Enterprise mobility has the potential to disrupt many traditional business practices. One area that has been undergoing a radical transformation — thanks to mobilization and the cloud — is business intelligence.
Historically, business intelligence has been:
- Available only to large, well-funded enterprises.
- Dominated by IT from design to implementation.
- Costly and time-consuming to develop.
- Too complex for many non-technical users to embrace.
- Primarily designed for desktops rather than mobile devices.
Cloud computing and bring-your-own-device policies have given users more freedom than ever before. Managers, employees and field personnel want to be able to access the data they need via any device and from wherever they are. This includes access to business intelligence.
Enterprise mobility has disrupted legacy business intelligence by removing the barriers that prevented the people who needed the data most from having access. The three primary barriers were:
- Complexity: Traditional BI solutions required either extensive tech skills or extensive training. The new standard used for BI in a mobile enterprise is to offer self-service, simple solutions that the user can start working with immediately — with no technical skills and very little training.
- IT-controlled Data and Reporting: Under a legacy system, IT departments could take hours or even days to process a request from a business user. By the time the user received a response, the data was typically stale. With enterprise mobility, users do not have to wait for IT — they can access the data themselves on-demand.
- Lack of Personalization: Because IT controlled the design and delivery of reports under traditional BI systems, reports often lacked fields needed by specific users or included data that was useless to them. The new model is to allow users access to the tools they need to easily generate additional reports that are tailored to their specific needs.
Business users with different areas of responsibility do not look at a report in the same manner. For example, if a customer service manager, controller, sales manager and purchasing manager all look at an identical income statement, each will tend to focus on different line items. By giving each the ability to view the data that he considers most relevant, each gains a better understanding of his role in the success of the enterprise as well as more confidence in his decisions.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using enterprise mobility apps, please contact PhaseAlpha. We have the experience and knowledge to help you find the perfect solution for all your software needs. We can be reached by phone at 913-648-9200 or by email at info@phasealpha.com.