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Combine Traditional and Modern BI for the Best Results!

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September 17, 2024

Give Your Team Traditional and Modern BI in One Solution

Business Intelligence (BI) solutions have been around for some time. The traditional BI tools were designed to be used by the IT team, business analysts and data scientists and utilized sophisticated features which required specialized knowledge and skills possessed only by the technical and analytical community. In this environment, business users were consumers of content, and while they could access information from dashboards, reports and KPIs, they had very limited access to date and they could not interact with that data. Where users had access to data, BI objects, reports and dashboards were developed, provisioned and presented to them by the IT team, so the business user had no control over what they could see or the format of the data.

‘In the past, business users were restricted to analytical content provided by IT staff and Data Scientists with limited interaction and access to data’

Gartner predicted that ‘…smart/augmented, nonrelational-, search- and visual-based data discovery capabilities will converge into a single set of next generation data discovery capabilities as components of modern BI and analytics platforms.’

When You Combine Traditional and Modern BI Tools, You Give Your Team Comprehensive Support

In line with Gartner predictions, the new world of Augmented Analytics and Modern BI solutions enables end-users and team members to access and use business intelligence (BI) to combine their industry and functional knowledge with clear, concise data. These new solutions are focused on business users, and on their empowerment, placing the power of true insight into the hands of business users and transitioning business users into Citizen Data Scientists. These solutions provide more value to the organization, improving technology Return on Investment (ROI), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increasing efficiency with fact-based decisions. Modern BI and Augmented Analytics offers data integration and sophisticated analytical models and techniques in an easy-to-use interface that provides auto-suggestions and recommendations to speed the analytical process and ensure that users get what they need. It also provides report formats, publishing tools, alerts and analysis that can be shared by team members to encourage user adoption and collaboration.

As the needs of the average user evolve, most businesses find that a combination of traditional BI tools and Modern BI tools will best meet the needs of the team and ensure that every team member has the tools they need to get the job done.

Here are the primary features and functionality your business will need to capture Traditional Business Intelligence components and provide comprehensive coverage for your team. These solutions allow the IT staff to provide dashboards and reports for business user consumption and review:

  • Personalized Dashboards – Users with average technical skills can design personalized dashboards in minutes without programming knowledge.
  • Multidimensional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – The team can define KPIs using an intuitive expression engine and KPI software to set polarity, frequency and threshold levels.
  • Social Business Intelligence – Imagine an environment where business users can access a business intelligence and analysis portal and see popular data to rate, share and comment.
  • What-If Analysis – Enables business users to determine how a prospective change to a product, service, resource allocation, budget, schedule, pricing, raw material cost, labor cost, or other factors might affect the business bottom line.
  • Graphical Analysis – Business users can leverage stunning visualizations, alerts for exceptions and trends, and intuitive, mobile BI dashboards with true deep dive capabilities!
  • Mobile Business Intelligence – Business intelligence solutions your business users can enjoy with high-performance BI tools that will work on any size or type of device.
  • GeoMap Support – Users can leverage geo maps, analyze data for any location, and define geographic areas with support for drill down, spot lighter and other features.
  • Exceptions and Personalized Alerts – With exception reporting users can define thresholds, monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and metrics, and even receive alerts when exceptions occur with the ability to set, modify and delete alerts based on specific thresholds.
  • R Integration – Integrates seamlessly with R (the popular open source programming language and software environment for statistical computing), so users can integrate any R script with simple input and output configuration.
  • Print Reports – The IT team can leverage a simple, basic programming or scripting environment to define format templates and produce reports for delivery by email.
  • Web-Based BI Reports – Business intelligence reporting software enables users to point-and-click and drag-and-drop to create a report summarizing performance metrics, or operational data, without programming or database or SQL skills.

Modern BI and Advanced Analytics – Augmented Analytics enables the transition from business user to Citizen Data Scientist and supports data democratization and data literacy, allowing Data Scientists to focus on strategy and business user access to analytics to perform day-to-day analytics.

  • Assisted Predictive Modeling – Predictive analytics for business users provides predictive modeling capability assisted by auto-recommendations and auto-suggestions to simplify use and optimize outcomes, allowing business users to predict outcomes without the expertise of a data scientist.
  • Auto Insights – The Auto Insights Smarten toolset allows business users to simply select the dataset to be analyzed and let the system interpret the dataset, select important columns of data, analyze its type and variety and other parameters and use intelligent machine learning to automatically apply the best algorithm and analytical technique and provide data insights.
  • Key Influencer Analytics – Focus on what matters and find the most relevant influencers for your target KPIs. Business users often find it difficult to identify the right targets and to understand relationships and factors that influence results.
  • Anomaly Analysis – Reveal trends, anomalies and answers, map targets, focus on influencers that matter and adapt to succeed.
  • Smart Data Visualization – Smart data visualization allows business users to view and analyze data to identify a problem and clarify a root cause and to make confident decisions.
  • Self-Serve Data Preparation – Smart data discovery tools and augmented data preparation features allow business users with average skills to perform data preparation and transform, shape, reduce, combine, explore, clean, sample and aggregate data, without the need for SQL skills, ETL or other programming language.

‘As the needs of the average user evolve, most businesses find that a combination of traditional BI tools and Modern BI tools will best meet the needs of the team and ensure that every team member has the tools they need to get the job done.’

There are other many other features and components available to support users, IT, business analysts and data scientists in the traditional and modern analytics environment.

To find out more about Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions And Reporting, Contact Us. Discover the power of Augmented Analytics and see how your team can benefit from fact-based decisions, and cost-effective analytics and achieve a market advantage.

Original Post: Combine Traditional and Modern BI for the Best Results!

Hire MEAN Stack Programmers with Skill and Experience!

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September 13, 2024

Expert MEAN Stack Developers Can Ensure Success!

If you have chosen MEAN Stack development as the environment in which you wish to develop your project, you are probably wondering whether to attempt an in-house development or to choose an IT partner that is skilled and experienced in MEAN Stack.

No matter the development environment, the enterprise typically does not have enough resources to dedicate to a development project. Adding this type of project to the responsibilities and tasks already assigned to your IT team can mean that your team is pulled away from other critical tasks, and it can create risk. Existing tasks may be delayed, and IT professionals may feel overwhelmed and you may lose team members.

Of course, there is another critical issue here, namely whether your team has MEAN Stack skills. In order to quickly and effectively create your software product or application, your business must ensure that the team assigned to the project has the experience and knowledge needed to assure success.

‘When reviewing the references, capabilities and services of MEAN stack developers and IT partners, the enterprise must ensure that the prospective partner and its team is capable of overseeing the full development lifecycle.’

By engaging a skilled IT partner, you can ensure that the project is completed without a lot of rework, and that all resources and capabilities are available to you to help you achieve success. The cost and time required to complete a project using professional MEAN Stack developers is much more likely to meet enterprise requirements and produce outcomes that satisfy end users, customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders.

Hire MEAN Stack Programmers Who Mean Business

It is estimated that nearly 70% of professional developers are currently using MEAN Stack for projects. To be sure you choose the right partner, you must include the following skills in your vendor review:

  • Soft and Interactive Skills to Accommodate Client and Executive Meetings
  • Working with Client IT Team and Users as Appropriate to Achieve Goals
  • Gathering Project Requirements
  • Comprehensive Knowledge of MEAN Components
  • Building Application Integration Platforms (APIs)
  • Establishing Optimal Database Structures and Data Models, and Server-Side Logic
  • Angular JS Front-End Components, e.g. UI router, filters, forms, etc.
  • Connecting Front-End UI to Back-End Data Repository
  • Writing Modules
  • Establishing and Re-Using Libraries
  • Comprehensive Testing Across All Relevant Devices and Browsers
  • Creating and Executing a Deployment Plan
  • Providing Detailed Code Documentation
  • Ensuring Ongoing User and Code Maintenance and Support
  • Creating Roadmaps for Upgrades
  • Performing Bug Fixes and Upgrades
  • Application Design and Development
  • Software Reengineering
  • Custom Application Development
  • User Experience Design
  • Application Maintenance And Support
  • Software Product Upgrades and Migration
  • Application Upgrades and Migration
  • Application Integration
  • Application Interface Usability and User Experience (Ux) Improvement
  • Expert Software Application Developers
  • 24/7 SLA Driven Application User Support and Technical Support
  • ISO 9001-2015 quality certification
  • Robust partnership program
  • Providing Appropriate Skills, Experience and Availability At Every Stage of the Project

‘The cost and time required to complete a project using professional MEAN Stack developers is much more likely to meet enterprise requirements and produce outcomes that satisfy end users, customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders.’

When reviewing the references, capabilities and services of MEAN stack developers and IT partners, the enterprise must ensure that the prospective partner and its team is capable of overseeing the full development lifecycle.

To engage Mean Stack Development Services, and hire MEAN Stack Programmers, Contact Us today. Find out more about our products and services and our rich history of Partnerships. Find out more about MEAN Stack development with our free article, ‘What is MEAN Stack, What MEAN Stack is NOT, Why Choose MEAN Stack Development and How to Hire MEAN Stack Developers.’

Original Post : Hire MEAN Stack Programmers with Skill and Experience!

Choose Augmented Analytics Designed for Business Users!

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September 11, 2024

Avoid Complex Analytics Solutions (Your Users Will Hate)

When a business is considering a business intelligence or analytics solution, it is important to recognize that today’s solutions are very different than the solutions of the past. Not only do they include more analytical techniques and features, but they have come a long way in providing access to sophisticated analytics for the average enterprise team member.

Harvard Business Review Analytics Service reports that

a) businesses can substantially improve business performance by giving frontline workers modern self-service analytics tools to enable fast intelligent action and,

b) not all self-service analytics provide this effective approach.

Choose Augmented Analytics Designed for Business Users and Get the Most From Your Solution

The Harvard Business Review Analytics Service surveyed nearly 500 executives and found that they reported significant performance improvement when they empowered frontline workers with augmented analytics. More than one-third of those surveyed noted improvement in customer and employee engagement and in product and service quality.

While some businesses may still be using business intelligence and analytics that are designed for data scientists and IT professionals, most of those are actively working to upgrade and/or migrate to augmented analytics and solutions that are designed for self-serve business user access.

Here’s why:

  • Search-based, self-serve analytics provides swift access to data and familiar natural language processing (NLP) search capability so business users can ask a question, get an answer and drill down to discover the root cause of issues. There is no need for the user to wait for IT or a data scientist to produce a report. They can continue to work on a task or a problem with full insight into results, challenges and possibilities.
  • The enterprise can enable data democratization and data literacy across the business landscape, thereby ensuring that there is a rapid response to market and competitive changes and to changing customer buying behavior.
  • Business users can leverage their industry knowledge and functional skillset and combine data insight with experience to produce the best results.
  • Intuitive, easy-to-use solutions help to combat user resistance and ensure user adoption. While there are always cultural issues surrounding this type of adoption and the perceived changes in responsibilities, when business users see the value of having crucial information at their fingertips, the enterprise can ease the transition and ensure user adoption.
  • No matter the role of the user, the team can enjoy the benefits of augmented analytics and make the transition to Citizen Data Scientists to improve collaboration, data sharing and fact-based decision-making.
  • The business can understand quality and maintenance issues, refine customer targeting and marketing optimization, and make appropriate financial investments, and they can analyze trends and patterns and make forecasts and predictions.
  • When the enterprise adopts these tools and techniques, they allow Citizen Data Scientists to perform analytics on a day-to-day basis and, where appropriate to effectively interact with and collaborate with the IT team and data scientists to refine data and prepare it for more strategic initiatives, so there is a seamless handoff from the business user to the analytical community, when and as necessary.

When the business is ready to acquire augmented analytics or to upgrade from existing, more restrictive solutions designed for professional analytical resources, it is important to choose the right solution – one with sophisticated tools that are presented in an intuitive user interface with auto-suggestions and recommendations to assist business users, and ample personalization of dashboards and reports.

With the right IT consulting partner, you can select and implement an Augmented Analytics Solution with business intelligence (BI) and advanced capabilities, and ensure that every user can leverage these tools, no matter their skillset or technical capabilities. Explore our free white paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI Tools.’

Original Post: Choose Augmented Analytics Designed for Business Users!

Embedded BI Simplifies Business User Analytics!

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September 10, 2024

Use Embedded BI to Encourage Business User Analytics Adoption!

Today, even the smallest business depends on technology and software to manage the business process, capture data and move the enterprise forward. No matter the size of a business, executives and managers now realize the value of providing analytics to make decisions. In the past, the analytics process was the sole domain of IT, business analysts and data scientists but today, organizations know that data democratization and data literacy are key to business performance and to keeping pace with the market and with changing customer buying behavior.

In order to accommodate this need, the business must provide easy-to-use analytics solutions that offer sophisticated functionality and features in an intuitive environment so team members can embrace analytics and willingly adopt these solutions.

‘Embedded BI brings the power of analytics closer to the user and allows them to use popular software and apps to achieve analytical goals with a single sign-on approach.’

If you want to take advantage of this approach, there is a consideration you should include in your strategy – and that consideration might surprise you. Consider the number of applications and software products your team uses to complete tasks and to find information. Did you know that, by some estimates, team members lose up to ten (10) percent of their time switching tasks and applications. One of the most frustrating realities an employee can face is trying to gather and analyze data. Suppose you want to analyze sales for a particular location, or a particular sales team for a certain period of time. In the old technology world, you would have to export the data, or you might use an integrated analytics solution and gather the data there by choosing the fields you want to analyze.

Embedded BI Gives Business Users Access to Intuitive Analytics Within Familiar Applications

Today, you can use Embedded Business Intelligence (BI) to find and analyze data without ever leaving the confines of your sales software. Embedded BI is designed to embed within a popular, familiar software platform. By placing this capability within a familiar application or software solution, the organization gives its team members access to data, pulling information from the system of origin, integrating and streamlining data processing and reporting time.

Embedded BI brings the power of analytics closer to the user and allows them to use popular software and apps to achieve analytical goals with a single sign-on approach, so they don’t lose time switching between software solutions or exporting and importing data. Users have access to dashboards, charts, graphs and analytical tools, all within the ERP, HRM, CRM, SCM or other enterprise solution. Embedded BI allows users to integrate analytics within workflow and collect and analyze data easily.

When considering an Embedded BI solution, be sure you choose one that accommodates access both in the office and on the road, with mobile access that enables business users to take analytics on the road.

‘In order to accommodate this need, the business must provide easy-to-use analytics solutions that offer sophisticated functionality and features in an intuitive environment so team members can embrace analytics and willingly adopt these solutions.’

You can find out more about the Smarten Embedded BI And Integration APIs solution and add powerful functionality and access to existing ERP, SCM, HRMS, CRM or any other products. Provide analytics capabilities within existing products without major Investment. Your business users and your customers will appreciate the ease-of-use and access and you will gain a competitive advantage. Read our White Paper: ‘Making The Case For Embedded BI And Analytics.’

Original Post : Embedded BI Simplifies Business User Analytics!

Include Mobile BI Tools in Business Workflow

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September 9, 2024

Best Practices for Incorporating Mobile BI

When the business undertakes a Mobile BI initiative, it must plan carefully to ensure success, achieve rapid return on investment (ROI) and achieve low total cost of ownership (TCO).

There are four primary goals of this exercise:

  • Improve Collaboration and Productivity
  • Streamline Decision-Making
  • Optimize Time and Resources by Providing Business Users with Intuitive Tools
  • Engender an Environment That Will Support Citizen Data Scientists

‘Be sure that the mobile business intelligence solution you choose supports a seamless user experience, and allows users to easily see dashboards, reports etc.’

Ensure Mobile BI Success By Incorporating BI Tools Into Business Practices

To achieve these goals, you must assess existing workflow and business processes and ensure that users can incorporate mobile business intelligence within team tasks and activities, that IT can support the environment and that managers can make the best use of the data presented by the team.

Review and Address Culture and Workflow – Take a look at a) the technical skills and technology use of your users, managers and executives, and understand how and when they use data. How is data used (if at all) to make decisions, or gain approval? In order to make the best use of Mobile BI, you will want to integrate this solution into the day-to-day process, and be sure that there is an access loop for executives and managers to receive and review data from users.

Establish Objectives and Metrics – We discussed the fact that you must understand your requirements, but you should also use those requirements to define objectives for the project and to set metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will tell you that the users are leveraging the mobile business intelligence solution, and that the data produced is having a positive impact on organizational goals. Be sure to create a review process for metrics, so that you can identify trends and modify metrics and processes to adapt to change.

Review Data Accessibility and Quality – Ensure that your users have access to accurate data. Do you have a process in place to allow for data gathering, cleansing and validation? Have you eliminated redundant or duplicate records? Is the data you wish to use in Mobile BI easily integrated and accessible? Your users will not want to go to another source to get information so, if you want them to use Mobile BI tools, you must make the right information available to them within the Mobile BI environment.

Review the Need for User Training – Even when your users have access to most intuitive solutions, you may wish to have a simple training session to be sure that all users understand a) what is expected of them, b) how to use the solution most effectively and c) how to get help if they have questions or issues.

Reports and Visualization – Be sure that the mobile business intelligence solution you choose supports a seamless user experience, and allows users to easily see dashboards, reports etc. so that they can incorporate data and reporting into their staff reports, their meetings, and their recommendations to management without expensive, time-consuming report customization or custom visualization designs.

User and Data Volume – Be sure that you plan for expansion of the mobile BI solution. As you add departments, divisions, user groups and additional data sources, you will want to ensure that your devices, network, and mobile BI solution can support the additional load, and still perform well.

The Data-Driven Organization – It is all well and good to encourage your users to work with data, to analyze information and use that information to present ideas and solutions to management, but if the executive team or the middle managers do not accept and reward the use of data in decision-making, the mobile BI solution will be just another toy. Staff assessments and career evaluations should support fact-based decision making and discourage guesswork and opinion as a means to drawing conclusions. Team members and managers should solicit and encourage the use of data during staff meetings and to support reports and decisions.

‘Assess existing workflow and business processes and ensure that users can incorporate mobile business intelligence within team tasks and activities, that IT can support the environment and that managers can make the best use of the data presented by the team.’

In this article, we have discussed the importance of successful integration of Mobile BI into business practices.

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have defined mobile business intelligence (BI), and discussed the benefits of this type of solution, Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence and Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Include Mobile BI Tools in Business Workflow!

Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI

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September 6, 2024

Plan for Successful Mobile BI User Adoption

Today’s Mobile BI applications are more advanced, flexible and interactive and designed to respond to business user needs and expectations. These tools are more sophisticated, without requiring the skills of a data scientist, and more dynamic without requiring complex customization, and they provide more in-depth predictive analytical functionality and more interactive features. They operate seamlessly on all manner of devices without compromised displays or performance.

‘To ensure that your users will adopt the Mobile BI solution, you want to engage them.’

But access does not always ensure user adoption. When planning a Mobile BI deployment, there are factors you should include in your requirements planning and assessment to ensure you are taking user adoption into consideration.

Ease of Use and Intuitive Interface – What factors will determine the successful user adoption of these tools? Do you require that the solution be personalized to meet your business user needs or the needs of the organization? Can a business user with average skills navigate the solution and get results?

User Training – Does the prospective vendor provide support for roll-out, user training and best practices to enable user adoption and ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) goals?

Collaboration – When a business user is working in a silo, or when business users do not all have access to the same information, they cannot collaborate. Creative, innovative solutions and insightful decisions only happen when a business team, management team or other department, entity or group has access to tools that allow them to share, report, create reports, and present information in a way that enables collaboration.

Data Democratization – The trend toward Citizen Data Scientists has gained in popularity. As business users transition from isolated team members into Citizen Data Scientists, they need access to sophisticated BI tools that offer clear, concise results in an easy-to-use interface, with features that enable team members to quickly gather and analyze data and share that data with the team. The days of complex BI tools managed by IT teams and Data Scientists are over! While Data Scientists work with crucial data to provide strategic direction, business users with access to self-serve BI tools can perform day-to-day analytics and find the information that will help them complete tasks and make better decisions.

Data Literacy – Today’s businesses must do more with less. That means that every resource, every skill, and every piece of knowledge must be leveraged to produce results. When business users gain literacy in data analytics, they can combine career knowledge, industry skills and business experience with data insights to produce better results. Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy.

Metrics to Show Usefulness in Tasks and Processes – Use what you have learned about business user frustrations, workflow, gaps, delays etc., to develop use cases and metrics that will reveal how fast things can be done, how mobile BI tools can support existing business processes, and how fact-based decision making can reduce re-work and encourage collaboration, etc.

Champions and Power Users – In every enterprise, there are people who love technology, people who are curious and love to learn, and people who are power users of devices, software and tools that will make them a) look good to their managers, b) develop a reputation as a leader, and c) grow in knowledge and skill. Use these champions and power users to find out what they know about user frustrations, and to educate them and solicit their help in user adoption. This group may represent the first roll-out and, by capturing feedback and results from that group, you can develop an approach to the user group at large.

Businesses often make technology decisions without consulting business users and they suffer the consequences. You can spend a lot of money on technology, take the time to plan for implementation and roll-out and then face resistance from business users and that resistance can often result in poor solution adoption and poor return on investment (ROI). To ensure that your users will adopt the solution, you want to engage them. Whether you are expanding the use of BI tools to include Mobile BI, or beginning your business intelligence journey, you can benefit from the feedback your users provide.

Planning Helps the Business Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI Tools

Find out what gaps, delays or issues they have in their workflow. If they are satisfied with status quo, ask them to make a wish list to make their lives even easier, and see how you can satisfy those things. With so many employees working remotely and taking on new responsibilities, it is likely that they will embrace the idea of additional access to information. Some users will see analytics as taking on new responsibilities and they will say they are already overloaded. Whenever a business wishes to change the way things are done, it will face resistance. The key is to show users how these new tools will make their lives easier, and that requires listening and research.

‘When planning a Mobile BI deployment, there are factors you should include in your requirements planning and assessment to ensure you are taking user adoption into consideration.’

There will always be a small group of team members who hold out and refuse to adopt new tools or processes but if a business can capture the majority of the team, and the team begins to use the tools to their benefit, even those hold-outs will eventually adapt and adopt!

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Ensure User Adoption of Mobile BI!

Choose the Right Mobile BI Vendor to Ensure Success

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September 5, 2024

Not Every Mobile BI Solution Will Deliver Results

Recent Surveys And Statistics Published By Mordor Intelligence, reveal that the fastest growing market for Mobile BI is in the Asia Pacific and the largest market is in North America. The market is forecasted to achieve nearly a 23% growth over the next three years. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as well as data visualization tools, designed for charting, dashboards and performance scorecards. The emergence of Big Data and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become popular as users share, communicate and collaborate using cloud-based platforms and networks. These surveys reveal that eCommerce operation are rapidly becoming a primary market for mobile BI demand, followed closely by the banking sector. The popularity of Mobile BI usage has grown exponentially in many business sectors and industries including:

  • Telecommunications
  • Software Technology
  • Retail
  • Professional Services
  • Manufacturing
  • Healthcare
  • Financial Services

There are many Self Service Analytics providers in the mobile business intelligence market, and when a business considers solutions, it must carefully review the options, solutions, vendor services and reputation. In this article, we will discuss some of the primary considerations for features and functionality, support, upgrades, technology, etc., and we will discuss some of the possible issues and challenges.

‘Your business should be aware that there are some challenges with mobile business intelligence solutions. Be sure you review prospective solutions to ensure that there are no gaps, issues or shortcomings.’

Mobile BI Solutions are Not Created Equal: Choose the Right Vendor

Here are some important features to consider when reviewing Self Service Data Analytics mobile BI tools:

  • Native application with an intuitive user experience (UI) and interface
  • Compliant with Android and iOS
  • Real-Time Analytics
  • Designed to encourage user adoption with tools for team members with average skills
  • Provides support for BI investment and data democratization without the need for customization
  • Product roadmap includes plans for upgrades and technology advancement
  • Start-up is easy and support is readily available
  • Intuitive Visualization and Presentation of Data
  • Personalized Dashboards and Reports
  • Dynamic Charts and Graphs
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search Analytics
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
  • Anomaly Monitoring and Alerts
  • Easy, Affordable Licensing
  • Free Downloads/Trials

A full suite of self-service analytics capabilities, mobile BI tools, modules, features and functionality is critical, but it is also crucial that your business look at its own requirements and select a solution that suits your needs.

What follows is a short list of considerations to include in your vendor and business intelligence product review so that you can match your selection to your needs:

Current Solutions (if any) vs. Requirements – If you have a business intelligence or augmented analytics solution, your team should assess how well this solution is meeting requirements. Where are the gaps, does the solution help your team meet goals and objectives? If you want to expand your business intelligence solution to include mobile BI, will the existing BI tools integrate with a mobile solution? If you are new to the business intelligence market, your requirements will be very different. Your team must assess your need for augmented analytics and mobile access, including all the issues and requirements noted below.

Business Users and Current Culture – Document the groups and individuals that will use the mobile BI tool. How many licenses or users will you need to register? What are the skills of these users? Do you have power users that can lead the charge? How will you roll-out and deploy the solution (by region, by department, in controlled user groups) to gain momentum while controlling implementation and analyzing success. What do you need to consider to accommodate existing business processes and workflows? How will mobile delivery change business processes?

Ease of Use and Intuitive Interface – What factors will determine the successful user adoption of these tools? Do you require that the solution be personalized to meet your business user needs or the needs of the organization? Can a business user with average skills navigate the solution and get results?

Technology and Integration Needs – What data repositories, current BI tools or analytics, will you integrate and make available to users? Do you need to upgrade hardware, networks, etc. to accommodate this project?

Finally, your business should be aware that there are some challenges with mobile business intelligence solutions. Be sure you review prospective solutions to ensure that there are no gaps, issues or shortcomings in these areas:

Data Governance

Does the prospective solution provide administrative tools to ensure quality and governance access for your IT team? Can they easily define access, manage dashboards, etc.

Security

In an effort to provide accessible, productive tools, businesses can sometimes expose themselves to legal risk, or privacy concerns in the form of data theft, hacking or data loss. Be sure that the vendor you choose has a demonstrable multi-layered security approach that limits access to data that a user needs, and provides controls to mitigate the risk of external threats.

Performance

To be useful, mobile BI tools must be accessible. That means that the solution must have reliable data connectivity and reliable performance, refresh rates, data transfer and display, data caching and compression, etc.

User Training and Adoption

Does the prospective vendor provide support for roll-out, user training and best practices to enable user adoption and ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) goals?

The best augmented analytics solution will provide Mobile BI Tools that are flexible enough to adapt to your needs, without expensive customization and time-consuming fixes.

‘There are many Self Service Analytics providers in the mobile business intelligence market, and when a business considers solutions, it must carefully review the options, solutions, vendor services and reputation.’

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have the factors involved in selecting a mobile business intelligence (BI) solution. Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Ensure User Adoption Of Mobile BI,’ ‘How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: Choose the Right Mobile BI Vendor to Ensure Success!

How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?

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September 4, 2024

Mobile BI Can Benefit Your Business in Numerous Ways

Gartner defines the field of analytics and business intelligence technology as, ‘an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance.’

In order to understand the evolution and importance of Mobile Business Intelligence, we must go beyond the technically specific definition, to talk about the concepts and the purpose of Mobile Business Intelligence Solutions, and how mobile business intelligence tools can help your business become more productive and support success.

‘Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy.’

While many businesses today have recognized the value of self-serve analytics, they may a) not yet have implemented augmented analytics within the organization, b) have implemented business intelligence (BI) and analytics within the walls of the office environment, or c) be planning to expand self-service analytics to include mobile business intelligence mobile apps that will provide access for business users working in any environment.

Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) Has Many Benefits to Business and Business Users

Here we will discuss the benefits of self service analytics as they relate to the Mobile Business Intelligence environment. Here are just some of the benefits of mobile business intelligence:

Accessibility – When business users have access to real-time data, and insights into results, challenges and opportunities, they can mitigate risk, adapt to change and answer questions from customers, team members, managers and others. Desktop and enterprise BI tools require users to be in the office, which limits access to tools and information for remote users or those who are often on the road, working at home or visiting customers.

Adaptability – If the recent global pandemic taught businesses anything, it highlighted the need to adapt to change, and to establish and sustain tools, business processes and an environment that can support users and the business no matter the situation. The evolution of Mobile BI tools has allowed businesses and their team members to work from anywhere, to remain connected with access to valuable data insights and to keep the business moving with timely approvals, decisions and completion of tasks and activities.

Productivity – If there is one thing business users and their managers hate more than anything, it is the inability to complete tasks or the fear that a task will be completed without all the required information. Team members who are out of touch can hold up the completion of a task or make the wrong decision, because they do not have access to the right information and/or they lack the tools to share information with other users.

Collaboration – When a business user is working in a silo, or when business users do not all have access to the same information, they cannot collaborate. Creative, innovative solutions and insightful decisions only happen when a business team, management team or other department, entity or group has access to tools that allow them to share, report, create reports, and present information in a way that enables collaboration.

Data Democratization – The trend toward Citizen Data Scientists has gained in popularity. As business users transition from isolated team members into Citizen Data Scientists, they need access to sophisticated BI tools that offer clear, concise results in an easy-to-use interface, with features that enable team members to quickly gather and analyze data and share that data with the team. The days of complex BI tools managed by IT teams and Data Scientists are over! While Data Scientists work with crucial data to provide strategic direction, business users with access to self-serve BI tools can perform day-to-day analytics and find the information that will help them complete tasks and make better decisions.

Data Literacy – Today’s businesses must do more with less. That means that every resource, every skill, and every piece of knowledge must be leveraged to produce results. When business users gain literacy in data analytics, they can combine career knowledge, industry skills and business experience with data insights to produce better results. Providing the right Mobile BI tools to business users, takes the guesswork and frustration out of data analytics and ensures user adoption and improved data literacy

Time to Market – Your business must quickly adapt to change, understand competitive initiatives, shifting customer buying behavior, supply and demand challenges and more. With the right mobile business intelligence tools, users can discover the hidden nuggets of information that will help the business move forward quickly. They can answer prospective customer questions to close an order, and explore product bundling opportunities, and new product possibilities, or analyze and suggest changes to supply chain flow or production to ensure swift, reliable time to market.

Fact-Based Decision-Making – Mobile Business Intelligence solutions provide dashboards, reporting, analytical tools and other features on-the-go, so users can explore data, drill-down to find the root cause of a problem, perform searches using natural language processing (NLP) search analytics, visualize data, share data and make confident, data-driven decisions from any location.

‘When business users have access to real-time data, and insights into results, challenges and opportunities, they can mitigate risk, adapt to change and answer questions from customers, team members, managers and others.’

For a comprehensive discussion of Mobile BI and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

In this article, we have defined mobile business intelligence (BI), and discussed the benefits of this type of solution, Contact Us to find out how Mobile Business Intelligence solutions can help your business achieve objectives, and explore the potential of Augmented Analytics Products. Discover the features of Business Intelligence And Reporting, and Download A Free Trial Of Smarten Analytics Software.

Explore our complementary articles on Mobile BI: ‘Choose The Right Mobile BI Vendor To Ensure Success,’ ‘Ensure User Adoption Of Mobile BI,’ ‘Include Mobile BI Tools In Business Workflow,’ and ‘What Is Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), How Can It Help Your Business, And What You Should Know Before You Decide.’

Original Post: How Can Mobile BI Help Your Business?

An IT Partner Can Help Your Citizen Data Scientist Initiative

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September 2, 2024

Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Program Results with a Partner

If your business has embraced the Citizen Data Scientist approach and are trying to get started with your initiative, you want to plan for success.

Gartner predicts that, ‘…automation of data science tasks will enable citizen data scientists to produce a higher volume of advanced analysis, than specialized data scientists.’

But if you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.

‘Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite.’

For those businesses that are planning a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it is wise to choose an IT consulting partner. You don’t have to go it alone! The right partner can help you with strategies and walk you through the process to build a new foundation and to support your future growth and adapt to changing market environs.

Engage a Skilled IT Partner and Achieve Citizen Data Scientist Success

Capabilities

Choose an IT consultant that can provide data science, analytics, technology, and soft leadership skills to ensure that your project is well staffed, and that you have what you need 24/7. The right IT consultant will have a plan to keep the augmented analytics products evergreen and grow with the field of technology and innovation.

Services

Choose an IT consultant that can help you plan and implement your Citizen Data Scientist initiative with workshops, webinars, and other resources designed to jump start data democratization, help you achieve appropriate data governance and do it all with minimal training and time investment. Services should include onsite, offsite or hybrid delivery, requirements planning, project management, architecture and data management, data science support, business user support, training.

Skills and Experience

Be sure the IT consultant you choose has a wealth of experience and references and a proven track record. Compare their services, fees and staffing capabilities to other vendors and consultants and choose wisely. You will want an IT consultant that can:

  • Encourage Collaboration
  • Engender Accountability
  • Improve user adoption, improve Business Intelligence ROI and overall organizational value
  • Improve Data Literacy
  • Increase Fact-Based Decision-Making
  • Optimize IT, Data Scientist and Business User resources
  • Transform Business Users into Citizen Data Scientists!
  • Provide Mobile Access for Business Users – Anytime, Anywhere!
  • Support rapid implementation and deployment

Select the Right Augmented Analytics Solution

Not all augmented analytics solutions are equal! Be sure the solution you choose has all the features you need and will be easy for your users to learn and adopt. Look for a comprehensive solution suite that includes:

‘If you are to achieve the results this prediction promises, you must ensure that your business has the expertise and the resources to plan for, execute, monitor and upgrade your environment so that you can achieve your goals now and in the future.’

The right augmented analytics solution can make or break your Citizen Data Scientist program. Your users do not want a solution that is hard to learn or takes too much time. They want something that will support their needs and make their job easier – a solution that will give them clear, concise data without the need for advanced skills or knowledge. If you provide them with tools that are easy to learn, and a clear path to complete their transition to Citizen Data Scientist, they are more likely to embrace the concept and support the initiative, and your business will achieve the goals it has established.

For a detailed discussion of Citizen Data Scientists and related topics, read our article: ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Contact Us to find out how augmented analytics Technology can support your enterprise, and ensure analytical clarity and results. Discover the next level of Self-Serve Analytics and explore online Citizen Data Scientist Training and the features and modules of a seamless, sophisticated, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution to see how your business can use analytics to achieve its goals. Explore our complementary articles on Citizen Data Scientists: ‘The Importance And Benefits Of A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist And How Has Their Role Changed?’ ‘Planning And Preparing For A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative,’ and ‘What Is A Citizen Data Scientist, What Is Their Role, What Are The Benefits Of Citizen Data Scientists…And More!’

Original Post: An IT Partner Can Help Your Citizen Data Scientist Initiative!