Mobile Business Intelligence: A Consumer Electronics Perspective

In January 2011 I presented a couple of articles on mobile business intelligence. In my assessment of strategic considerations for mobile BI I noted that, given the ways in which we consume data, tablet devices should provide a better user experience than smartphones for almost all BI-related functions.

This morning I read an analysis of consumer trends in mobile devices that reinforces my assessment. The article, written by mobile industry consultant Eric Chan, makes a compelling argument that data-intensive, cost-pressured consumers will increasingly choose a tablet-feature phone combination over a tablet-smartphone combination. In Mr. Chan's words:

Consumers use smartphones primarily for media and data capabilities, not calling features. That means they're not really 'telephones,' per se; to the average person, they are portable media devices. So why stick with a three-inch screen when you can have one three times larger? And if you do buy a tablet, why continue with a smartphone? At current prices of $200 to $400, the smartphone is too expensive to win the battle against tablets at a mass-consumer level.

There are problems with this analysis. As commentators on the article rightly note, there is a convenience factor associated with the smartphone's combination of small size and functionality that feature phones cannot yet match. But I see two things that mitigate this. First, feature phones are likely to get smarter over time. Second, as smartphones become larger to compete with the superior screen size of tablets (which, as Mr. Chan noted, is already happening), they will squeeze the very pocket space that gives them their current competitive advantage.

All of this reinforces my belief that, for most BI-related knowledge work, the tablet will be the mobile app client of choice.

Mobile Business Intelligence: Some Strategic Considerations

In my last post I presented my assessment that 2011 will prove to be a watershed year for mobile BI. I noted that wireless infrastructure, devices, and software applications are maturing to the point where mobile BI deployments will expand rapidly, in this and the coming years. Now I want to look at strategic considerations for business in deploying mobile business intelligence.

To begin I want to examine mobile BI in the context of the PRIME model I have presented elsewhere on this blog. From a device standpoint, I think it's very clear that tablet devices such as the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab are best suited to most of the functions (Produce, Review, Investigate, Extrapolate) of data interaction I describe in the model. I say this due to the limited amount of screen area available on most smartphones.

The exception for me is the Monitor function, where a smartphone app could be a very useful client for performance management alerts. Such an app could present the mobile decision maker with up to the minute information, say, a change in a key performance indicator. The decision maker could then delegate investigation to an appropriate knowledge worker -- either through the app itself or with a good old-fashioned phone call. A smartphone with a larger screen and/or higher resolution might work for basic queries or reports.

As to mobile BI deployment, I would not be surprised to see small- and medium-sized businesses out in front of their larger counterparts. The reason I say this is that small and medium businesses are most likely to have immediate need of the flexibility that mobile BI provides. After all, in a larger business with a more mature BI implementation knowledge workers are likely to be equipped with laptops and working either at the office or at home. More time and improvements in device performance may be needed before these companies see tablet devices as ready for "industrial-strength" deployment to their back-office workers. I could more easily see initial deployment to front-line workers that the company wants to empower, for example, with customer intelligence in real- or near-real time.

In a smaller company by contrast, managers and even executives may already be on the front line and/or need to double as analysts. The ability to perform mobile analysis would be most welcome for them. (Those who have seen the iPad commercials currently running in the US are probably salivating already.) And if the business were using a software as a service (SaaS) model any performance disadvantage should be minimized since the heavy lifting is being done in the cloud. If you missed my post on SaaS check it out here. Oh, and don't skimp on the bandwidth.

BI Strategy: Summary

The previous material has introduced some basic BI concepts. The following list briefly summarizes what we’ve discussed over the past month or so.

1. BI data have a distinct lifecycle that consists of Capture, Processing, Consumption, and Archival.

2. The more accurately and precisely data are captured at the beginning of the lifecycle, the less work will need to be done in processing later.

3. BI data should be maintained separately from daily transaction data if at all possible.

4. Data integration and governance processes are critical to getting the most out of your firm’s business intelligence. These processes may be formal or informal, but ignore them at your peril.

5. The key to ensuring that steps 3 and 4 are executed properly is extraction, transformation, and loading of data (ETL) from the transaction system where the data are captured to the data warehouse or other data store where they will be consumed.

6. Your choices for consuming data are conditioned on the kinds of questions you want to ask and how you want to interact with the data.

7. Humans interact with data in one or more of five ways: producing, reviewing, investigating, monitoring, and extrapolating (PRIME).

8. Archival policy for BI data may be driven mainly by legal or tax considerations, but one may also wish to consider the strategic and time value (“freshness”) of the data.

Moving forward we'll be examining a number of business intelligence concepts and trends in more detail. Also, I'll be updating this blog a bit less frequently. I hope to post two to three times per week instead of Monday through Friday.