Supporting mobile business intelligence capabilities is becoming a fact of working life for more and more BI managers and their teams, according to William McKnight, president of McKnight Consulting Group in Plano, Texas. "As the mobile revolution takes hold, that is definitely having an impact on what we do in business intelligence," McKnight said in a podcast interview. But, he added, developing effective mobile BI applications is typically a more involved process than simply "taking what you've got and shrinking it down" to display on mobile devices.

In fact, mobile BI apps can require more design discipline than conventional PC-based ones do, McKnight said. On laptops and desktop PCs, designers of business intelligence dashboards and other BI applications might be able to get away with cutting corners and being "a little sloppy" because of the available screen space, he said. With mobile BI applications, "you can't be that way. Space is critical."

On the other hand, McKnight doesn't recommend turning BI mobile app design into an exercise in trying to wow users of smartphones and tablet PCs with visual bells and whistles. "Mobile business intelligence doesn't have to look like the latest game that everybody is downloading for the iPhone," he said. "It can look very business-like." For business uses, he added, content and performance are more important than a snazzy design is.

In the 11-minute podcast, McKnight also discussed other aspects of deploying mobile BI tools and applications. Listeners will

• Get his take on whether mobile BI is still a niche technology or has reached mainstream status.
• Find out more about how McKnight thinks BI mobility is changing the way that companies approach business intelligence development and management.
• Learn why a dashboard orientation with capabilities for drilling into data is helpful fordesigning mobile BI applications.
• Get advice on whether it's feasible for BI teams to pick particular mobile devices to support.
• Hear about mobile BI security issues and whether mobile business intelligence apps pose bigger security risks than applications running on laptops.

Enterprise mobility is booming; organizations must connect with employees, customers, and partners in new ways and across new devices and applications. But many organizations don’t know how to move to this new mobile world, and they can’t afford costly mistakes like a failed investment, which could damage their reputation. These technologists need help with their enterprise mobility strategy, and they’re turning to mobility services providers to design, develop, and support their mobile applications. 

The number of mobile devices now outpaces humans on this planet, as it is estimated that there were 7.3 billion devices in the world in 2012 (compared with just under 7 billion people, according to the World Bank).
 
Mobility is driving significant changes in the way organizations source technology and technology services. Seventy-one percent of IT services executives say that increased employee use of apps on tablets and smartphones also increases services spend (in business and in IT), creates more software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment on mobile devices, and drives them to hire more third-party services firms across multiple areas, including specialized development and security.

See: http://bit.ly/Zcvrr7

Combining analytics, cloud and mobile, organizations gain competitive advantage by delivering an excellent customer experience.  

Mobility provides accuracy, precision and speed into customer-facing processes. 

Using mobile-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM), warranty management, service and spare parts procurement strategies, small and mid-sized organizations can level the playing field with the big boys. What smaller competitors lack in breadth they can make up for in speed and responsiveness.   

Gartner’s IT Market Clock for Enterprise Mobility, 2012 captures how mobility is changing the nature of competition.