5 misconceptions about Mobile Business Intelligence (Part Two)

Did you make it past the Piranhas?

Part one of this two-part blog series – 5 misconceptions about Mobile Business Intelligence (Part One) – included an analogy involving chainsaws and Piranhas and listed the first two common misunderstandings about Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) (Mobile BI users can’t experience the same level of interactivity and Implementing Mobile BI demands that everyone uses the same device or OS).

Here’s our final three:

3. Mobile BI’s an ad-on, so content needs to be repackaged for mobile distribution

Many companies considering Mobile BI are discouraged by the time needed to reproduce desktop reports for consumption via mobile devices. And so they should be – this scenario is unacceptably resource intensive. Despite this, numerous BI vendors still only offer Mobile BI capabilities as an additional product, separate from the regular desktop installation, leading to a duplication of report writing efforts.

However, leading vendors incorporate Mobile BI capabilities within a single-integrated product, ensuring that customers gain the benefits of Mobile BI immediately, with no need to re-create or repackage content for mobile distribution.

Yellowfin delivers Mobile BI straight out-of-the-box, reusing desktop security protocols, to allow users to simply log into their existing Yellowfin account via a 3G or Wifi network – just connect and go; there’s no lengthy delays.

4. People can’t utilize their mobile device to explore data offline

Now, the whole premise of Mobile BI is that vital company data can be accessed and acted upon whilst away from the desk. But, what happens when executives are forced offline whilst flying from point A to point B, or a sales rep encounters poor Internet connectivity just before that meeting? Inaction. What happens then? Lost opportunities.

A recent report by Aberdeen Research on Mobile BI benefits and best practices – Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for the Agile Enterprise – reveals that “top performers are over twice as likely to be able to use mobile BI when disconnected.”

Best-of-breed Mobile BI allows you to access and analyze corporate data assets whenever and wherever you are, in on, or offline mode. Think Yellowfin can’t do this? Well, you might want to stay tuned for a big announcement…

5. Mobile BI represents additional expense

It can. But it doesn’t have to. Yellowfin dispels any cost-related Mobile BI trepidation. How? It’s included out-of-the-box – it’s free! Yellowfin’s native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, as well as new HTML 5 integration, makes Mobile BI easy on any device.

Conclusion

So what’s your excuse for your Mobile BI indecision? Don’t have one? Well here are a few good reasons to get on-board.

Aberdeen
Aberdeen’s aforementioned research study – Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for the Agile Enterprise – found that companies that use Mobile BI make critical management decisions six times faster than companies that do not use Mobile BI. The report also found that best-in-class Mobile BI-using organizations enjoy a ’Time-to-Decision’ period three-times faster than all other Mobile BI-using organizations.

Gartner and Forrester Research
Gartner’s recent Gartner Predicts 2011 report suggested that “By 2013, 33 percent of BI functionality will be consumed via handheld devices.” Forrester Research claims that “enterprise mobile workers will make up 73% of the workforce in 2012”.

Howard Dresner (Dresner Advisory Services)
Howard Dresner concluded the live InformationWeek webcast launch of his 2011 updated Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study, by stating that the rapidly growing uptake and interest in Mobile BI meant that in the future, it would not merely represent a growing facet of BI, but would become the main form of deliver for business analytics and the focal point of the entire industry.
 

“Moving forward I expect to see a rising tide across all segments, all classes of user, and all verticals,” said Dresner. “I do believe that [Mobile BI] becomes fundamentally the new platform for Business Intelligence.”