Mobile Business Intelligence Adoption Trends

A 2011 survey by the Aberdeen Group found that nearly 75 percent of respondents reported to be focused on deploying analytics via mobile devices to their senior executives in order for them to make real-time business decisions at any time. Organizations of all sizes are beginning to investigate adoption strategies for mobile business intelligence (BI) for executives thanks to the decreasing costs of mobile technology, the success of mobile analytics, and the developing experience with the format by product developers, BI vendors, and IT departments. Eventually, it is expected that vendors will develop software to serve as standalone vehicles for presenting data rather than simply pointing reports to mobile dashboards as current analytics do.

Aberdeen’s findings suggest that organizations with mobile BI in place will have the ability to: refine role-specific systems for high performers so that they are better able to make appropriate decisions and track gains in productivity and display ROI. In Aberdeen’s most recent study, Mobile BI 2012: Accelerating Business on the Move, the trends of the previous year continue to be demonstrated. The top trend in mobile BI is the rapidity of decision making by senior executives using mobile BI applications. Due to the increased availability of information to organizations using BI, the average decision making time is about one-third less than that of an organization without a mobile BI strategy.

Furthermore, the experience of mobile BI frequently leads to the request for even more. Over 50 percent of respondents to the 2012 survey who have a mobile BI strategy in place state their executives have begun to expect hourly updates as mobile BI becomes a norm. The quick adoption of mobile BI has been shown to significantly increase an organization’s competitiveness since it is able to more rapidly respond to critical issues, address customer issues on the ground, and improve customer satisfaction.