Services > Architect > Mobile BI

Go forth and prosper.

Business intelligence is not tethered to the desktop, so your workers don't have to be, either.

When you send your mobile professionals out into the field to represent your organization, generate excitement about your product, develop trust, and make not only sales but lasting impressions, what do you arm them with? You might give them a glossy portfolio, along with the product itself as a sample or demonstration. And maybe a fruit basket. But with mobile BI, you can give them the ability to interact with the client or prospect on a deep-dive basis in real time, with graphs, charts, and color.

Or if you're a company with distributed operations, how do your managers in other locations learn of business events that require decisions and action? You might relay events to a remote management team via an end-of-day report. But with mobile BI, you can give them an immediate report that finds them wherever they are, so that they can make decisions or resolutions in the moment, not after hours of inactivity.

Or if your customer care program is largely dependent on field service, how do you prepare your field technicians for all the problems they'll encounter in the course of a day? You equip them with extra parts, replacement components, and screwdrivers. With mobile BI as well, you can give them answers: they can ask questions and get detailed guidance on the spot.

Or if your company performs audits or inspections, how do your professionals enter the information that they find and compare it to previous results? With mobile BI, it can likely be done with one tool, in one trip.
 
Whatever your business, mobile BI can change it, providing remarkable returns in workforce flexibility, productivity, and responsiveness. And with mobile devices and wireless networks evolving as you're reading this, mobile BI is on its way to becoming standard. But before it becomes seamless (and even when it does), you have some design considerations to ponder. Clarity can help:

• Platform - Many BI vendors offer mobile BI products (and more will do so in the near future). Which are compatible with your current environment? Which best handle the type of data you need to mobillize?  Should you build rather than buy?
• Visualization - The smaller form factor requires decisions about what and how much data to provide in what scenarios. It also requires a customized end user experience.
• Interactivity - Viewing data is often not enough. Users also need to work with it. This functionality demands processing power of your mobile devices, which can be challenge. But it can also take on some of the load currently handled by your data warehouse, which is a bonus. Getting the balance right is important.
• Integration - Your mobile workforce can't represent a thousand cul-de-sacs of information. The data they create must be integrated with your traditional BI environment and back-end systems.
• Support - What is the impact of rolling out mobile BI on your IT organization?
• Security - Data encryption, storage, and user authentication all require special attention in a mobile environment.

To discuss your mobile BI needs and find out about your options, contact us today.