InetSoft on DM Radio: Evolution of BI Solutions with Mobile Devices

This is the continuation of the transcript of DM Radio’s program titled “The Consumerization of Business Intelligence: How and Why.”

Tracie Kambies:  And it's going to be a constantly evolving adoption and adaptation of using those devices.  There is a study that was done recently, and it was looking at the consumerization of general IT and technologies, but it was looked at across three countries, US, Japan and Germany.  And of the 600 respondents, 56% of those respondents said that they favor their personal handheld devices, their mobile phones and their iPads, their Galaxy devices whatever they have to do their work on, like in meetings and travel, rather than using their standard technology tools that they have at their desk. 

Or even compared to traveling with their laptops, no one wants to be weighed down with that when they are moving around and making decisions on a real time basis.  So I think that’s where BI is going and has to continue to go, and we are going to have to continue to keep up with the pace of the business user and the consumer of the data who is making the day-to-day decisions.  We can no longer let the organization sit -- we can't sit still as an IT organization.

example of a dashboard built with InetSoft's BI solution

 

Register

We have to look at the BI platform and solutions that are out there as more of portfolio of BI solutions to deliver capabilities to the business, versus it just being a standard BI platform or BI set of tools that’s going to deliver all reporting.  It's going to need to be more flexible and have a list of capabilities in the BI space to deliver out to the business user.

Eric Kavanagh:   Yeah, absolutely.

Justin Kern:   Mobility aside, are you seeing more aspects of, you know we certainly hear it from the vendors but, in practice, are you hearing more business users really kind of take on those emerging, those changing BI tools, especially when it comes to something like customizable dashboard or analytics, that type of thing?  Are you seeing that resonate with more and more business users?

Tracie Kambies:  Yeah.

Justin Kern:   In what ways?

Tracie Kambies:  Well, I mean for example, a user who is surfing the net or who is connected to the media, they go out and they can do any kind of search on Google, they can search IMDb or whatever they are looking for, for their favorite TV show.  Well, they want to be able to come into the office and do a quick search and know what the net sales are over the last quarter, and not have to login to their laptop and login to a portal and go that direction.  They want to be able to pull that up pretty quickly.  And I think that if they have a report, being able to visualize it differently and tailor their visualization to who they are meeting with, to really build their case or sell whatever,to persuade their audience through their decision. 

We are seeing that happening in and across all the industries.  I think a great example would be AT&T, right, I mean for a sales associate to be able to show the customer  what their usage could look like, what their data plan can look like overtime and how it can save them money.  That’s an applicable user experience for not just the consumer, but also for the store associate.  The same thing applies across the board.  We are seeing the retail industry starting to change by using more information and putting it out into the store’s hands so that they can influence consumer buying behavior.  Same thing applies internally to the IT organizations trying to offer their business users better tools and capabilities to do their job faster.  There is no longer the patience to read a manual and learn how to do a BI report.  I think people want to be learning in real time.

Eric Kavanagh:  That’s an excellent comment actually.  And let's go ahead, we will go ahead and push the first spot, and come back with our next segment.  But that’s a great segue.  And what a perfect example, nobody wants to read manuals anymore, and thank God.  Hang on for one minute.  We will be right back.  You are listening to DM Radio.

Previous: The How and Why of the Consumerization of BI