If you’re following the trends in mobile business intelligence (BI) as closely as we are, you’ve likely come across the flux in HTML5-based mobile applications for BI.
The forerunners to HTML5-based mobile applications include the drag-and-drop design formats that often turn a consumer’s once-frustrating user experience into a popular productivity tool.
While we agree that ease-of-use is key to the consumerization of BI, making sure you’ve made the right choice for your business is not quite as simple as hopping on the latest trend.
Does it matter how it’s built if it’s not useful? The real value of BI applications is that they facilitate information analytics for the businesses that use them. The most beneficial BI tools are focused on being useful and tightly aligned to the way businesses run—not to the technology used to develop them.
Cloud-Based for Universal Access
The first requirement for your BI analytics tool is that it offers cloud-based access.
Your business employs key personnel, but often these workers are not located in close proximity. That’s why your company needs secure, cloud-based tools that require less physical data storage, and provide maximum accessibility across the enterprise.
These tools lend themselves to more powerful features, too, enabling access to KPIs on any mobile device, from iOS and Android to Windows and beyond.
Flexible Data Solutions for Flexible Questions
Following cloud, what’s the next most important characteristic a BI application needs? Your analytics application must allow for flexible data solutions.
Your business is always changing because you are responding to the developments in your field. That’s where flexible manipulation of big data becomes vital, not preferable. Answering questions posed in different ways, in different markets, and for different reasons is what will keep your business competitive.
When big data exists only to answer specific questions, you become limited in your insights and progress; that spells death for your business. Instead, ensure your analytics will allow you to move your data into different algorithms to answer different questions as they come up—even questions you don’t know you’ll need to ask this time next year.
Focused on User Experience
Finally, the right tool for your business will be focused on user experience, not the ease of programming and tweaking. In fact, user experience is the driving force behind much of the innovation in big data analytics.
Part of this means employing user-friendly technology that is accessible to your employees and analysts. However, a critical piece of this is taking a balanced approach to big data, combining qualitative and quantitative research to reach a deeper understanding. That’s what your business is after, right? Deeper insights, faster.
But don’t use the development platform as a reason to invest in one technology over another. Instead, focus your BI analytics selection on the principles of how your company uses data to ensure that your investment will bring the biggest ROI possible.
