Interest in mobile BI application is still lacking

On the heels of the iPad’s debut, mobile business intelligence applications are very hot at least, with enterprise software vendors. Since Apple released the mobile tablet in Apr, no less than 4 vendors MicroStrategy, QlikTech, Pentaho and Roambi have unveiled iPad- and iPhone-friendly versions of their business intelligence software. Mega-vendors SAP, Oracle and IBM, in the meantime, have been in the mobile BI game for the year or 2, offering mobile versions of their BI software for the iPhone and BlackBerry.
SAP made more mobile computing waves in May with its purchase of Sybase. And the IT press has been swamped in gushy stories and blog entries heralding the appearance of mobile BI. That must mean that end users are chomping at the bit to access reports and dashboards on their mobile devices, right? Wrong. Interviews with industry researchers, advisors and BI pros show that mobile BI is some distance from a top concern for most and barely even a consideration for some.
It definitely would not be my first priority, recounted Jim Szatkowski, VP of info services at Distribution Market Advantage (DMA), a food-service distributor based in St. Charles, Ill. DMA employees use PivotLink's Net-based BI software to report on and research supply chain and budget info. While Szatkowski declared the probabilities of mobile technology are fascinating, he hasn't seen a mobile BI application that assured the investment.
I am not certain having any more mobility than a laptop PC will be that necessary to our business, he expounded. Sumit Agarwa, a BI consultant with Accenture, announced that his clients, like Szatkowski's, have shown small interest in BI applications for smartphones. Truthfully, I have not seen any interest in mobile BI applications, Agarwa expounded thru e-mail. While mobile BI is appropriate for senior or top-level management who want to use the high-level numbers on the move, he announced, most data employees don't require access to BI applications in realtime and can wait till they get back to their desks to take a look at reports and run questions. For most reporting and BI wants I do not believe there would be much justification for info access through mobile apps, Agarwa asserted.
This would make it really tough to explain the additional cost and ROI on such solutions. For some, the small screens of mobile devices make drilling down into reports and dashboards simply unfeasible. The granularity of the info is such that [a mobile device] would not suffice, said Dick Malaise, CIO at National Automobile Dealers Association (Zilch) in McLean, Va. Malaise asserted the possibility of Zilch making an investment in mobile BI software shortly is close to zero. I cannot say we are going to do that, he revealed.
*Mobile BI applications miss the point
Vendors have not begun to make a powerful use case for mobile BI, but they're making progress addressing the functionality concerns of Malaise and others. While most first-generation mobile BI applications were more than withered versions of their desktop cousins making them tricky to navigate more modern entrants to the mobile BI market use enhancements in the devices themselves. Users can change MicroStrategy's mobile BI application for the iPhone, as an example, via new Apple multi-touch gestures, eg swipe, tap, flick and rotate, according to the company.
Roambi, considered by researchers to have among the best mobile BI apps, offers users a great number of paths to view data, from interactive bar charts to wheel graphs that may be manipulated via drag-and-drop functionality. But Jack Gold, principal researcher at J. Gold Associates, thinks that by concentrating on bettering the functionality of mobile BI apps, enterprise software vendors are missing a bigger point. The basic issue is that mobile users do not really want to do BI as such as its outlined by the vendors, Gold recounted.
Drilling down into massive volumes of data via interactive reports and dashboards on mobile devices is not interesting to most knowledge employees, he revealed. They can wait till they are back in front of their desktop or laptop for that. What data employees do desire, according to Gold, is to be told, via triggers and alerts, of crucial events that need fast action. Instead of accessing and drilling down into a once a month sales report, as an example, a salesperson would rather get a caution when a vital customer cancels a big order.
Identifying overreaching sales trends is crucial though not excessively time-dependent. An indignant customer who cancels an enormous order nevertheless, demands swift action. [Users] desire info regarding an issue that permits them to act quickly, Gold recounted. That is the type of handy info folks need [on mobile phones].
*Mobile BI security concerns linger
Security is another issue, according to Chris Hazelton, a researcher at the 451 Group. Before an organization gives staff access to imperative company data on mobile devices, it has got to be sure it has paths to manage the application and wipe the device of data should it be missing. Even then, some firms still are not enthusiastic to deploy mobile BI. Silvio Schurig, a consultant at Switzerland-based Datelligence GmbH, asserted he lately chatted with 2 finance services clients about employing mobile applications like BI.
Schurig claimed they are simply not very interested in employing and handling more applications on multiple platforms, especially if these applications handle delicate data. Till vendor's better address security concerns and start planning applications that meet users' wishes, mobile BI isn't sure to gain much of a foothold, Gold claimed.

Hence despite reports to the opposite, it would seem that mobile BI's time hasn't come yet.