Insights

Andrew Fox

Mobile BI, or just reports on the move (?)

There are certainly a number of themes that are coming to play in BI during 2011 from SAP, Cloud, In Memory and Mobile. So far this month I've had more discussions around Mobile BI than the others combined, maybe not surprising as I focus on Business User Analytics. 

What is Mobile BI?

Mobile Business Intelligence could be defined as the distribution of business data to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers delivered through different mediums from a mobile browser rendered application, a third party app downloaded from an iStore, or a tailored mobile client application built internally within an organisation.

According to the Aberdeen Group, companies are undertaking mobile BI owing to market pressures such as the need for higher efficiency in business processes, improvement in employee productivity by reducing time spent looking for information, better and faster decision making, through the delivery of data access to make decisions anytime and anywhere. 

This definition leads me to the question...

Do users really need Mobile BI or is it just access business data on whilst out of the office?

This links me back to my recent blog titled "Don't forget me I'm the user" where I outline my experience that users range from, Executives, Information Explorers and Information Consumers, each with very different use cases to be satisfied.  Executives tend to focus on reviewing KPI's and Scorecards that result in communicating challenges or questions. Information Explorers have a key goal to discover trends and identifying that nugget of insight that can be actioned. Finally, Information Consumers who essentially read lists to action as part of a business process. 

But do any of these user paradigms need to be delivered on a Mobile Device, Maybe, dependent on the specific use-case. Could they all? Yes. 

What I am hearing frequently is the theme that when project teams are challenged as to why there is a requirement for a Mobile BI application the answer is "The user wants something on an iPad like they saw XXXX". Insert, in an in-flight magazine, like Bill has, on the iPad advert as you see fit.

Where does Mobile BI make sense?

In todays 24/7 business world there certainly appears to be definite value in providing executives KPI metrics in real time in the same way a cruise liner captain needs immediate notification of situations occurring to take immediate action as it takes an age to turn a liner around. If you can combine this with the ability to do data exploration an executive will not only know WHAT that the problem is, but also WHERE to direct the effort.  

Both of these sets of functionality can be delivered using SAP BusinessObjects technologies or through a customised application exploiting the capabilities of the Sybase unwired platform. There are many technical considerations to be taken into account as not only there the need to support company authorised devices, but the constant desire from users have the devices they are used to at home in the work setting.   But alas today one technical solution cannot be rolled out over multiple devices formats due to the inconsistency of support for Flash amongst other things.

Can the same be said for the paradigm of the Information Consumer, I suggest not.    If we take the example of a sales rep on the move, they need to know their sales so far this financial year, pipeline and committed forecast.  Do they need a customised application to deliver this or is a data grid and a graph delivered by email in a pdf document more appropriate?

This distribution method not only overcomes the issue of universal access irrespective of device as nearly all mobile devices from phones to tablets and have the ability to open a PDF document but also could significantly lower the overall implementation costs by exploiting existing information broadcasting functionally available through SAP NetWeaver or SAP BusinessObjects technologies.

So I wind up by reiterating - don't get caught up in the Mobile BI hype, remember the end users and their information requirements.