Why business intelligence is no longer a luxury

Published May 31, 2016   |   

Once thought of as something that was only available to Fortune-500 companies, there are fewer and fewer reasons for companies to not have a strategy for their business insights. Not only has mobile device security improved greatly in the last five years, there are a variety of BI vendors available which offer native mobile applications of their own. Some platforms offer businesses the ability to compile and view their metrics via the use of a PaaS or SaaS solution. The amount of information able to be gleaned from embracing mobile BI shouldn’t be treated as inferior, and can do more for one’s business than you may realize.
Making Data Portable
In addition to some of the advantages highlighted in this article,The most obvious– and a very useful– feature of having mobile BI is its portability. In today’s modern office, having small monitors available to display KPI’s means team can not only check in at a glance to see how they are performing in real time, it allows for customization. No longer will marketing teams have to slog through pages of insights that don’t matter to them, or will IT teams have to sift through insights relating to other departments. By breaking down individual department data, KPI dashboards can be structured to display for each segment of one’s organization.
Not only is a mobile approach to one’s data useful for keeping things relevant, it is easily portable not only within the workplace, but outside of it. Rather than waiting for insights to be printed, businesses can now showcase their growth to investors, fellow organizations, and potential customers at conferences, trade shows, and events with ease through on-boarding of a mobile insight solution. Companies are able to also utilize mobile data to build their own branded application, allowing for users to view data on their own devices, capitalizing on the BYoT (bring your own technology) trend.
Mobile data lends itself to company branded applications quite well, allowing for developers to collaborate across one’s organization to create an app that will showcase not only relevant KPI’s, but can also be used to acquire and retain talent throughout an organization. Companies can use their data to add a section into their application which displays the percentage of a unique statistic to one’s company, such as annual raises.
For young startups attempting to hire young talent, company data could be used to collect and display an amusing metric such as the percentage of people competing in an interdepartmental gaming tournament.
The Future of BI and Big Data
There are a variety of security advances that make collecting and analyzing data easier than ever before. This can be seen in the form of increased encryption technology, and the advances made to better secure containers when in use as part of a company’s database layer in their infrastructure. Whether using Docker, Kubernetes, or Amazon EC2, database security is crucial, and today’s organizations are making strides on a daily basis to continue to improve this ever-growing sector of business.
Organizations have more flexibility than ever before when it comes to creating a secure home for their data, whether they utilize on-premise, hybrid, or cloud-based solutions to do so.
The cloud has made powerful analytics available to anyone in real-time. Once viewed only by certain members of one’s organization, customers now also not only can view the data a company collects, but have a say in what exactly is being collected. What’s more, customers can then interact with this data like never before, able to have conversations outside of a business and build their own communities based around their shared points of data with other users. Having metrics available not only internally, but externally, allows for a business to build it community organically from the source.
Where analytics were once confusing, comprised mainly of spreadsheets and complex graphs, today’s BI dashboards are as simple or complex as one requires. Whether displaying a small KPI chart, or mapping thousands of users across a variety of data points, businesses can utilize the power of mobile data quickly and easily.  With the right mobile solution, one’s organization will not only gain access to relevant data, but can act on this data across a variety of departments. This results in not only increased revenue, but a better impression of a company’s transparency from customers when coupled with a well-documented data strategy stating how one’s organization will secure and use the data it collects.
Takeaways
While it was once considered a luxury, today’s businesses should have no excuse not to utilize the power of mobile BI in their own organization.
For those who are unsure where to start, there are many websites that showcase a collection of solutions that make working with BI software simple, allowing businesses to focus more on what matters to them. Through harnessing the power of today’s software and applications, being clear about the data one’s business collects, and developing a mobile-based strategy for company insights, today’s organizations, large and small, stand to benefit greatly from the increasing adoption of mobile and cloud-based technology.