The Importance of Mobile Business Intelligence

Mobile business intelligence is currently expanding at a faster rate than any other area of the enterprise application landscape. According to Gartner, the business intelligence market (including data warehouses and CRM analytics) is growing nine percent (9%) per year. Whilst, it was worth $57 billion at the end of 2010, it will surge to $81 billion by 2014 and as high as $136 billion by 2020.

In preparation for our 2013 global mobility Exchanges, I wanted to examine this trend impacting the mobility space.
With enterprises focusing on mobile intelligence to streamline their processes internally and to gain a competitive advantage; what are the real challenges in deploying MI and what can it bring to an enterprise?
Is Mobile Intelligence so relevant where we stand today?
There has been a huge shift in technology over the last decade; resulting in consumers and employees capitalising on the power of mobile devices in their day to day lives (such as reporting, customer purchases, etc)
Enterprise applications that were moderately successful when used on a desktop have become highly effective and treasured when consumed on-the-go by employees. The reasons are simple; mobile devices are not only extremely powerful tools, they provide constant connectivity, are convenient to carry and above all else, are user-friendly.
Challenges With Mobile Intelligence
As technologies enter the market at speed, there is a distinct lack of IT management software to support emerging technologies such as mobile intelligence. For example there can be severe limitations in software governance and device security. This in turn, leads to further enterprise challenges in building a solid strategy without becoming obsolete in 6-12 months when new solutions enter the market. Not to mention the challenges of integrating these solutions to your back-end systems.
Without on-the-go access to business intelligence, actions are delayed until employees return to their desks, presenting enterprise-wide bottlenecks. These delays are expunged with mobile intelligence, which allows analysis, interpretation and quick decision making when required, gout in the field - so now connectivity, device battery life and durability are key.
Mobile Intelligence Moving Forward
It is clear to see that mobile intelligence is revolutionising the way enterprises deliver, consume, and act ion information. The convergence of analytics and business information ( incorporated with mobile technology), is empowering employees in a way that was previously not possible.
Accurate and speedy decision making is integral to accelerating the profitability of business. The era of fast changing competitive business is upon the world, and it is imperative to provide immediate responses to both your employees and consumers. With mobile intelligence, decision makers now have the power to make these important business critical decisions immediately, but lack of connectivity and battery life are persistent challenges that need to be addressed.
Organisations that embrace mobile intelligence will become leaner, faster and smarter; resulting in more business, more revenue, and greater competitive advantage. I believe that mobile business intelligence will eclipse desktop applications in the near future; this will result in a new age of mobile intelligence that can be accessed anytime, anywhere.