Mobile BI for the iPad - Game changer or just keeping on the field
16 Jun 2011
Business Intelligence (BI), Business Objects, Mobile, Consumer Business
A few days ago SAP released a new Business Intelligence (BI) application for the iPad on Apple iTunes, SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI application for iPad. The supporting server infrastructure is due for release with BI4.0 and is rumoured to come out in a matter of weeks, but I was lucky enough to have a pre-released version for review and socialising with our customers. Feedback so far has been very positive, but the question of support for other tablet devices is common as it is rare to see one brand of tablet device adopted across the whole enterprise.
The Mobile BI application facilitates access to instances of corporate Web Intelligence reports from an iPad both online and offline with automated prompting when new content becomes available to the user. Essentially SAP has written a device specific application (for the iPad initially with others to follow) that connects to the corporate SAP BusinessObjects landscape for authentication and renders a standard WebI report in a structured display format.
It could be cynical to say that SAP has developed the application following the traction seen and marketing hype around competitor/complementary technologies including Roambi and Microstrategy. SAP had to do something in the Mobility space to drive adoption of BI outside of the enterprise firewall and the iPad is great a place to start.
I see Mobile BI for the iPad predominantly adding value to management and information workers so they can stay up-to-date and make decisions using their trusted BI information whilst out of the office. The scope for sales and field service staff to provide the right customer, product, and work order information where and when it's needed is huge. Imagine having all the customer information you need at your fingertips in one place before you have that all important meeting without the need to boot up a laptop, find a 3G signal, log onto the VPN and refresh a suite of BI queries.
The immediate value add of SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI for organisations is the ability to access the trusted corporate BI content users engage with regularly on their desktop but then navigate and analyse the information without a need for additional training, it's a iPad app remember
Is SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI a game changer? No, but I certainly see it forming part of a wider BI strategy and with such simple usability aiding the perennial challenge of driving user adoption.
Comments
Jamie Oswald 16 Jun 2011
Andrew, great take.
I actually think this is available with XI 3.1 SP4 which just came out, but haven't installed it yet.
I think this is a great first step in a full Mobile BI strategy. One thing a lot of mobile vendors fail to realize is that you also need some sort of desktop experience, and this solution obviously comes with that. It's also nice that it comes with a ton of existing content the second you turn it on.