How To Create Viable Mobile Business Intelligence Strategies For Effective Business

Mobile Business Intelligence commonly termed as Mobile BI, refers to the ability that enables the mobile personnel to gain business insights through information analysis. It is a software that extends desktop business intelligence (BI) applications so they can be used on a mobile device. This is done using applications optimized for mobile devices.
There has been a phenomenal growth of Mobile BI in the recent years, with the change being partially encouraged by the globally prevailing trend of transcending to a wireless world – courtesy smartphones that has ushered into a new era of mobile computing, particularly in the field of BI. In fact, mobility now is no longer a luxury but an essential element in today’s world. Recent statistics are indicating an acceleration in the pace of mobile adoption across devices and applications.
As per Accenture CIO Mobility Survey (2013), “While 79 per cent of respondents cited mobility as a revenue-generator, 84 per cent believe mobility would significantly improve customer interactions.” However, with this paradigm shift comes the gradual transition of business intelligence (BI) to mobile business intelligence (mobile BI) or mobile intelligence. In short, Mobile BI is nonetheless an enabler which if designed, implemented, and executed effectively; can help organizations drive growth and productivity.

Mobile BI Strategies

Most businesses are now considering imbibing mobile BI into their organization, so as to maintain, collect, organize and make sense of data. A survey from Forrester has revealed that while 24 per cent of enterprises are already using or are steering mobile BI applications, another 37 per cent of enterprises are considering mobile BI for near-term implementations.
One of the many reasons why Mobile BI is more prevalent in bridging the gap between it and traditional BI content is because rapid growth in areas such as the cloud, in-memory technology, big data, and prognostic analytics are fueling this innovation cycle. And as we talk and discuss, there has been a gradual and fading gap now visible even between smartphone and a tablet devices. As the tablet shrinks both in size and weight to compete with smartphones, companies are looking for ways to harness the power of mobile BI through innovation and without distraction.
In fact, mobile BI can become a key differentiator as most leading Companies are considering harnessing the power of mobile BI to support a workforce that’s becoming increasingly mobile. As IDC reports, “The global mobile workforce will reach 1.3 billion, which represents 37.2 per cent of the total workforce by 2015.”

• Define the mobility framework you will use.
• Decide your Company’s stance towards BYOD.
• Ensure before deploying a mobile BI that you have a solid business case for it
• Contemplate highly aggregated data marts for mobile BI apps
• Consider creating more BI apps with very specific business functions instead of trying to force your current BI apps to do things they are not really capable of doing.
• Avoid having dynamic derivation and transformations
• Ensure you hold your mobile BI apps to a high standard
• Ensure that existing traditional BI security roles and privileges are carried over to mobile BI apps

Mobile BI Applications

Using mobile apps for business intelligence, you can have access to information whenever and wherever it’s required. You can use mobile BI apps for Apple, BlackBerry and Android; and interact with reports, analysis, dashboards and more on smart phones, tablets and notebook computers. Moreover, you can use the BI platform to help IT support these mobile apps and provide the same type of experience to everyone like:

• Networking with information in a rich, visual and interactive experience.
• Experiencing insight anywhere through fast and simple access to BI.
• Easy deployment of relevant and reusable business intelligence to any device.

Considerations: Security for Mobile BI

It is important for BI software platforms to extend the authentication options and policy controls to the mobile platforms, so as to ensure high security standards. This calls for the BI software platforms to ensure a secure encrypted keychain for storage of credentials. On the other hand, administrative control of password policies should allow creation of security profiles for each user’ while allowing seamless integration with centralized security directories for decreasing administration and maintenance of users.
Most smartphone manufacturers provide a complete set of security features including full-disk encryption, email encryption, as well as remote management including the ability to delete contents if device is lost or stolen. In short, the attribute of a comprehensive mobile security solution must be to provide device security, transmission security, and authorization, authentication, and network security as well.
Have you created your mobile BI strategy yet?

iPad For Productivity

Do you struggle with Productivity? Are you unsure what IT systems you should have in place? Would you like some insight into what may work as an alternative to the traditional systems? Well then, this might just be the post for you!
Productivity, a measure of the efficiency of production, can also be referred to as a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input. It is the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input.

A misunderstood buzzword

Productivity has become quite a buzzword in recent years, and is often referred to in terms of time management, stress management, employee assessment and self-development. It is clear that we can only be as “productive” as we believe, and it is often mistaken for effectiveness, whereas it is merely a measure of efficiency.
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Peter Drucker
This is one of the many reasons that people often fail to be as effective as they intend to. I have discovered it is more than the WAY we do our daily tasks, be they business or personal based. It has as much to do with HOW we tackle those tasks. With this in mind I began to explore the value of changing my IT strategy in terms of doing computer, online and personal tasks (like writing this blogpost).

My story

I had been operating with a laptop and large external screen for working in the office, and then taking said laptop with me as I travelled or worked away from the office (in training for example). However, most of my training is with Microsoft systems, and as I use mainly Apple products, this posed a major problem, which I solved by buying a Netbook to take with me on the days I needed Windows. I had previously tried virtual PC and VMWare with little success.

It’s amazing what technology throws up for us. With the onset of BootCamp, Tablets and the App Store, my IT systems have been transformed. I now carry an iPad (that fits in my handbag), laden with productivity Apps for when I am away from the office, and all of the tools I need to manage my email, calendar and contacts and create documents in a space that I specifically don’t have to secure (the “cloud”).

So what are the major benefits to re-addressing our IT systems as a small business?

• We can move our work to the cloud (or iCloud)
• We (and our Accountant) can manage our books remotely
• We can access email, calendar and contacts through the cloud
• The cloud can be infinitely safer for the small business owner
• The iPad and certain other tablets allow for complete productivity
• A tablet / phone is far lighter than the lightest notebook
• We do tasks in shorter spurts than previously, and tablets allow quicker access to apps

Another major breakthrough for me personally was the fact that an iPad can only display one app at a time. This has completely cut down on having 20 tabs open in my browser, and allows me to focus on one task at a time.
So while looking for productivity tools to download, I realised that actually the iPad itself is a supreme productivity tool, in terms of effectiveness. [I have yet to find the perfect solution to allow me work with both OS systems, without using a separate machine to the iPad. The Netbook still has a spot in the office for now, and also fits in the handbag]
Have you changed the way you manage your IT systems as a small business owner?
Please share your suggestions below…