Description
With the recent influx of sophisticated smart phones and tablet computers, business intelligence is going mobile. Executives and information consumers are realizing that the same information can be analyzed and dissected on the go from a smart phone or a tablet device just as easily and effectively as it can be from a desktop computer or laptop in their office.
Mobile Services the way we do it
Business Intelligence Goes
Mobile
A Success Story in Business Intelligence Delivery
With the recent influx of sophisticated
smart phones and tablet computers,
business intelligence is going mobile.
Executives and information
consumers are realizing that the same
information can be analyzed and
dissected on the go from a smart phone
or a tablet device just as easily and
effectively as it can be from a desktop
computer or laptop in their office. The
added benefit of consuming mobile
business intelligence is that informed
decisions can be made in the field in
real time, instead of being delayed until
a later date.
According to Gartner, tablet computer
sales are expected to increase 181% in
2011 as compared to sales in 2010 .
While many of these sales will be for
personal use, the inclusion of the
tablet into the corporate world cannot
be ignored. Furthermore, Gartner
states that by 2013, 33% of business
intelligence functionality will be
consumed via handheld devices.
2
Forrester predicts that within 3-5
years mobile devices will be used
more frequently than the traditional
laptop to run BI applications. Clearly
the mobile craze is not a passing fad,
but a movement that will have
tremendous impacts on both the
business world and on the way
that business
2
intelligence solutions are delivered.
With less than one-third of companies
having already implemented a mobile
solution, the market for mobility is set
to skyrocket in 2011 and beyond.
3
BI vendors are not blind to this trend
and are working tirelessly to build or
improve their mobile offerings. SAP
BusinessObjects and MicroStrategy are
just two examples of vendors that
have added a mobile reporting
solution to complement their existing
enterprise reporting platform. Roambi,
a mobile reporting start-up, has taken
a different approach offering a mobile
reporting solution that can read the
data in your existing BI reports. All
three companies require an
application to be installed on the
user’s device much like any other
application purchased through an
application store.
Real-World Case Study: Mobile
BI Delivery in Action
In 2010, Capgemini was engaged to
build the first BusinessObjects mobile
reporting solution for a major
consumer products company in North
America. The top fifty executives and
vice-presidents in the company were
seeking a way to gain immediate
access to unit sales volume data. The
executives were already receiving
these reports on a weekly basis,
delivered via Microsoft Excel. Due to
the design of the report and the
limitations in Excel, it was very
difficult and cumbersome to view
these critical metrics on the go.
In collaboration with the business users,
Capgemini delivered four mobile-
enabled reports to provide the users the
information they needed on demand.
The solution provided tremendous
benefits to the users, including:
n
Increased speed of delivery of
actionable business information
n
Enhanced business decisions by
providing the decision makers with
the data they needed to make
informed decisions
n
A more engaging, interactive, and
actionable user experience
The solution has created a
tremendous buzz around mobile
reporting within this consumer
products company, leading to additional
projects across other business units.
Furthermore, this company is putting
extra focus and effort on mobile
reporting as a part of every business
intelligence project. Mobile BI is
clearly becoming a business priority
throughout this organization and
other Fortune 500 companies.
Lessons Learned: People
In delivering this solution and
collaborating with the client, a
number of lessons were learned about
BusinessObjects Mobile as well as
how best to deliver a mobile BI
solution. First and foremost, it is
imperative to select your first project
wisely. Mobile BI is a relatively new
capability and typically requires
infrastructure setup costs. As such, it
is critical to deliver a win that clearly
demonstrates business value during
your first project. A quick win can
help gain traction for mobile BI and
open doors for future initiatives down
the road. The ideal user community for
a first mobile BI project is the
executive-level employees in a given
organization for two major reasons:
n
When your executive-level
employees see the benefits and
usefulness of mobile BI solutions, it
will make business case justification
easier for future mobile BI rollouts.
n
When your executive-level
employees find value in mobile BI,
his/her direct reports are likely to
follow suit. By gaining executive
buy-in, it will be much easier to
show an organization just how
beneficial it can be to consume
information on the go.
While selecting your first project is
critical, it is just as important to know
that user community and to
understand their past experience with
BI as well as mobile solutions. Because
many people have not used mobile BI
yet, an iterative design methodology
can help introduce the technology
and ultimately lead to a design that
1
Whitney, Lance. “Gartner: Global tablet sales to hit 19.5 million this year”. CNET reviews (2010).
2
Gassman, Bill. “Predicts 2011: New Relationships Will Change BI and Analytics”. Gartner Research (2010).
3
Evelson, Boris. “A Practical How-To Approach to Mobile BI”. Forrester Research, Inc (2011)
Mobile Services the way we see it
3
Secondly, it was extremely helpful to
mobile-enable an existing reporting
solution where we could take
advantage of the people and processes
already in place to help deliver the
new mobile solution. This allowed
our development team to focus on the
mobile aspects of the solution without
having to worry about other
organizational issues that often arise
with new BI rollouts.
Lessons Learned: Technology
On the technical side, there are
numerous considerations to always be
mindful of as you develop a mobile
solution. The major considerations
that we identified are:
n
Know your client, the devices they
are using, and the devices they plan
to rollout in the future.
n
Be mindful of device compatibility.
This includes different devices
(iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc)
as well as different operating system
versions on a given device.
n
Screen size and device will be a
constraint. Always test with the
same device that the users will have.
n
Mobile BI is new to most
environments so future iterations
are always a possibility as more users
get the solution in their hands.
Conclusion & Next Steps
With smart phones and tablet
computers quickly taking the market
by storm, now is the time to evaluate
how mobile BI can drive new levels of
productivity for your executives and
employees in the field. Capgemini is
at the forefront of mobile BI with a
global customer base of clients who
are on the forefront of leveraging
mobile BI technology to stay ahead of
the competition.
For more information, contact
Capgemini and learn how we can help
your organization take advantage of
information on the go.
will be well received by the users. At
this consumer products company,
Capgemini did just that. The users
had not previously been exposed to
mobile BI solutions and were very
unsure of the capabilities that were
available to them. Many were only
recently issued a tablet device. Instead
of spending weeks working on a
design that we found valuable, we
immediately met with the users and
showed them three different options
of how we could present the
information. We hosted a workshop
where we could show our initial
designs and the users could provide
feedback that would drive our design
going forward. This approach allowed
the users to be active participants in the
design process and fostered a sense of
ownership of the solution.
Lastly, we recommend beginning with
a pilot audience that is representative
of the entire population of mobile BI
users. Again, since this technology
was new, we wanted to identify
possible problems and issues before
rolling out to a wider audience. The
pilot audience was also able to provide
initial feedback on the reports so we
were able to make small changes to
enhance the reports before they were
released to the top executives.
Lessons Learned: Process
First, it is important to treat mobile BI
projects as innovation projects. At this
consumer products company, all
parties involved set expectations that
this was a pilot project and treated the
initiative as a project that we could all
learn from. Since this was the first
rollout of BusinessObjects Mobile at
this company, we all knew we would
encounter issues that we had never
experienced before. By setting this
expectation at the forefront of the
project, we were better prepared to
deal with and respond to issues and
problems as they arose.
Content Contributors: Nicholas Owens and Tarang Shah, North America Business Information Management (BIM) Services
at Capgemini
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Copyright © 2011 Capgemini. All rights reserved.
www.capgemini.com
For further information please contact us at [email protected]
Capgemini, one of the world’s
foremost providers of
consulting, technology and outsourcing
services, enables its clients to transform
and perform through technologies.
Capgemini provides its clients with
insights and capabilities that boost their
freedom to achieve superior results
through a unique way of working, the
Collaborative Business Experience.
TM
The
Group relies on its global delivery model
called Rightshore,
®
which aims to get the
right balance of the best talent from
multiple locations, working as one team
to create and deliver the optimum
solution for clients. Present 40 countries,
Capgemini reported 2010 global
revenues of EUR 8.7 billion and employs
over 112,000 people worldwide.
More information is available at
www.capgemini.com
Rightshore
®
is a trademark belonging to
Capgemini
About Capgemini
® ®
doc_689768522.pdf
With the recent influx of sophisticated smart phones and tablet computers, business intelligence is going mobile. Executives and information consumers are realizing that the same information can be analyzed and dissected on the go from a smart phone or a tablet device just as easily and effectively as it can be from a desktop computer or laptop in their office.
Mobile Services the way we do it
Business Intelligence Goes
Mobile
A Success Story in Business Intelligence Delivery
With the recent influx of sophisticated
smart phones and tablet computers,
business intelligence is going mobile.
Executives and information
consumers are realizing that the same
information can be analyzed and
dissected on the go from a smart phone
or a tablet device just as easily and
effectively as it can be from a desktop
computer or laptop in their office. The
added benefit of consuming mobile
business intelligence is that informed
decisions can be made in the field in
real time, instead of being delayed until
a later date.
According to Gartner, tablet computer
sales are expected to increase 181% in
2011 as compared to sales in 2010 .
While many of these sales will be for
personal use, the inclusion of the
tablet into the corporate world cannot
be ignored. Furthermore, Gartner
states that by 2013, 33% of business
intelligence functionality will be
consumed via handheld devices.
2
Forrester predicts that within 3-5
years mobile devices will be used
more frequently than the traditional
laptop to run BI applications. Clearly
the mobile craze is not a passing fad,
but a movement that will have
tremendous impacts on both the
business world and on the way
that business
2
intelligence solutions are delivered.
With less than one-third of companies
having already implemented a mobile
solution, the market for mobility is set
to skyrocket in 2011 and beyond.
3
BI vendors are not blind to this trend
and are working tirelessly to build or
improve their mobile offerings. SAP
BusinessObjects and MicroStrategy are
just two examples of vendors that
have added a mobile reporting
solution to complement their existing
enterprise reporting platform. Roambi,
a mobile reporting start-up, has taken
a different approach offering a mobile
reporting solution that can read the
data in your existing BI reports. All
three companies require an
application to be installed on the
user’s device much like any other
application purchased through an
application store.
Real-World Case Study: Mobile
BI Delivery in Action
In 2010, Capgemini was engaged to
build the first BusinessObjects mobile
reporting solution for a major
consumer products company in North
America. The top fifty executives and
vice-presidents in the company were
seeking a way to gain immediate
access to unit sales volume data. The
executives were already receiving
these reports on a weekly basis,
delivered via Microsoft Excel. Due to
the design of the report and the
limitations in Excel, it was very
difficult and cumbersome to view
these critical metrics on the go.
In collaboration with the business users,
Capgemini delivered four mobile-
enabled reports to provide the users the
information they needed on demand.
The solution provided tremendous
benefits to the users, including:
n
Increased speed of delivery of
actionable business information
n
Enhanced business decisions by
providing the decision makers with
the data they needed to make
informed decisions
n
A more engaging, interactive, and
actionable user experience
The solution has created a
tremendous buzz around mobile
reporting within this consumer
products company, leading to additional
projects across other business units.
Furthermore, this company is putting
extra focus and effort on mobile
reporting as a part of every business
intelligence project. Mobile BI is
clearly becoming a business priority
throughout this organization and
other Fortune 500 companies.
Lessons Learned: People
In delivering this solution and
collaborating with the client, a
number of lessons were learned about
BusinessObjects Mobile as well as
how best to deliver a mobile BI
solution. First and foremost, it is
imperative to select your first project
wisely. Mobile BI is a relatively new
capability and typically requires
infrastructure setup costs. As such, it
is critical to deliver a win that clearly
demonstrates business value during
your first project. A quick win can
help gain traction for mobile BI and
open doors for future initiatives down
the road. The ideal user community for
a first mobile BI project is the
executive-level employees in a given
organization for two major reasons:
n
When your executive-level
employees see the benefits and
usefulness of mobile BI solutions, it
will make business case justification
easier for future mobile BI rollouts.
n
When your executive-level
employees find value in mobile BI,
his/her direct reports are likely to
follow suit. By gaining executive
buy-in, it will be much easier to
show an organization just how
beneficial it can be to consume
information on the go.
While selecting your first project is
critical, it is just as important to know
that user community and to
understand their past experience with
BI as well as mobile solutions. Because
many people have not used mobile BI
yet, an iterative design methodology
can help introduce the technology
and ultimately lead to a design that
1
Whitney, Lance. “Gartner: Global tablet sales to hit 19.5 million this year”. CNET reviews (2010).
2
Gassman, Bill. “Predicts 2011: New Relationships Will Change BI and Analytics”. Gartner Research (2010).
3
Evelson, Boris. “A Practical How-To Approach to Mobile BI”. Forrester Research, Inc (2011)
Mobile Services the way we see it
3
Secondly, it was extremely helpful to
mobile-enable an existing reporting
solution where we could take
advantage of the people and processes
already in place to help deliver the
new mobile solution. This allowed
our development team to focus on the
mobile aspects of the solution without
having to worry about other
organizational issues that often arise
with new BI rollouts.
Lessons Learned: Technology
On the technical side, there are
numerous considerations to always be
mindful of as you develop a mobile
solution. The major considerations
that we identified are:
n
Know your client, the devices they
are using, and the devices they plan
to rollout in the future.
n
Be mindful of device compatibility.
This includes different devices
(iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc)
as well as different operating system
versions on a given device.
n
Screen size and device will be a
constraint. Always test with the
same device that the users will have.
n
Mobile BI is new to most
environments so future iterations
are always a possibility as more users
get the solution in their hands.
Conclusion & Next Steps
With smart phones and tablet
computers quickly taking the market
by storm, now is the time to evaluate
how mobile BI can drive new levels of
productivity for your executives and
employees in the field. Capgemini is
at the forefront of mobile BI with a
global customer base of clients who
are on the forefront of leveraging
mobile BI technology to stay ahead of
the competition.
For more information, contact
Capgemini and learn how we can help
your organization take advantage of
information on the go.
will be well received by the users. At
this consumer products company,
Capgemini did just that. The users
had not previously been exposed to
mobile BI solutions and were very
unsure of the capabilities that were
available to them. Many were only
recently issued a tablet device. Instead
of spending weeks working on a
design that we found valuable, we
immediately met with the users and
showed them three different options
of how we could present the
information. We hosted a workshop
where we could show our initial
designs and the users could provide
feedback that would drive our design
going forward. This approach allowed
the users to be active participants in the
design process and fostered a sense of
ownership of the solution.
Lastly, we recommend beginning with
a pilot audience that is representative
of the entire population of mobile BI
users. Again, since this technology
was new, we wanted to identify
possible problems and issues before
rolling out to a wider audience. The
pilot audience was also able to provide
initial feedback on the reports so we
were able to make small changes to
enhance the reports before they were
released to the top executives.
Lessons Learned: Process
First, it is important to treat mobile BI
projects as innovation projects. At this
consumer products company, all
parties involved set expectations that
this was a pilot project and treated the
initiative as a project that we could all
learn from. Since this was the first
rollout of BusinessObjects Mobile at
this company, we all knew we would
encounter issues that we had never
experienced before. By setting this
expectation at the forefront of the
project, we were better prepared to
deal with and respond to issues and
problems as they arose.
Content Contributors: Nicholas Owens and Tarang Shah, North America Business Information Management (BIM) Services
at Capgemini
0
2
9
_
M
S
_
B
I
F
L
R
_
0
5
2
3
1
1
Copyright © 2011 Capgemini. All rights reserved.
www.capgemini.com
For further information please contact us at [email protected]
Capgemini, one of the world’s
foremost providers of
consulting, technology and outsourcing
services, enables its clients to transform
and perform through technologies.
Capgemini provides its clients with
insights and capabilities that boost their
freedom to achieve superior results
through a unique way of working, the
Collaborative Business Experience.
TM
The
Group relies on its global delivery model
called Rightshore,
®
which aims to get the
right balance of the best talent from
multiple locations, working as one team
to create and deliver the optimum
solution for clients. Present 40 countries,
Capgemini reported 2010 global
revenues of EUR 8.7 billion and employs
over 112,000 people worldwide.
More information is available at
www.capgemini.com
Rightshore
®
is a trademark belonging to
Capgemini
About Capgemini
® ®
doc_689768522.pdf