What Do I Need to Know Before I Choose a Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) Solution for My Business?
What makes a great Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) solution? There are many factors to consider and, if you do not choose wisely, you risk a) spending a lot of money and getting very little in return, b) working with incorrect, old or incomplete data, c) having to upgrade and spend even more money, d) disappointing your team and falling short of objectives, e) missing your Citizen Data Scientist initiative goals.
Add Mobile BI for Your Team and Improve Access, Analytics and Business Decisions!
Recent surveys reveal that the mobile BI market is growing by leaps and bounds. Of those surveyed, over 35% of companies said that mobile BI is in use among their business users. While some businesses have yet to adopt BI tools or augmented analytics for their business users, many have done so, and are now in the process of adding mobile BI to the set of tools available to users. There is no doubt that the COVID pandemic affected this strategy, since many businesses are now embracing a full-time or a hybrid remote work environment that requires team members to have access to tools from wherever they are working.
Support Your Team and Achieve Business Results with a Mobile BI Solution!
Gone are the days when every employee in your enterprise was tied to a desk inside the walls of your office building. Today’s team members are working remote, or visiting clients, or on the road, or perhaps they are in the office in a staff meeting and in need of crucial information to make a decision. Whatever the case, your team needs flexible, mobile solutions to do their jobs in today’s high-stakes, competitive environment, and mobile BI is definitely among the solutions they need.
‘If you want to support your business user team, explore mobile augmented analytics and mobile BI, you can add powerful functionality and access for your business users with out-of-the-box Mobile BI.’
Mobile BI solutions provide data for analysis on mobile devices to support objective, fact-based decision-making improve overall business performance.
According to Mordor Intelligence, ‘The growth in the adoption of mobile BI can be attributed to numerous factors, such as the growing adoption of data analytics, an increase in mobile data generation, proliferation of mobile devices and apps, and the improved efficiency of BI tools.’
There are many benefits to creating a Mobile BI environment:
Your users can leverage a native app, with a seamless user interface for a great user experience (Ux)
The enterprise can extend the office environment, allowing for swift analysis and decisions from anywhere and improving productivity
Mobile BI will encourage user adoption and provide support for BI investments and data democratization and improved data literacy
The organization can ensure data security with access rights defined on the server, so security and privacy is ensured at all levels
The mobile BI app is supported from anywhere within IT infrastructure –on premises, public or private cloud
Business Users have access to dashboards, reports, Clickless Analytics – Google-type Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search functionality
Whether you have an existing business intelligence or augmented analytics platform that you wish to upgrade or change, or you are exploring the potential of augmented analytics for your business user team and want to implement a Mobile BI environment to support your team within and outside the office, you can enjoy the benefits of this approach, with a cost-effective solution that is easy to implement and requires minimum training and roll-out time.
‘Your team needs flexible, mobile solutions to do their jobs in today’s high-stakes, competitive environment, and mobile BI is definitely among the solutions they need.’
If you want to support your business user team, explore Smarten Mobile Augmented Analytics And Mobile BI, you can add powerful functionality and access for your business users with 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, ‘Understanding The Truth About Mobile BI.’
Why Doesn’t Your Business Provide Mobile BI Access For Your Users?
You would think that businesses would understand the value of Mobile BI! After all, we are a mobile society. Today’s consumers and business users expect to have access to all of their tools, apps, software and websites on their mobile devices, and no matter what kind of device they have – iPad, tablet, Android smart phone, iPhone etc., they expect to have seamless performance. So, is it any wonder that businesses are facing the question of analytics on the go?
Gartner has predicted that, ‘overall analytics adoption will increase from 35% to 50%, driven by vertical and domain-specific augmented analytics solutions.’
‘Mobile BI can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals.’
If your business users and Citizen Data Scientists have access to robust augmented analytics and traditional and modern BI within the walls of your enterprise, why don’t they access to these all-important tools when they are working remotely, in a client office, at an airport, on the road or working with a supplier or a partner? Consider the increased productivity and the improved workflow your team can achieve if you add Mobile BI. If you have invested in an analytics solution and you want to achieve the best return on investment (ROI) and the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO), you need to expand user access to a mobile environment.
With the right Mobile BI solution your users can enjoy many benefits. When you consider a Mobile BI and augmented analytics solution, be sure your solution provides:
A native app, with seamless user interface for a great user experience (Ux) – compatible with iOS and Android
An extended office environment for swift analysis and decisions from anywhere
Encourages user adoption and provides support for BI investments and data democratization
Access rights are defined on the server so security and privacy is ensured at all levels
Can be hosted anywhere within IT infrastructure –on premises, public or private cloud
Business Users have access to dashboards, reports, Clickless Analytics – Google-type Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search functionality
Start-up is easy, within a few minutes and support is readily available
‘Consider the increased productivity and the improved workflow your team can achieve if you add Mobile BI.’
Choose a Business Intelligence reporting solution that promotes data literacy and provides BI tools your IT team can easily implement and support, and a solution that business users will want to adopt. Choose flexible, agile business intelligence solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data, and report and communicate with clarity. Mobile BI can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals.
Mobile BI Tools Support Citizen Data Scientists and All Team Members With Access to Critical Data!
When a business takes on a Citizen Data Scientist initiative, it must provide the tools and techniques the business user will need to support the new role. Augmented Analytics is key – with features and tools that make it easy to integrate, find, analyze and share data across the enterprise.
Gartner has predicted that, ‘90% of corporate strategies will explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset and analytics as an essential competency.’
If your organization is doing it right, the Citizen Data Scientist initiative will incorporate support to change the culture, to update the employee evaluation process to encourage the use of analytics and fact-based decision-making, and other factors that influence user adoption and enable the business to move forward with a team alignment.
But one thing many businesses fail to consider is the need for these tools outside the walls of the office environment. If the global pandemic taught us anything is that many employees were forced to work at home or in settings outside the typical office facility. Today, many companies have embraced this concept on a long-term basis, allowing their employees to work from home, or in remote group locations. But even if your business is situated in one more office buildings or store fronts, the chances are good that your team members spend a certain amount of time working outside the office, after hours, on weekends, etc.
‘Mobile BI tools provide the support for your Citizen Data Scientists, data scientists, business analysts, team members, executives, and managers so that every business user can access and analyze data, share, and collaborate.’
Teams today are asked to do more with less and, as work hours expand, and the expectations of businesses change, the team must adapt. Managers, executives, IT teams and others find themselves in situations where they must check the status of a project, approve a purchase or resource acquisition, communicate with a team and assess the need to make changes – the list goes on and on!
Mobile BI tools provide the support for your Citizen Data Scientists, data scientists, business analysts, team members, executives, and managers so that every business user can access and analyze data, share, and collaborate and make decisions on the fly, in a staff meeting, in an airport or hotel, or at home.
To ensure that you choose the right tools for your Citizen Data Scientists, look for a Mobile Business Intelligence solution that offers the following features and functionality:
Native app, with seamless user interface for a great user experience (Ux). Available for iOS and Android
Extends the office environment. Allows swift analysis and decisions from anywhere
Encourages user adoption and provides support for BI investments and data democratization
Access rights are defined on the server so security and privacy is ensured at all levels
Hosted anywhere within IT infrastructure – on premises, public or private cloud
Business Users have access to dashboards, reports, Clickless Analytics – Google-type Natural Language Processing (NLP) Search functionality
Start-up is easy, within a few minutes and support is readily available
‘One thing many businesses fail to consider is the need for BI tools outside the walls of the office environment.’
If you want to support your Citizen Data Scientists and every member of your business user team, explore Smarten Mobile Augmented Analytics And Mobile BI. Add powerful functionality and access for your business users with 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, ‘Understanding The Truth About Mobile BI.’
Give Business Users Mobile BI to Extend the Office and Improve Responsiveness!
Change is ever-present, and no more so than in the past three or four years. As COVID has changed the way people work, and the location in which they do their work, the need for mobile BI Tools has grown exponentially. Neither the organization, nor the business users can afford to delay the use of business intelligence tools until they are in the office. Every business must do more with less.
‘Mobile BI should provide data analytics access for all business users and, above all, provide flexible, agile solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data and report and communicate with clarity.’
Mobile BI tools can provide support for team members as they travel, as they work from home, and as they collaborate with other team members from a client office, an airport, a train station, or a supplier location.
According to recent studies, the single most important benefit of Mobile Business Intelligence is enhanced data visibility. Another way to look at it is to consider the lost opportunities and the many missteps the organization will experience if it cannot make sense of its data in real time and with a comprehensive view into the data it captures across the enterprise.
Don’t try to dictate the type of device, the size of the screen or the resolution. Be sure you choose a mobile BI solution that will satisfy all manner of devices. Choose a user interface (UI) that is responsive and adaptive – one that provides self-serve tools without redesign or restructuring of dashboards for specific devices or screens. You can enhance total cost of ownership (TCO) and improve return on investment (ROI) with tools that are flexible and can be easily used in any environment.
Empower your users with integrated business intelligence tools that provide access to data in an interactive, personalized view and enable data sharing, identification of trends and patterns and user empowerment and accountability. Out-of-the-box mobile BI tools should support your users with tools that make it easier to understand data analytics and use data for reporting, presentation and collaboration with personalized dashboards and reporting and flexible graphs and charts.
‘Be sure you choose a mobile BI solution that will satisfy all manner of devices.’
The right mobile business intelligence solution should allow your users to get started right away without extensive training and at a reasonable cost. It should enable integration of data across disparate data sources so users have access to all the data they need to get a complete and comprehensive picture of business results, the root cause of problems and the opportunities that will provide unique competitive advantage to the organization.
Comprehensive BI Tools and Mobile BI should provide data analytics access for all business users and, above all, provide flexible, agile solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data and report and communicate with clarity. Simple, Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.
The Client is among the top five Food and Beverage (F&B) companies in India with a chain of several leading restaurant brands, and is known for being a trailblazer in its field.
The Client is the largest global manufacturer of Air Coolers. The Client is an India-based Multi-National Company with a presence in over sixty (60) countries. As the market leader, this enterprise enjoys a prime position in the residential, industrial and commercial market segments and its brand is considered synonymous with cooling products in the global market. The Client is a market disrupter in what is a diverse and poorly organized sector and it has set the market benchmark with 201 trademarks, 64 registered designs, 15 copyrights and 48 patents, thereby setting the gold standard for air cooling in the global market.
What Should My Business Consider When Selecting a Mobile BI Solution?
As a business considers the implementation of a BI Tool and access to augmented analytics for its business users, it must define its requirements carefully in order to satisfy its corporate goals and its user needs. In today’s on-the-go work environment, mobile BI and the concept of an augmented analytics app are necessary components of the analytics strategy.
‘Ensure that the Mobile BI solution does not require expensive, extensive customization of dashboards or of the app in order to satisfy your business and user requirements.’
Gartner predicts that, ‘data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, demonstrated by its formal inclusion in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs.’
If the business wishes to encourage data literacy and increase business value, it must carefully select its analytical tools and solutions. In this article, we provide a short list of factors your business should consider when selecting a business intelligence and augmented analytics tool with mobile capabilities.
Support for Devices
Be sure your solution provides mobile support for iOS and Android, with a seamless user experience that accommodates all screen sizes and resolutions.
Out-of-the Box Functionality
Ensure that the Mobile BI solution does not require expensive, extensive customization of dashboards or of the app in order to satisfy your business and user requirements. Features and functionality should be out-of-the-box so you can get started right away.
Access to Crucial Features
Some mobile analytics solutions provide restrictive access and provide read-only limitations, or only display pieces of the information from the data sources. Be sure your Mobile BI App provides intuitive dashboards, graphs, key performance indicators (KPIs), PDF reports and natural language processing (NLP) searching all within the mobile app. Users should be able to login, browse and search objects and perform interactive analytics, with access to ‘favorites’ and recently used objects.
Integration with File Formats
Your Augmented Analytics App should allow users to access objects via PDF and XLS and share data via WhatsApp, email or other sharing apps on their device.
Appropriate Security and Access
The Mobile BI solution should provide access rights and security, defined on a server to ensure security and privacy and access at the correct level, given the user credentials.
Mobile Hosting
Your Augmented Analytics App should be flexible and agile enough to host from anywhere within the IT infrastructure – on premises, or via public or private cloud.
Licensing
Be sure the augmented analytics provider is not charging expensive add-ons for the mobile app. If you currently have a license for augmented analytics, the mobile BI app should be an easy add-on, without expensive fees, and should be easy to download and implement and easy for users to adopt and use right away.
‘In today’s on-the-go work environment, mobile BI and the concept of an augmented analytics app are necessary components of the analytics strategy.’
The Importance of Adding a Mobile BI App to an Augmented Analytics Strategy!
Many businesses are considering, or have implemented, business intelligence and augmented analytics solutions. According to renowned technology research firm, Gartner, ‘80% of organizations seeking to scale digital business will fail because they do not take a modern approach to data and analytics governance.’ With this prediction in mind, the addition of business intelligence and augmented analytics to the organization workflow, business processes and technology infrastructure is a wise decision.
‘The addition of mobile capability will improve user adoption, support culture changes and extend the office environment for a more productive business and team foundation.’
In order to address the ‘modern approach’ Gartner describes, the business must include a mobile BI and augmented analytics app strategy. In this article, we discuss the importance of including a Mobile BI App in the organizational approach to business intelligence and advanced analytics.
Changing the Culture and Business Processes
With any data literacy and data democratization effort, the business MUST look at culture change. If it intends to encourage business users to transform to Citizen Data Scientist, it must look at all aspects of its culture, business processes and workflow, and to integrate data sources and make that information available at appropriate levels so that users can access and analyze data and IT and senior management can be assured of appropriate data governance. When the business implements a business intelligence and/or augmented analytics solution, it must consider the importance of adding the capabilities of a Mobile BI App so that users can access data from anywhere. By providing mobile augmented analytics, the business can enforce and enable the culture change and modernize its approach to data access and data sharing. Providing restrictive business intelligence or analytics solutions without mobile capability will further inhibit user adoption and act as a barrier to the culture change within teams.
Extending the Office Environment
Over the past decade, businesses have changed drastically and one of the greatest changes is the concept of a ‘team’ or ‘group’ working on a project, or toward a goal. In recent years, the idea of remote workers has grown exponentially, and teams spread across the country (or across countries) and geographic locations are now using software and technology to collaborate and share data. Users want to access data on the road, in a hotel room, while working at a client office or in an airport, and when it comes to analytics, that need is just as great. It is important to provide a solution that accommodates all types of devices from desktops and tablets to iOS and Android devices, so that the user can access data and analytics from anywhere on any device.
Improving User Adoption
When senior management teams announce a new initiative like the adoption of analytics, it is easy for team members to discount the commitment and to believe the new ‘flavor of the month’ will simply disappear and they will go back to the old way of doing things. The culture change we discussed in this article is a necessary component and the availability of the tools, and easy-to-use solutions that require little training is crucial. A mobile BI and augmented analytics app meets the expectations of users for intuitive tools – tools that are accessible as and when they need them, and with simple, powerful reporting and collaborative tools, the users will be encouraged and enabled and user adoption will improve.
There are many other important aspects of mobile BI and augmented analytics. Here, we have provided a few of the crucial considerations a business must include when it reviews its requirements and builds a strategy to implement business intelligence and analytics for business users. The addition of mobile capability will improve user adoption, support culture changes and extend the office environment for a more productive business and team foundation.
‘In order to take a ‘modern approach to BI and analytics, the business must include a mobile BI and augmented analytics app strategy.’
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