Building a Better Business Through Mobile BI BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE. IT S WHAT WE DO.

Transcription

1 Building a Better Business Through Mobile BI BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE. IT S WHAT WE DO.

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 2 Mobile BI for the Executive: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)... 3 Mobile BI for Customer Service... 4 Mobile BI for Call Center Management... 6 Mobile BI for Retail Store Management... 7 Mobile BI for Logistics Management... 8 Getting Started with Mobile BI... 9 Conclusion Vendor Matrix: BI on the Go iolap.com 1

3 Introduction The great technology paradox of our time is the extent to which business technology lags behind consumer technology. The reality is: Most people have more technology options, access, solutions and sophistication in their personal lives than in their business lives. However, the rapid growth in mobile technologies is threatening the acceptance of this status quo. By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide, according to Gartner. 1 It s this explosion of mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablet computers that is making people less willing to accept the dichotomy as they come to expect ondemand access to information. By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide, according to Gartner. As businesses strive to keep up with the mobile trend, they should remember that mobile usage isn t only about creating a better user experience; it s about building better businesses. And mobile access to Business Intelligence (BI) is a perfect example. According to research from Aberdeen Group, BI usage among organizations with mobile BI has doubled compared with those companies that have not mobilized their BI. By extending the reach and usage of their existing BI infrastructure to mobile devices, organizations respond more rapidly to market changes and customer needs. Mobile BI accelerates access to information, enabling faster decision-making while improving customer satisfaction and retention. 2 Mobile BI can enhance a business s effectiveness in many ways, including overall enterprise performance, customer services and a broad range of operations. This paper will explore some of these benefits, as well as offer best practice recommendations to jump-start the use of mobile BI in your organization Borg, Andrew; and White, David. Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for Agile Enterprises. Aberdeen Group. December iolap.com 2

4 Mobile BI for the Executive: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Data is the fuel that powers organizations. And for most organizations, the lack of data is less of a problem than the inability to gain access to the right data in time to use it for decisionmaking purposes. Executives make numerous business decisions every day. By having the ability to easily track their company s KPIs from a single dashboard, executives don t have to waste time and people wading through cumbersome micro data. Mobile BI actually enables executives to have the right KPI data and make the best business decisions faster and from any location. Worldwide tablet sales are predicted to grow from 19.5 million in 2010, to 54.8 million units in 2011, reaching 208 million by The unprecedented popularity of Apple s ipad is having a profound effect on the mobile BI sector. Gartner predicts that worldwide tablet sales (nearly all of them ipads) will grow from 19.5 million in 2010, to 54.8 million units in 2011, reaching 208 million by To put a finer point on the non-pc devices in the workplace, Deloitte believes enterprises will buy more than 10 million tablet computers in 2011, accounting for more than 25 percent of all tablet computers purchased. 3 An increasingly tech-savvy and geographically dispersed workforce will expect to be able to access their corporate data anywhere, anytime via mobile devices such as the ipad. For example: An executive needs real-time, on-demand access to key business metrics, whether walking into a board meeting or sitting on the sidelines at a child s soccer game. A mobile BI dashboard should be able to answer key questions such as: What is the state of my business (or factory, asset, profit, product, supply chain, etc.) at a glance? (a roll-up view of all KPIs in a group) What is the current value of a key individual metric? How does it compare with its expected value (thresholds, limits, etc.)? What does this value look like compared with similar KPIs? What led up to this point? Technology-Trends-for-2011-Deloitte / iolap.com 3

5 Are things likely to get better or worse, given the trend? How does this trend compare with itself in prior periods? Am I alerted when something is particularly bad or good? Who is responsible for this KPI and whom do I alert? 4 While this may seem like a complex undertaking, developing a key metrics dashboard doesn t have to be a big project. Most key metrics can be viewed, in context and from all of the right angles, in just a few key screens (which should be generated on-demand, not custom coded in the project), especially when those KPIs are operational in nature. Surprisingly, development of these projects can be completed in only a few weeks. Mobile BI for Customer Service Happy customers lead to repeat business. However, multiple internal departments may be collecting, reporting and acting on customer feedback and sending the results into separate channels. 5 Customer comments the qualitative, unstructured data may not be analyzed in a timely and complete manner and sometimes not at all. 6 Now more than ever, customer experience and sentiment are also being expressed through online chat, and phone. Like customer comments, this feedback may not be properly integrated with structured data. 7 Mobile BI solutions could help companies automatically gather and report customer feedback and comments into a centralized data warehouse in real-time. With a common Business Intelligence and analytics solution in place to report financial and operational performance and measures necessary to run the business, an immediate opportunity is presented to automatically link customer feedback to operational and financial metrics for greater insight Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 iolap.com 4

6 A good example is the continuous supply of information from Iberia s Hub Control Centre at Madrid-Barajas Airport. The center allows agents to access a wide range of up-to-date information on which to base their customer-service decisions. This information includes: The real status of check-in counters (open, closed, number of employees on duty, scheduled time for closing and departure). The IBPad can also show images taken by the cameras in the area to show the length of lines, etc. Lists of passengers with reduced mobility and unaccompanied minors on each flight with full real-time information. Information on passengers at risk of missing connecting flights and their status as customers (Iberia Plus Platinum or Gold cardholders, etc.) Information on passengers on intercontinental flights that have not yet checked in and the number of minutes remaining before closing the flight. Flights at risk of being delayed or canceled and any other incident that would impact customers, by departure zone and the number of customers affected. The IBPad system is loaded with 30 different applications that together put the entire airport in the palm of the employee s hand. 9 Mobile BI gives organizations the power to serve customers more efficiently and to report the service experience faster. It also gives organizations the power to link customer services data with operational and financial performance data. Mobile BI keeps companies connected to the data they need to perform. 9 nformation-management-and-customer-care/ iolap.com 5

7 Mobile BI for Call Center Management In a call center, mobile Business Intelligence can be used to measure, manage and improve your agents performance in real-time. Call center managers constantly work to help support and improve their team and agents performance. Mobile BI can bring this mission-critical interaction to a new and vastly more productive level and enables them to: Measure By providing both the agent and the manager easy access to the same key performance measurements in a real-time manner, you enhance both parties ability to take meaningful action sooner. From average hold and call times to productivity and conversion measurements, focus and effort become driven by actionable data. Manage Once a manager is aware of a performance issue, the next step is to define a remedy for that problem. Mobile BI allows the manager to interact directly with the agent to identify and agree to the best course of action. Whether the selected solution is additional training, adjusted scripts or enhanced mentoring, that data-point (the remedy ) can be captured, tracked and measured for effectiveness on the issue. Improve All of these one-on-one interactions enabled by your mobile BI application become a valuable source of data to help improve your overall operations. By aggregating the cause, remedy and outcome of all agents, you can then perform data analysis to help identify trends and opportunities. Adding to this rich source of performance data is your underlying business reference data (e.g., agent hierarchy, skill, products), and you now have a complete closed-loop BI solution for managing your center s performance. Mobile BI s use for immediate performance management isn t limited to call centers. Managers and executives in many organizations could benefit from using mobile BI or closed-loop solutions to measure, manage and improve the performance of their workforce. iolap.com 6

8 Mobile BI for Retail Store Management As more people become comfortable with newer technologies, the role of business applications and their expansion will become seamless. End users will require the ability to manage the customer regardless of location. 10 With the right information all in one dashboard, a store manager can view up-to-date KPIs such as staffing costs, sales data, inventory levels and space planning, and then make strategic decisions to improve the business. A good example is Apple. Within their physical stores, they bring checkout to the customer with the option of a paperless transaction. These types of customer initiatives will continue to become more prevalent and provide a good example of how businesses are taking advantage of mobile technologies to expand their reach and enhance customer experience. Tying this to BI means that organizations will provide the same conveniences to their employees, giving them the flexibility to access the right information at the right time within the right place whether the right place means on a desktop, laptop or mobile device. 11 Another example is Brinker International one of the world s biggest restaurant companies. Brinker used BI to help with a challenge faced by many restaurants: determining how many staff members should work each shift a task that can be especially daunting during a recession. Among other things, this software can calculate, based on sales, the optimal staffing level during a particular shift at a specific restaurant. 12 Mobile BI is a steppingstone in the march toward pervasive BI in many industries, especially within the fickle consumer trends of retail Ibid ceo+guide+to+tech_green+computing iolap.com 7

9 Mobile BI for Logistics Management Effective inventory management means having the right amount of the right product at the right location delivered in time to satisfy customer needs at minimum cost. Mobile BI can put more information into the hands of vendors, logistics managers and even drivers to improve efficiency and decrease distribution costs. Business Intelligence can bring model and safety stock data together with inventory and sales information to identify potential out-of-stock situations, highlighting where target stocks and/ or safety stocks need to be increased to prevent lost sales. BI tools can be used to proactively generate alerts in these situations so that the problem can be addressed appropriately. By combining sales data, forecast data and replenishment data, retailers can compute measurements such as target stock and weeks of supply. Target and safety stocks that are also based on current sales trends can be reduced and the inventory repositioned in the supply chain as needed without risking empty shelves or overbuying on certain stock items. BI can also help identify products with sluggish turnover ratios or products with stock on hand at the store but without sales, potentially indicating a failure to replenish shelves with available product, insufficient demand for the product at the location in question or noncompetitive pricing. 13 One beverage company makes some 50,000 shipments of its juices and other drinks to supermarkets each year, generating reams of data. The challenge has always been turning those millions of bits of data into useful information. But using Business Intelligence software helps the company drill down and tweak individual shipments to make sure they re carrying full loads. We started doing this prior to the recession, but it s been a wonderful tool in the face of the recession because it gives us more insight into our cost structure than we ve ever had, said the director of purchasing and logistics iolap.com 8

10 Getting Started with Mobile BI Like many new concepts and technologies being introduced into business settings, the road to success starts with best practices. Before implementing mobile BI solutions, companies should consider these key factors: Don t be afraid to start small and simple. A KPI dashboard isn t rocket science and can provide a quick win to build momentum for a larger, more complex project. Solutions can be browser based (SaaS) or app based. Security both network security and data stored on the device itself. Security has been enhanced with options to lock down data, wipe data remotely, temporarily block devices and selectively delete files remotely. Secure an executive champion for budget and buy-in. Build in alerts to make dashboards even more valuable. 15 Accommodate offline access. 16 Another important factor companies should consider before implementing a mobile BI solution is finding a vendor who will take the time to analyze specific mobile BI needs and create solutions around those needs. 15 Borg, Andrew; and White, David. Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for Agile Enterprises. Aberdeen Group. December Ibid. iolap.com 9

11 Conclusion Mobile BI is just beginning to come into its own but is rapidly becoming an essential component of an effective business strategy. As companies begin using mobile BI solutions to measure business performance, they must remember: Mobile BI doesn t need to be complex to be robust. Simplicity is the key to user experience and with that ease of use, more data is collected, enabling business leaders and employees to make better business decisions. That s why getting dashboards into the hands of people when and where information is needed can offer tremendous business benefits whether it s applied to enterprise performance, customer services or a broad range of operations. iolap can make mobile BI simple and get data in your hands quickly. We assess your mobile BI needs and find vendor platforms that increase your access to data that will propel your business to success. About iolap If you need Business Intelligence, you need iolap. For enterprise-class companies, we are a professional services firm that leverages its extensive knowledge of Business Intelligence technologies and methodologies to quickly develop and implement Data Warehouse and reporting solutions of the highest quality at a lower cost. Unlike big-name consulting and general-purpose IT firms, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing is all we do. While other consultants are still trying to figure it out, we have already delivered results, thanks to better people, strategy, delivery practices and methodology. Visit us online at iolap Business Intelligence. It s What We Do. Copyright 2011 iolap Corporation. All Rights Reserved. iolap.com 10

12 BI on the Go iolap Delivers Multiple Mobile BI Platforms and Solutions Mobile BI Vendors Mobile Device Support Features Adobe flash components specifically developed for ipad or iphone. ipad and iphone orientation aware - report orientation changes if device is rotated. Offering drilling, page-by and other native MicroStrategy and iolap services. Google Maps/GPS aware. Inbox functionality. Single report authoring. Push/pull report deployment Focus on each chart within a dashboard. Chart element focus, albeit column or row. Geo-specific prompts based on device location. Offers Cognos Express for rapid data discovery. Supports push/pull functionality. Uses existing reports without having to redesign to accommodate wireless devices. Leverage existing BusinessObjects security. Uses BusinessObjects Explorer as a means for quick data discovery. Strong market presence in the UC space with several applications designed to fit largescale enterprise-level companies. BI technology that allows on-the-fly data manipulation. Highly geared toward the end user for self-service report development and customizations.

13 Mobile BI Vendors Mobile Device Support Features Strong focus on self-service type software that allows users to develop their own reports through a highly scalable WebFOCUS tool. Allows for multiple data connections. Uses instances of MS SQL Server for RDBMS and report development through Visual Studio. End user data manipulation through data sources native to Excel. Collaborative document sharing through SharePoint. Enterprise-level product, which provides dashboards, data visualization, Web and desktop reporting capabilities. Strong MS Office integration Gap solution for SAP BW users. Strengths lie in its ability to quickly and easily integrate with BusinessObjects. JasperReports Server is its flagship BI management tool, which offers in-memory analysis, pixel-perfect report development for dashboards and mashboards (mashups displayed with a dashboard look and feel). Agile BI development cycles, which greatly shortens the software development cycle and brings BI projects online faster and more efficiently. For more information on these and other Mobile BI solutions, contact sales@iolap.com.