improving for the future too. It is easy to segregate specific groups of users who want to leverage mobile apps. These groups include Executives, Sales Force, Service & Field personnel, Customers, Plant personnel and even Warehouse users. All usage scenarios for each of these groups are important in terms of mobile BI. You can transform the business through mobility on the Customer side by identifying new intelligent products and on the Employee side through process innovation and new styles of collaborative work. Mobile apps help you run the business by providing light weight communication options to your Customer and also provide basic productivity tools such as mobile e-mail and connectivity to your Employees.
The Internal Factors Affecting Mobile BI Let’s look at the factors that are internally driving mobile BI in different organizations. Increasing employee productivity is important for providing BI to mobile devices. Employees are unable to access real-time information which lessens their productivity. End-user groups must have access to real-time data, without the need for mobile device, especially to boost organizational performance. Delivery of data is crucial to drive productivity and thus they can complete their jobs effectively without wasting time for searching data. Improved data delivery efficiency is important too. The information flow regulation is an overarching motivation for Mobile BI implementation. For mobile workers who are often away, a Mobile BI application can give real-time access to organizational data assets including analysis of sales data, inventory status and refilling position and the like. Mobile BI is about delivering real-time info, or near real-time, access to data. Field sales and service teams require this aspect to fulfill their objectives. We live in the world which changes every instant and hence there is a constant need to align solutions with the market place. Failure to gauge the market needs affects business and reduces competitiveness. It is critical that the data delivery mechanism and data sources are capable of real-time data delivery.
External Drivers of Mobile BI The external drivers are as critical as internal drivers of Mobile BI. One of the most influential factors in the surge of mobile usage in business today is the evolution of smartphones. Mobile BI has reached a new level of maturity with new smartphones which boast of rich reporting and analytics experience. With time, we are bound to see the convergence of applications across devices. The device-savvy digital generation expects the devices to be connected in different ways which was not possible before. Business professionals expect to have simple and profound data delivery mechanisms in place to keep them well informed about the business information that matters to them. Constant and uniform connectivity to enterprise content is extremely important and routine activities need to be automated to save on time. Those in the field need to respond effectively to changing customer needs and issues. Users need to connect to the Internet consistently nowadays and hence companies need to embrace this trend, or opt to be left behind. People work in an offline mode especially when they are travelling. Access to Internet and access to real-time company information was not at all possible before. But now every company needs to be up-to-date information to quell competition. Furthermore, the cost of establishing a mobile reporting and analytics solution that provides widespread workforce access to real-time data is cheaper with every passing day. Additionally, delivering a Mobile BI app removes security issues surrounding remote data access and storage, and delivers real-time data capabilities to end-users. The price of inaction is becoming simultaneously more costly.
Dashboards and their Role in Business Intelligence Dashboards are an integral part of mobile BI. Achieving accuracy and consistency for all dashboards is extremely tough and expensive. To this end, there are three major categories of dashboards which can fulfill the needs of an organization’s decision–makers ü Operational Dashboards assist in monitoring core business processes with real-time info. You can even set up alerts for your managers or even when there is discrepancy in the data.
ü Tactical Dashboards provide the department manager with a quick
view into how a department is performing —so the manager can take action to forestall less-than-optimal performance. ü Strategic Dashboards provide ample info to senior managers and executives who need to view info related to their existing strategic goals. These dashboards are typically based upon data residing in data warehouses or data marts which contain some time shots of data.
Implementing Mobile BI Implementing a successful Mobile BI solution is essential , and adequate attention needs to be given towards reporting and analytics. Mobile BI just follows a methodology driven by new technology. To achieve benefits from a Mobile BI project, a key set of organizational attributes need to be in place. It is vital that a vendor of the company is competent enough for implementing BI, or has a general analytics strategy in place. Mobile BI is a sub-set of a broader BI program. It should not be embarked upon in isolation. To deliver a successful Mobile BI project, employers should: ü Understand the reporting needs of the main beneficiaries of Mobile BI – the executive, sales and service teams.
Their needs will differ, but KPI reports should be developed which are tailored for each user-group to ensure quick uptake and assured high ROI. ü Link Mobile BI to well-defined business goals and objectives. The objectives of these goals need to be evident throughout the organization to deliver Mobile BI in a big way that supports those demands. Employees on the move need to know that they can access the data they need when and where they need it. ü Equip as many people as possible with the required skills, knowledge and accessibility permission to get business data – widespread user-adoption is the key factor to highly successful BI projects. ü Adopt an open ‘anywhere, anytime’ attitude towards business data to empower employees to make decisions and take full-advantage of the benefits associated with pervasive BI. As companies continue to focus on delivering information to the mobile workforce, they will need to ensure information is delivered promptly to affect action in the field.
Typical Benefits of Mobile BI ü The ability to make better fact-based decisions anytime ü Improved knowledge-sharing to support organizational collaboration and cohesion ü Increased workforce productivity and organization-wide efficiency through acceleration of the decision-making
process ü Increased flexibility and adaptability to stay ahead of the competition and act on market place opportunities ü Improved understanding of customer needs and the customer’s decision-making process ü Increased customer satisfaction and enhanced reputation through timely and accurate decision-making
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