Think about this: The volume of data generated in 2009 alone was greater than in the preceding 5,000 years combined, says Gartner. Today, enterprises know there is opportunity in Big Data. In fact, says Forrester, business intelligence is ranked as the number one technology to drive change in 2012, creating significant business value as data mining and reporting tools become more sophisticated and move into the cloud. Businesses expect to reap the benefits of mobile business intelligence (MBI) to expeditiously, and smartly, improve business processes, reduce inefficiencies, and discover new revenue opportunities.
Says cio.com, business intelligence, or BI, refers to software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data through activities such as data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting. Mobile business intelligence (MBI), a component of business intelligence, is extending these activities to decision-makers via their mobile devices. What makes MBI unique, says informationweek.com, is the interactive element. Without interactivity, mobile BI is indistinguishable from merely informative email, text alerts or online PDF reports. Interestingly, only about 20 percent of companies enabled MBI in 2011, making MBI one of the biggest opportunities for enterprises this year.
Getting to know you
One of the greatest outcomes of business intelligence is getting to know customers better. Says tdwi.com, “suppose you run a manufacturing company that produces baby bottles. In 2001, you probably focused on just two data points: how many bottles your plants produced and how much money you made from that production. Today, however, you’re likely to track how many bottles you manufacture and how much money you make as well as how satisfied your customers are, what percentage are repeat customers, and what people are saying about your bottles on social networks.”
The early adopters
Sales analysis has always been at the forefront of BI adoption simply because businesses identify the success or failure of their performance through such analytics. The ability for salespeople to access business intelligence and perform their own analytics on their own mobile devices is at the heart of MBI. MBI allows the mobile end user to perform in-depth analysis, leveraging real-time data on customers, suppliers, inventory, social feedback, and even industry trends. Such interactive intelligence creates opportunities and improves business relationships.
Beating the barriers
Do these things well, and MBI can impact the bottom line. First, make the interactive experience easy to use on mobile devices. Second, ensure the integrity of your source data (by taking measures to eliminate the loads of irrelevant data and poor data quality.) And finally, identify which business users stand to benefit the most from mobile analytics and what, exactly, are their requirements?
The Role of IT
When it comes to business intelligence, “the defined role of IT is changing from a mission of guarding the data to one of preparing the data for actionable business decisions,” noted Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer. As a sign of this trend, “up to 35 percent of enterprise IT expenditures will be managed outside of the IT department’s budget by 2015.” Forrester agrees, “more BI will move into the hands of end users” and IT will help make this happen. IT and Business units will become closer strategic partners.
Before you do anything
Ask these questions first: How do you see your organization using MBI? What intelligence do you need to make quick business decisions and improve business processes? Who are the users of MBI that can directly impact revenue? This is where the strategic partnership of IT and Business can begin to make MBI work for their enterprise.
