Satisfying the diverse BI end user

One of the largest trends currently seen in the business intelligence (BI) market is the ability to cater for the varied analytic needs of end users via mobile availability or self-service applications, or preferably both. As users become more accustomed to applications outside the enterprise being available anywhere, at any time, on any device, and with great individual customizability, it is becoming clear that end users will favor BI solutions that mimic this flexibility. Further, the ability for a user to access, share, and interact with data in realtime will be crucial for enabling greater analytic agility and responsiveness across the enterprise. All the major BI players recognize this trend and expectation, and are continuing to improve the mobile and self-service features in their solution offerings.

Business intelligence on the go

As noted in Ovum’s opinion piece Enterprises must beware of the hidden service costs of BYOD, the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is gaining real momentum. Employees are looking to use their own smartphones and/or tablets to access their companies’ in-house applications. Enterprises, meanwhile, see the value in not needing to provide the devices and relying on users’ own service agreements and warranties if devices break down. With this trend, the use of mobile devices as everyday work tools is increasing significantly, leading enterprises to look for products that will offer BI anywhere, at any time. For the worker on the road, the benefits of mobile BI are clear: they can present up-to-the-minute and geo-sensitive data to clients on a real-time dashboard, be alerted of deviations in KPIs while traveling between meetings, and collaborate with co-workers instantaneously wherever they are. However, the benefits of mobile BI are not just for the road warrior; it can also be an important tool in the office. For many years, the routine has been to bring a static report to a meeting, discuss and amend it with co-workers, head back to your desk to make the changes, and generate a new static report. Mobile BI makes this process more efficient by taking out a lot of the “back and forth.” Employees can bring interactive reports to meetings on their mobile devices, instantly query and analyze based on feedback and discussion, and generate new reports without ever leaving the room.

Admittedly, mobile BI has witnessed many false dawns, hampered by technical (bandwidth) and usability (form factor) issues and unclear business benefits. However, as there is a mature selection of high-performance mobile devices, a network infrastructure that allows for rapid sending and receiving of data, and a progressing need for businesses to quickly respond to changes to stay competitive, Ovum believes mobile BI will take off in 2012.

The constant addition of platforms and devices has made it difficult to maintain a consistent experience for a wide variety of users, which has led to a constantly evolving mobile BI market. Currently IBM with Cognos Mobile and Microsoft, which allows mobile access through Microsoft SharePoint Server, seem to be doing the best job out of the mega-vendors of meeting this need. However, the other mega-vendors are likely to improve their current mobile solutions during the year by enhancing their own product lines or through acquisitions.

The end user wants ease, but also control

Another trend impacting the BI market is giving end users greater control over their analytic needs via self-service capabilities. With a generation of workers that have become accustomed to the ease and speed with which companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon gather and present relevant personalized data, there is great interest in, if not expectation for, a BI solution that allows an employee to retrieve and analyze relevant business data in a similar fashion.

Through intuitive UIs and an ability to easily access multiple sources of data, self-service BI puts the control with the user. The front end allows the user to easily and quickly create personalized dashboards and data mashups via, for example, a drag-and-drop interface, which lets them see the data they want to see in a simple way. With in-memory technology, this data can be analyzed and presented at great speeds. Behind the curtains, self-service BI relies on a robust back end in which data sourcing gives the user connectivity to retrieve data from multiple sources both inside and outside the business, without using complicated queries or other forms of programming. This means the user does not need to understand the complexity of retrieval to access data.

One of the greatest indicators of the importance of self-service might be found in BI vendor QlikTech’s exponential growth and current momentum on the market. With emphasis on self-service business discovery underpinned by in-memory processing, the QlikView solution provides an easy way for business end users to access, analyze, and explore data intuitively and dynamically.

Vendors’ ability to satisfy the end user will be key

With enterprises encouraging a larger group of employees (not just the seasoned BI analyst) to access and analyze company data from several sources, BI vendors will be wise to invest in solutions that have powerful back ends and easy, highly customizable, and mobile front ends. 

The trend to please the end user, encouraged by the ease of use of modern websites and applications, will continue to grow throughout the next couple of years. Enterprises have realized the potential of having a large population interact with company data to allow for more informed decisions, and will invest in products that allow any type of user to use them effectively.

Some vendors are already leading the way in mobile and self-service BI, and soon all of the major vendors are likely to have solutions that will cater to the diverse BI end user.