Mobile BI Tools Are Not Just Nice to Have, They Are A Necessity

Mobile BI Tools Support Users and a Competitive Strategy

No matter the size of your business or the industry or market in which you compete, the importance of business intelligence (BI) and self-serve augmented analytics is no longer in question. Nearly every business is using some form of business intelligence today and, if your business is not, you are already behind the competition!

When we consider the growth of this important solution market, we find that the mobile market for business intelligence solutions is growing exponentially and that is not surprising. Today’s workforce is mobile and, even where employees work onsite, their work will take them away from a desk and into a manufacturing or production environment, or perhaps within the walls of a hospital, a university, a retail store, etc.

‘The shift to mobile BI tools is not just a matter of convenience. It is crucial that your team remain informed and that they have the tools they need to collaborate, share and present data, whether they are on the road, with a client or in an airport. This flexibility reflects the evolving business environment and the need for agility.’

A recent Mordor Intelligence Report revealed that the 2025 market size for mobile business intelligence was 19.33 billion USD and that the 2030 projected market size is 55.56 billion USD.

While many businesses rely solely on BI solutions and look to their team to implement and use these solutions, the growth of business intelligence services is also of note. The complexity of technology landscapes, in-house vs. cloud implementations, security and regulatory and industry compliance, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) add-ons and integration have created an environment that is often best served by expert services.

These services can help businesses to personalize and customize their approach and to provide meaningful mobile BI tools, embedded BI for familiar best-of-breed and legacy software solutions and other tools that will support end users and make the team more productive.

User accessibility and ease-of-use are paramount considerations. The shift to mobile BI tools is not just a matter of convenience. It is crucial that your team remain informed and that they have the tools they need to collaborate, share and present data, whether they are on the road, with a client or in an airport. This flexibility reflects the evolving business environment and the need for agility.

Whether you are a sales manager, a media executive, a healthcare provider or a business analyst, it is important to have access to a suite of BI tools that will help you gather and analyze business data using mobile devices.

Why is Mobile Business Intelligence Important for My Business in Today’s Work Environment?

The team needs interactive data tools and tools that enable sharing and collaboration, reporting and sophisticated analytics – all with dependable security. Users should also be able to tailor their mobile BI tools to suit their role and preferences and integrate the use of these tools within workflow to foster a data-driven, fact-based culture.

‘Today’s workforce is mobile and, even where employees work onsite, their work will take them away from a desk and into a manufacturing or production environment, or perhaps within the walls of a hospital, a university, a retail store, etc.’

Look for a mobile BI tool that will:

  • Support a native mobile environment for Android and iOS, with an intuitive user experience (Ux).
  • Provide access rights defined at the server level with appropriate security and privacy at all levels.
  • Accommodate hosting within the IT infrastructure, on-premises or in public or private cloud environs.
  • Provide users with access to dashboards, reports, and clickless analytics with a natural language processing (NLP) search function.
  • Provide expertise and services that are appropriate for the needs of your organization.

If you want to support your business user team and provide a foundation for BI tools that will better serve your team and your customers, explore Smarten Mobile BI benefits and features, with powerful functionality and access for your business users including out-of-the-box Mobile BI and advanced analytics for every team member. For more information on Mobile BI and Augmented Analytics, read our article, ‘Mobile BI Business Use Provides Real Advantages,’ and take a moment to watch and listen to this informative webinar, ‘Smarten Mobile BI.’

Case Study : Augmented Analytics for India-Based Municipal Corporation to Support Smart City Initiative

The Client is one of the largest municipal corporations in India, and is responsible for delivering essential civic services, i.e., water supply, sewage treatment, solid waste management, road infrastructure, public health, education, and environmental programs for an urban population of over 3.1 million citizens.

Should I Choose a BI Tool with On-Premises or Cloud-Based Storage?

Is Cloud-Based or On-Premises Data Access Best for BI Tools?

There are many considerations your business much include in a business intelligence (BI) and augmented analytics decision. When reviewing analytics software and solutions, remember that data storage and data management is a crucial decision. Ease of access, the speed of that access, dependable storage and security and other factors must be considered.

‘Scalable technology infrastructure and architecture and support for on-premises, private cloud or public cloud implementation is crucial to support future growth and enable your users with easy, secured access to information and seamless response.’

When you consider the technical foundation of the product and services, you must decide between a solution that resides on premises and one that is cloud-based.

Cloud-Based: This relies on third-party servers to support software and data and accesses information via a secured internet connections using a cloud environment, providing a flexible, scalable approach and allowing the enterprise to access software and features without using its own resources, IT support, and hardware.

On-Premises: This option uses in-house, enterprise hardware and infrastructure and businesses often choose to go this route retain control and provide assured security. It is important to note that some solutions store the BI tool in the cloud, while data is stored on premises, and this can create issues with delays and latency.

Gartner Predicts that, ‘Demand for integration capabilities, agile work processes and composable architecture will drive continued shift to the cloud.’

If you are choosing an analytics product, a business intelligence (BI) solution or augmented analytics, consider a vendor that allows you to choose between on-premises or a cloud-based approach, and provides the flexibility to change that approach without having to change your software or vendor.

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Work with your IT partner, to develop requirements and include the following factors in your requirements:

  • Business Strategy for Growth and Number of Locations and Users
  • Security and Standards Compliance
  • Ongoing Access to Technical Experts
  • Clear, Flexible Management of Data Sources, and Data Access
  • Location of the Data Sources – On Premises or Cloud
  • Affordability of Solution and Support and Maintenance Services
  • Performance, Scalability, Flexibility
  • Product and Service Support for Future Upgrade, User Needs, and Digital Transformation (Dx)

A flexible, low-code, no-code analytics platform with scalable technology infrastructure and architecture and support for on-premises, private cloud or public cloud implementation (including Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and other options) is crucial to support future growth and enable your users with easy, secured access to information and seamless response. Consult your IT partner to decide on your data storage and access approach based on data velocity, data sources and locations, data security and governance policies and your required return on investment (ROI).

The location of data sources is a paramount consideration when choosing between on-premises and cloud business intelligence. Pushing large volumes of ERP or CRM data from an on-premises location to the cloud BI tool will affect scalability and can cause delays. When considering a business intelligence solution, include a review of the architecture and data access, as well as vendor IT policies and security standards.

‘When reviewing analytics software and solutions, remember that data storage and data management is a crucial decision. Access, speed of access, dependable storage and security and other factors must be considered.’

Contact Us to discuss the needs of your organization and your users and find out more about Smarten Technology. The process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business is crucial and must include a careful assessment of your needs. Explore our White Paper: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and our article, ‘How Does Low Code And No Code Development Support BI Tools?

White Paper – Conversational AI and NLP Analytics Reduces the Dependence and Usage of Traditional BI Tools, and Improves User Adoption and Data Democratization

White Paper – Conversational AI and NLP Analytics Reduces the Dependence and Usage of Traditional BI Tools, and Improves User Adoption and Data Democratization!

Conversational AI and NLP Analytics
Reduces the Dependence and Usage of Traditional BI Tools, and Improves User Adoption and Data Democratization

The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language processing (NLP) in existing business intelligence and self-serve analytics tools has had (and will continue to have) a profound influence on ease-of-use, on user adoption and on the democratization of data across the enterprise, and the use of Conversational AI and NLP is rapidly changing the face of BI tools and business user and organizational expectations.

Download White Paper

Which BI or Analytics Tool is Best for My Business?

Traditional BI, Augmented Analytics, or Modern BI/Analytics?

Whether your business is planning to acquire a business intelligence (BI) or augmented analytics tool for a first-time installation or looking to upgrade an existing system, the decision starts with the ‘what’ of the solution. What kind of solution will best fit your needs for infrastructure, integration, user requirements, pricing, upgrades etc. and what kind of approach, features and functionality will be most suitable for your business.

‘When considering a new or upgraded business intelligence or advanced analytics solution, it is important to look at your enterprise requirements to accommodate existing technologies and infrastructure, business processes and models and user needs.’

Recent Study reveals a number of considerations to be included in your choice of BI tools and analytical platforms, including:

  • Zero footprint: 100% web-based, no client-side installs or downloads required
  • Support for role-based reporting and dashboards
  • Support for mobile Business Intelligence
  • Communication features like notes, comments, and likes
  • Updates in real-time: your dashboard is always up to date
  • Basket, advanced and predictive analysis
  • Support for machine learning and generative AI
  • Usability: ease-of-use and ease-of-learning
  • Insights (graphs, definitions, et cetera) that are reusable across BI applications

While this study carves out what it considers to be the optimal analytics framework and platform, some of all of these considerations may not apply to your business needs.

What Do I Need to Consider When Choosing BI Tools and Analytics Solutions?

When reviewing the various iterations of analytics frameworks and platforms, you will need to understand the following capabilities and structures. Understanding how each of these approaches works and what advantages and limitations they include will make it easier for you to choose a solution and approach to suit your needs.

Augmented Analytics

Today’s augmented data analytics incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to streamline, automate and improve the process of data analysis, so business users can more easily gather, interact with, select and report on data, simplifying data prep, insight and collaboration and allowing your team to explore data in a way that is meaningful to them.

Augmented analytics uses machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and algorithms to easily analyze and manipulate large datasets and reduces the time needed for processing, thereby allowing business users to leverage analytics in their day-to-day workflow and freeing Data Scientists to perform more strategic tasks.

Benefits of Augmented Analytics

  • Streamlined data prep and analytics
  • Optimizes business user and data scientist time and effort
  • Faster, more insightful decision-making
  • Increased operational efficiency
  • Democratized data analytics

Traditional Business intelligence

Traditional BI Tools use conventional analytical techniques and technologies to collect, analyze and present data. These systems typically rely on a centralized data source and a selected set of formatted reports. Users leverage data extraction, transformation and loading tools (ETL) to extract data from a data warehouse and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools to analyze data. Reports and visualization are typically delivered through a dashboard with standard key performance indicator (KPI) software to monitor metrics.

Benefits of Traditional BI Tools

  • These tools provide support for a range of data types and data sources
  • IT and/or data scientists can create standardized reports and models to address business and user needs
  • The enterprise can maintain and control data sources on-site

Modern BI Tools and Augmented Analytics

When an organization integrates the use of modern BI tools with more advanced augmented analytics it can leverage artificial intelligence and traditional tools to satisfy the needs of a diverse set of users, business units, etc. Modern Business Intelligence technologies integrates more sophisticated features to bring analytics to all users and allow them to choose the tools that best suit their needs in a self-serve environment with automated data preparation, fast and easy data access and insight, Natural Language Processing (NLP) that allows users to ask questions using common language and receive answers using visualization techniques.

Benefits of Modern BI Tools and Augmented Analytics Combined

  • Sophisticated self-serve analytics suitable for business users with limited technical skills
  • Real-Time insights and reduced time-to-decision
  • Monitoring and managing of trends, anomalies and other factors that impact results
  • Collaboration and data democratization with unique tools to suit every user
‘When reviewing the various iterations of analytics frameworks and platforms, you will need to understand the following capabilities and structures. Understanding how each of these approaches works and what advantages and limitations they include will make it easier for you to choose a solution and approach to suit your needs.’

When considering a new or upgraded business intelligence or advanced analytics solution, it is important to look at your enterprise requirements to accommodate existing technologies and infrastructure, business processes and models and user needs.

Contact Us to discuss the unique needs of your organization and your users and find out more about Smarten Technology. The process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your busine is crucial and must include a careful assessment of your needs. Explore our White Paper: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and our article, ‘How Does Low Code And No Code Development Support BI Tools?

Should I Choose Cloud-Based or On-Premises Business Intelligence?

Choosing Between Cloud and On-Premises Augmented Analytics

Your business may be upgrading a business intelligence solution OR it may be considering the implementation of business intelligence (BI) for the first time. Either way, you will be faced with numerous decisions as you navigate the augmented analytics market and look for the right product and solution for your team and your organization.

Considerations include pricing, features, ease-of-use, data storage and data management location, and the capability of the solution to support upgrade and growth. When it comes to the technical foundation of the product and services, you will need to decide whether to choose a solution that resides on premises or one that is cloud-based.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this decision is advanced planning and anticipating the changing needs of the organization. If you are choosing an advanced analytics product, a business intelligence or augmented analytics solutions, you may wish to select a vendor that allows you to choose an on-premises OR cloud-based approach, with the flexibility to change your approach in the future WITHOUT having to change the software your team has adopted – the one they now understand and use on a daily basis.

On-Premises: Software is hosted onsite using enterprise hardware and infrastructure. Some businesses choose this option because they wish to retain control and provide assured security.

Cloud-Based: When a business chooses this option, it relies on third-party servers to support the software and data and accesses information via secured internet connections using cloud. This option provides a flexible, scalable approach and allows the enterprise to access software and features without the need for its own resources, IT support, and hardware expense.

Gartner Has Predicted that, ‘Demand for integration capabilities, agile work processes and composable architecture will drive continued shift to the cloud.’

On-Premises vs Cloud-Based BI Tools: Consider Your Enterprise Requirements

To choose the right solution, work with your IT partner, to consider:

  • Strategy for Business Growth
  • Industry, Government Security Compliance
  • Availability of and Access to Technical Experts
  • Ability to Easily Manage Data Sources, Data Access, etc.
  • Cost of Solution and Support and Maintenance
  • Performance, Scalability, Flexibility
  • Support for Upgrade, Future Needs, Digital Transformation (Dx)

Look for a flexible, low-code, no-code analytics platform with scalable technology infrastructure and architecture that offers on-premises, private cloud or public cloud implementation for Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and other options. Your IT consulting partner will help you decide on your approach based on data velocity, data sources and locations, data security and governance policies and your desired return on investment (ROI).

Contact Us to discuss your analytical needs and to find out more about Smarten Technology, Architecture And Infrastructure, and the process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business. Explore our White Paper: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and our free article, ‘How Does Low Code And No Code Development Support BI Tools?

Mobile BI Supports User Access and Adoption and Improves Results

Why Adopt Mobile BI? Data Access and Data Democratization

The global business environment has changed dramatically. With employees working remotely, and even in other countries, it is mandatory to provide technology and tools your team can use to complete tasks and, hopefully, to add value to the organization on a daily basis.

If you have not yet adopted a business intelligence or augmented analytics solution, it is wise to consider one now. Your competitors are already implementing these solutions! If you HAVE adopted a BI tool or self-serve analytics solution, but you have yet to provide your team with mobile business intelligence, it is past time to consider this addition because your competitors area already implementing THESE solutions as well!

‘Out-of-the-Box Mobile BI can provide natural language search analytics, clickless analytics for quick, easy analysis, key performance indicators, dashboards and reports, dynamic charts and graphs, and intuitive visualizations, with self-serve features that are suitable for every user.’

According to Market Research Future studies, ‘The Business Intelligence market segmentation, based on Technology, includes Mobile BI, Cloud BI, and Social BI…’ This market is…’is expected to grow and expand during the projected timeframe as it will help businesses make data-driven decisions, boosting the overall market growth.’ This study estimates that the business intelligence market will grow from USD 33.12B in 2024 to USD 78.42B in 2032.

The reason for that growth is simple. Businesses, large and small, are discovering the value of fact-based decision-making, and the wise business owner, executive or manager understands that their competition is actively involved in improving productivity (to do more with less), in improving customer satisfaction (with targeted products and services), in decreasing re-work and increasing collaboration, and above all in increasing the data literacy of its team through data democratization, easy access to crucial data and improved user adoption of technology.

Access Data From Anywhere with Next Gen Mobile BI Tools for Business Users

But the old methods of BI tool installation can no longer support strategic goals. Your team may be spread across countries, regions or cities. They may work in the field. They may be meeting with a client or a supplier. Any or all of these scenarios require mobile tools that provide your team with the information they need to make the right decision, to review historical data or transactions and work with others to create a pricing strategy, check on stock, understand customer buying behavior etc.

If you truly wish to make your team more productive and effective, it is crucial to give them access to data and the information they need to do their job, no matter where they are working (in the office or remotely). Easy-to-use, self-service tools ensure user adoption and can move your team members toward a Citizen Data Scientist role, with advanced analytics that is intuitive, interactive and flexible.

Out-of-the-Box Mobile BI can provide natural language search analytics (NLP), clickless analytics for quick, easy analysis, key performance indicators (KPIs) for metrics and results, dashboards and reports, dynamic charts and graphs, and intuitive visualizations, all designed for ease-of-use with self-serve features that are suitable for every user.

With these tools, your users can easily find and analyze information, working from anywhere, at any time of the day. They will not have to guess at information, or carry copies of old reports that are no longer relevant.

‘If you have adopted a BI tool or self-serve analytics solution, but you have yet to provide your team with mobile business intelligence, it is past time to consider this addition because your competitors area already implementing these solutions.’

If you want to support your business user team and provide a foundation for BI tools that will better serve your team and your customers, explore Smarten Mobile BI benefits and features, with powerful functionality and access for your business users including out-of-the-box Mobile BI and advanced analytics for every team member. For more information on Mobile BI and Augmented Analytics, read our article, ‘Mobile BI Business Use Provides Real Advantages,’ and take a moment to watch and listen to this informative webinar, ‘Smarten Mobile BI.’

Case Study : Customer Churn Prediction for India-Based Pharmacy and Wellness Business

The Client owns a leading specialty chain of pharmacy and wellness stores in Ahmedabad, India, providing pharmaceuticals, medications, and wellness products to the community and consumers. As a component of its business, it sponsors a popular customer loyalty program. The Smarten model demonstrated remarkable performance, achieving 98% accuracy in predicting customer churn on the testing dataset.

Is One BI Tool Enough or Do I Need More?

Should I Have One, Two, Three or More BI Tools?

Whether your business wishes to implement its first business intelligence solution, or you wish to upgrade your solution to satisfy additional requirements, or your business divisions have diverse business needs, the RIGHT business intelligence and augmented analytics solution is crucial. To protect your Return on Investment (ROI) and reduce your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), you must select a solution that will suit all your team members, and be flexible enough to grow with your organization and provide support now and in the future.

Making the Case for One vs. Multiple Business Intelligence Solutions

Gartner names 12 mandatory and common features of a comprehensive BI tool, which includes:

  1. Data visualization
  2. Governance
  3. Reporting
  4. Analytics Catalog
  5. Data preparation
  6. Data science integration
  7. Automated insights.
  8. Metrics layer
  9. Data storytelling
  10. Natural language query (NLQ)
  11. Collaboration
  12. Composability

For many businesses today, the decision can lead them down a winding path to the question: ‘Can I truly find one solution to suit all my needs and, if I can’t, is it possible to successfully combine and integrate more than one BI tool?’

Let’s take a closer look at these questions in an effort to help you understand the tradeoffs and the decision-making process.

Choosing ONE BI Tool

Benefits

  • Data Centralization – Team members can seamlessly access a single data solution
  • Provides a centralized, simplified platform for user management and access rights
  • Maintenance and Administration – The IT team has only one system to manage
  • Reporting – Dashboards and reports leverage one data model, and reporting formats and scenarios are uniform and interconnected
  • Ensures one focused, experienced IT and technical team

Challenges

  • Scalability – As your organization grows, you may have issues supporting an expanded user base and data volume
  • Performance Issues – For organizations with a large data volume, users may experience a lag in response time
  • Data Security – If your business has multiple business units, the administration of a single solution may be a challenge, as the model will require multi-layered, granular security and permissions
  • Constrains the business to one solution, with one roadmap for the future provided by one vendor

Choosing Multiple Solutions

Benefits

  • Scalability – Smaller, more modular solutions allow the organization to execute development independently without affecting other systems
  • Performance – User experience (Ux) for dashboards and reporting is likely to be better, with suitable speed and responsive dashboards and reporting
  • Support – Each independent module or solution can be supported independently without affecting other solutions

Challenges

  • Duplicate Data or Analytics – If proper architecture is not in place, the systems may duplicate data or analysis or a system may use the wrong model for reporting
  • Integration – Combining and integrating multiple systems requires a sophisticated roadmap to accommodate cross-functional reporting and analytics and data access
  • Continuity – Data mapping, distribution and consistency can be a challenge
  • User Management and Access Rights – It can be challenging to manage these processes across disparate platforms
  • Technical and IT – Multiple tools require expertise across all frameworks and platforms

These are just a few of the examples of benefits and challenges of the one vs. many approach of business intelligence solutions. While the temptation to consolidate and choose one tool can seem practical, the enterprise should consider the benefits and the challenges of each approach and compare them to their needs. Each tool may offer specific benefits that cannot be achieved by a one solution approach, and may better address user expectations and needs and satisfy the goals of the organization.

For a long time, the analytics industry has touted the idea of ‘best of breed,’ and there is a case to be made for choosing the ‘best’ for each scenario. Gartner’s most recent Magic Quadrant places 6 of 20 vendors in the niche quadrant and many of these niche vendors may offer solutions that meet a specific need within your own enterprise. So, don’t be too quick to eliminate the possibility of multiple solutions.

Many CIOs think that at standardization on one platform should always be considered at the enterprise level. While that approach has its advantages, it has lot of disadvantages too.

Advantages include:

  • One vendor, one relationship
  • Concentrated skill set within the team
  • A simple, uncluttered application landscape

Disadvantages include:

  • Commitment to one vendor (who may or may not be dependable)
  • Enterprise is confined to one vendor roadmap, limitations, upgrades and future development
  • One solution platform limits enterprise platform choices and flexibility
  • One tool may not satisfy niche or specific use cases across all divisions, departments and teams

While a one solution choice may work for a smaller organization or one without complex needs, you may wish to consider a balanced approach. When you strike a balance using a practical, limited best of breed approach, you can address the needs of specific business units or users. Be judicious about your choices, so as not to clutter the application landscape with too many applications and complicate your architecture.

You may wish to choose one solution for enterprise IT reporting, or one for smart data visualization for business users, or one that supports Citizen Data Scientists, or a tool that is focused on big data processing. Your assessments should be based on your use cases, user needs, license needs, budget, etc. While some organizations use as many as five (5) BI tools, the enterprise should limit their expansion to 2-3 tools in order to avoid chaos in integration, maintenance, the need for IT skills, costs etc.

While the assessment of needs and requirements for ANY software solution can be time consuming, it does pay off in the end and, especially if you are considering multiple BI tools, it is worth taking the time to thoroughly assess your needs so your business can create the ideal analytical landscape for IT, data scientists, business analysts and business users.

Contact Us to discuss your analytical needs and to find out more about Modern And Traditional BI ToolsAugmented Analytics solutions, Citizen Data Scientist training and the process of choosing the right Analytics Solution for your business. Explore our free White Papers: ‘Enabling Business Optimization And Expense Reduction Through The Use Of Augmented Analytics,’ and ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI Tools.’