Tablets natural platform for business analytics and dashboards: Gartner

Leading IT research and advisory company, Gartner, believes that tablet PCs have provided an ideal platform for the delivery and dissemination of business analytics and dashboard reports.

In a special report providing advice for CIOs on best practice usage and integration of tablets into the workplace, Gartner said that whilst tablets were not ‘better’ than laptops or smartphones, they complemented existing technologies by offering unique features for the delivery, consumption and analysis of corporate information.

"Sales leaders are clamoring to adopt media tablets with their sales teams, as a more engaging way to share sales collateral and promotional materials," said David Willis, Research Vice President at Gartner.

"And it won’t stop there. Next will come customer relationship management systems, and order entry and sales configuration applications. For sales managers, media tablets will be a natural platform for business analytics and performance dashboards."

Gartner acknowledges growth of tablets for enterprise communications and Business Intelligence

Gartner has also added media tablets to its computing hardware spending estimates for the first time, as the research giant acknowledges the growing importance of the iPad and other similar devices in enterprise mobility and Business Intelligence (BI).

"The iPad, and the larger wave of media tablets, has captured the imagination of business leaders, said Willis. "Some companies have issued them to business and IT leaders in the spirit of exploration. Others see areas in which they can use media tablets to bring computing into settings that were not practical or were too cumbersome to use traditional approaches.

CIOs to learn from past mistakes

"CIOs are determined not to make the same mistakes they made with smartphones, which were often written-off early as expensive and frivolous toys, or executive status symbols — which then left room for more inventive leaders who saw the competitive advantage that mobile applications would bring.

"They are also more willing to see that they don’t need to supply and manage every device that employees use at work: Consumerization is here to stay, and moving very fast. If you can think of an application for tablets, your competition may well be thinking in the same way — and acting on it. It is time to explore the use of media tablets in business."

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