Mobile business intelligence taking off

Mobile business intelligence is taking off, according to global research, driven by the wider use of smartphones and tablets.

A survey of around 500 Jaspersoft business intelligence users found that two thirds of them have already deployed or now have concrete plans to deploy BI tools on mobile phones in their organisations.

Of those planning to deploy mobile BI, 38% will do so as part of a mobile application rather than through mobile access to standalone BI systems. Over half (53%) believe that instant collaboration based on real time data and the ability to create self-service reports on-the-go is important.

Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are considered to be the most important mobile operating systems to build BI applications on, according to respondents.

Jim Bell, chief marketing officer at Jaspersoft, said: "With more decision makers working beyond the office walls, supported by the proliferation of tablets and smartphones, mobile BI is increasingly important for management teams to analyse key information necessary for decision-making."

According to Gartner’s Predicts 2011 report, more than 33% of BI functionality will be consumed by handheld devices by 2013.

To date, says Gartner, mobile BI has largely consisted of existing reports and dashboards ported to mobile devices. But the analyst house predicts that this year organisations and vendors will develop mobile analytic applications for specific tasks or domains.

IDG News Service

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