Three Strategies To Get Started With Mobile Business Intelligence (BI)

In my post “Mobile BI” Doesn’t Mean “Mobile-Enabled Reports” I highlighted two main areas that affect how organizations can go about realizing the benefits of mobile BI: enterprise mobility and BI maturity.

Today I want to focus on the latter and outline high-level strategies that require different avenues of focus, time, and resources.

Before an organization can execute these high-level strategies, it must have the following:

- An existing BI framework that can be leveraged
- Current technology (hardware and software) used for BI that support mobile capabilities
- A support infrastructure to address technical challenges.

Do you Really Need to Embrace Analytics?

If you have not witnessed the deluge of big data and business analytics media coverage to date, then welcome back from the coma you were apparently in for the last couple of years. For the rest of you, perhaps you have the same nagging question that I have: Are big data and business analytics such a big deal that if our organization is late to the party in deploying them, we will never catch up to our competitors?

What is Business Intelligence?

Early in my career, I was encouraged to always ask even the simplest and most obvious questions, including questions about well-known topics that were assumed to be understood by everyone. With that in mind, let’s answer the question, “What is business intelligence (BI)?”

As you read this post, you probably fall into one of these three categories:

You know exactly what BI is because you eat, sleep, and breathe it every day. BI is in your business DNA.
The term means nothing more than the name of an exotic tech cocktail that might have pierced your ears, figuratively speaking of course.
You‘re somewhere in between the two extremes. You’ve been exposed to the term, but haven’t had a chance yet to fully digest it or appreciate it.
Do you have something to learn about BI? Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

The Human Face of Big Data

{According to Rick Smolen, a former Time Life journalist and photographer] one of the biggest opportunities is making better use of previously ignored “dark data”. “For years, meteorologists have had to filter out ‘bioclutter’ from Doppler radar weather systems – the “noise” generated by flocks of birds or bats. But when bird researchers realized they had 15 years of invaluable data on migration patterns they were delighted!”

“Mobile BI” Doesn’t Mean “Mobile-Enabled Reports”

Just as we know that mobile isn’t just about one or two sexy apps, the step to gain the ability to deliver reports on a mobile device alone isn’t synonymous with mobile BI.

In order to deliver the true business value of mobile BI, organizations need to formulate a carefully thought-out mobile BI strategy that not only leverages the technology’s strengths but also minimizes its weaknesses within a supported infrastructure. The mobile intelligence framework can’t exist separately from or independent of the organization’s business or technology strategy.

On-premise or Onto the Cloud?

Do you have to move your processes to the cloud today? The answer is you don’t. Do it when you are ready and when you see value for your organization. If, and when you’re ready to start your journey into the cloud, you can go about it piece by piece, and as a hybrid, to minimize risk to your core operations and to get buy-in internally.

Perhaps you could begin with applications that bring tremendous value, yet are non-disruptive such as workforce planning and analytics? Your newspaper, music, pictures and videos are moving into the cloud, your bills and banking are moving to the cloud, you telecommute, and your social is moving into the cloud - it’s inevitable that your business applications, including HR will follow.

What Is Mobile Business Intelligence?

You might have heard this statistic by now: more people own a cell phone than a toothbrush. In a Forbes post, Maribel Lopez lists a number of recent statistics about mobility. “While we could debate the numbers, the trend is clear,” she writes. ”The pace of mobile adoption across devices and applications is accelerating.”

Mobility is no longer a nice-to-have option. Instead, it’s become a must for many businesses.

Ten Questions To Develop Your Mobile Business Intelligence Strategy

In my post “Mobile BI” Doesn’t Mean “Mobile-Enabled Reports” I articulated the importance of developing a mobile business intelligence (BI) strategy. If designed, implemented, and executed effectively, mobile BI will not only complement the existing business intelligence framework, but it will enable organizations to drive growth and profitability.

For the next ten weeks, I want to chart a course that will highlight the key questions you need to ask before embarking on a mobile BI journey. This is the critical first step in validating mobile BI readiness for any organization, whether it’s a Fortune 500 company, a small-to-medium enterprise, or a small team within a large enterprise.

Three Strategies To Get Started With Mobile Business Intelligence

A “mobile-only” strategy reflects a strong commitment, or all-in approach, by the management team to mobile BI, or mobility in general. This may be due to a specific reason, such as the relevance of mobility in a particular industry or the opportunity to create a strategic advantage in a highly competitive market. Or a company may decide that mobility needs to be a vital part of their vision.

However, in order for this strategy to be successful, it requires a commitment that results in both championing the cause at the board or senior management level and making the necessary resources available for execution at the tactical level.

In reality, this approach doesn’t necessarily translate into creating a mobile version of every analysis or shutting down all production lines for PC-based outlets for reporting and analytics. Instead, it reflects a strong emphasis on establishing scalable mobile consumption paths for analytics, and it signals a willingness to exploit a mobile-first mindset.

Analytics – from the World of Finance to the HR Organization

In the finance and banking industries, organizations have employed for years mathematicians, statisticians, engineers, physicists, and highly-skilled specialists with super-strong analytical skills. They put these skills to work, sifting through volumes of financial, economic, and social data to identify trends, pick out the “needles in the haystack,” and determine the probability of markets going up or down. Their brain power, combined with machine resources, is focused keenly on exploring and acting on new ideas to increase the return on investments, whether through gaining a sub-second advantage in trading or in long-term ventures.

However, the idea of tapping big data in the context of the workforce, in order to gain a competitive edge, is just beginning to sink in with many HR organizations.