The increasing use of mobile devices in corporations embraces new technologies that change the traditional way of managing data and sharing information. Today, big data is the lifeblood of analytical applications in the corporate world. Big Data technologies flourish the information for businesses. Traditionally, BI applications are stored in data-centered data warehouses because access is limited, and the use of data-driven information becomes ineffective.
Due to the increasing demand for using data-driven information for robust business strategies and better decisions, Mobile Business Intelligence Application is one of the effective ways to use the massive amount of data. Mobile BI helps businesses deploy data analysis methods to collect, analyze and segment data.
According to a report by Datameer, mobile applications will be the second-largest technology integrating Business Intelligence and Big Data. Also, Gartner reports that over 50% of Mobile BI users will depend on mobile devices for insight delivery.
What exactly is Mobile Business Intelligence?
Mobile Business Intelligence Applications are nothing but optimized traditional BI reports as per the size of Mobile Phones, Tablets, and Wearables. Mobile BI can easily visualize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and alter them through dashboards, graphs, and sparklines.
Business Intelligence and Embedded Analytics visualize your essential data to obtain crucial insight from your system by tracking your basic metrics and KPIs. Developers integrate user interface elements like responsive app design to ensure that data visualizations appear interactive on any smart device and incorporate the compatible features of associated apps like Google Maps or calling a phone number.
The inputs must be mobile-friendly for users to quickly access, type, and modify visualizations on a smaller screen.
Mobile has already changed how we communicate, work and manage tasks in our daily lives. The adoption of mobile devices leaves no stone unturned in incorporating; it changes the way businesses operate, share data and gather information. Companies need to follow the following trends in Mobile Business Intelligence.
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Trends in Mobile Business Intelligence
Though the terminology “Responsive” was coined years ago when users were eager to access all PC-optimized websites on mobile devices, the term “Business Intelligence” is way more than “Responsiveness of websites”. BI, dashboards, CRMS, ERPS, and reports are designed to manage your tasks and deliver more accessible and consumable information.
Also, after the pandemic, a new trend of working from anywhere gives rise to these technologies where it’s more important to exchange meaningful information in a more convenient and friendly way than ever.
You must be curious about a few design trends that applied to Mobile BI. Let’s take a quick look:
1. Delve with users
Mobile devices are critical for receiving the information your consumers need quickly and efficiently, whether at the airport, client site, or home on a Sunday morning. It’s vital to identify who your target user groups are so you can figure out when and why they’ll use mobile dashboards and reports.
2. Concept of online reading habit
People nowadays have many choices when it comes to what they eat and how they eat it. Whether it’s a Kindle, a newspaper, or a hardcover book, all of these media, at least in North America, have one thing in common: they’re all supposed to be read from left to right and top to bottom.
You should adhere to the same rule when it comes to dashboard design. From top left to bottom right, list the most important details. This is where the user’s eyes will naturally begin to wander, so get them on the right track right away.
3. Optimize mobile screen
We’ve all been on our phones, trying to tap on one thing but accidentally selecting something else. This can be aggravating as well as time-consuming.
Once a user arrives at your dashboard, you should remove any obstacles to information consumption, such as any click pathways that lead to more visualizations.
Ensure that there is enough space between the filters, links, and visuals. Because most mobile devices have limited screens, it’s difficult for users to choose objects that are close together.
Touch targets should have a resolution of at least 48 × 48 DP (display image) and should not overlap. Users will be able to consistently and comfortably target them with their fingertips.
Why are Mobile BI applications gaining attention among the business community?
There are the following primary reasons why you should develop Mobile BI applications to deal with the cut-throat competition effectively:
1. Access to real-time data
According to traditional methods, businesses used to make decisions based on paper-based reports. However, it is safe to argue that organizations that do so are at a disadvantage because paper-based data may be outdated. As a result, your management must have quick and easy access to the most up-to-date information. Your company can benefit from improved involvement and data exploration by utilizing mobile BI when away from the office. Your Information Technology (IT) team will no longer be required to assist you. As a result, your IT team will have more time to focus on other significant challenges.
2. Easy and quick adoption
Employees have easier access to data and analytics thanks to mobile BI. Employees at various levels of your firm, from top management to the front line, may be given temporary, interim, or permanent access to the data, according to the company’s needs. As a result, having easy access to mobile BI leads to a higher adoption rate.
3. Stay ahead in the cut-throat competition
Real-time data makes it easier for your company to capitalize on new opportunities. You may also be able to react quickly to changing market conditions. Furthermore, you may use mobile BI data to up-sell and cross-sell products. For example, a salesperson with real-time information regarding luxury automotive accessories such as light-alloy wheels or cushioned seats may urge a buyer to choose them while acquiring a new car.
4. Higher productivity
Real-time data access boosts operational efficiency significantly. Even when out in the field, critical information is made available to decision-makers, speeding up decision-making.
Delivering the appropriate data at the right time can significantly boost your organization’s productivity.
Organizations install robust mobile BI solutions as they evolve their procedures and tactics to stay ahead of the competition. Such approaches aid in delivering data-driven insights to decision-makers and enable them to complete tasks on the go.
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5. Effective and efficient analytics
Every company has its nature of conducting business, which makes data analytics different. Some may need it in the process of functionalities, just visualization, or some want to integrate it with other tools. These diverse preferences lead to the mobile app development of customized Mobile BI solutions.
Personalization allows Mobile BI users to configure the data in the tool as per their preference of getting the information out of it. When the user acknowledges the configurations made by them enables them to analyze data and extract insights more efficiently.
One research study by Aberdeen Group reports that companies embracing Mobile BI empower them to make critical strategic decisions in one-sixth of the time taken by companies without Mobile BI.
6. Smart & combined decision making
Effective Decision Making in the age of urgency. Mobile Business Intelligence is built-in with features for communicating across functions through messaging or calling, further supporting comprehensive information transformation.
An interview conducted by The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) with Donal Farmer mentioned that the objective of Mobile Bi is to ‘provide additional value in collaboration.’
As per the nature of conducting business functions, Mobile BI tools are built-in with more complex collaboration mechanisms to simplify the transformation of great content such as voice, images, or videos.
These advancements in BI apps provide excellent communication between users during data analysis, further helping bring out well-informed insights, which are vital in making intelligent and collective decisions.
7. Enhanced flexibility
Mobile BI analyses and visualizes big data rather than just accessing it on smart small screen devices. The nature of Business Intelligence Apps allows executives the freedom to work remotely apart from their fixed working schedule. This is due to the flexibility that interactions become more powerful among employees.
For instance, if at any point in time a random idea pops up in the mind of your executive by analyzing the data to better your company’s marketing strategy, then the use of the Mobile BI app enables your users to feed it in and which you can use in future.
Process of developing Mobile Business Intelligence applications
Dashboards
Creating a responsive and intuitive dashboard is the foremost crucial step in building a Mobile BI App. The significance of developing interactive and more straightforward dashboards is essential in the complex world of big data, where information changes by the second.
In the first step, developers should plot the UX/UI specifications so that it presents data in real-time with easy analysis and visualization through charts, graphs, and numbers.
It should be conceptualized as per the variety of smart devices used to operate in your entity. Include simple templates for any level of the user so that they can create and share vital dashboard data across departments.
One survey reports that dashboards are the first and foremost feature business intelligence buyers are looking to develop. The architecture of your app should give it tremendous versatility.
Reports
Businesses need to access reports quickly and accurately developed using big data that changes constantly. Reports that place the data into the context of the information. We will take you through the various reports generated as per the user requirement.
- Operational Reports: Operational reports, also known as daily reports, provide an instant summary of the day’s (or week/month’s) operations to leaders and managers so they may make crucial decisions. Operational reports are a simple process that provides a snapshot of a period so that users may compare current data to previous results.
- Ranking Reports: Ranking reports display multiple numeric information in a ranking system enabling strategists to compare performance and conclude decisions. You generate such reports in different ways according to the functionality. The sales team needs the sales figures monthly, half-yearly, or annually. The SEO team needs the number of impressions; the marketing team needs the number of advocate customers, and so on. The more agility you integrate into a format of ranking reports, the more data you can mine and evaluate quickly.
- Ad Hoc Reports: These reports are helpful for high-profile executives in companies who aren’t internet savvy. Ad Hoc reports are designed to generate fast reporting, using very little but relevant data customized to users’ requirements. It takes significantly less time to consume data and provide informative reports; hence clear instructions and intuitive templates are used in Ad Hoc Reports.
Predictive Intelligence
Powerful and advanced features like predictive analytics super-charge the performance of BI apps. Various business entities have reported that implementing predictive analytics costs a king’s ransom and is one of the complicated processes. It is difficult for enterprises to interpret and transform the same data into well-structured information at an early stage.
However, predictive analytics in your BI app will enhance decision-making to optimize profitability and effectiveness in your business. It involves the process of various complex functions like risk analysis, business process modeling, statistics analysis, prescriptive analysis, data mining, and many more.
Companies should consider implementing this advanced technology in apps as a priority without second thoughts about the cost and complexity. This technology leverages businesses to circumvent and resolve the most expectable and detailed predicted issues and risks well in advance. Predictive Intelligence assists you in identifying a variety of potential concerns, threats, and challenges that you may have to face in the future.
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Final thoughts
Moving ahead by implementing revolutionary technology attributes like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Predictive Analytics into Mobile BI applications will ensure maximum growth in your business. It would be best if you recognized the value of empowering your workforce, business partners, clients, and suppliers to access actionable information whenever and wherever they need it.
Mobile BI has several significant benefits, including quick access to real-time data, a better penetration rate, and increased productivity. As a result, Mobile Business Intelligence has become vital for enterprises to gain more significant revenues.
This article is written by Julie Aplustill. Julie is a renowned content marketer from California, USA, associated with Closeloop Technologies - a trusted software and website development company. She also loves to share her views on the latest digital technologies, web development trends, and augmented reality and prefers diverse niches.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
