Shifting working habits signal need for Mobile Business Intelligence: SSI

A recent survey of 300 Dutch managers, commissioned to decipher the demand for Mobile Business Intelligence (BI), has found that the need for mobile analytics is growing, with more executives using mobile devices for work-related tasks outside office hours with increasing frequency.

Managers increasing their use of mobile devices

The report, compiled by researcher SSI, revealed that 24 percent of managers who own smartphones have began to use them more often to perform work-related tasks. The report stated that managers with smartphones spent around three percent of their total usage time logged into business applications. Around 20 percent of tablet-owning executives said that they had started using the device with greater regularity to complete work tasks, spending seven percent of their total tablet time logged into business applications.

What information do managers access most often from mobile devices?

The three most common types of information that managers said they accessed, or required, on their mobile devices was company turnover (42%), costs (51%) and customer satisfaction (42%).

Mobile devices as a decision-making resource

Sixty percent of tablet-owing managers interviewed said that they use their tablet regularly to access information to support fundamental decision-making. Managers who own both smartphones (50%) and tablets (45%) also said that they have began using their mobile devices more frequently to support decision-making over the past two years.

Mobile BI uptake: Steady as she goes?

“The need for Mobile BI is on its way, but slowly,” said Mobile BI expert, Erik Leene. “Our research shows that the mobile use of business applications is still far behind on personal activities on mobile devices. This might be explained by the lack of flexible and solid business applications.”

Conversely, speaking at the recent Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, research vice president, Andreas Bitterer, suggested that Mobile BI adoption was set to rise sharply. Bitterer said that 33 percent of BI would be consumed via mobile devices by 2013.