Who Benefits from Business Intelligence Mobile?

Gone are the days when we needed to sit in an office in front of a desktop computer all day to work or obtaining work-related information. With smartphones and tablets, we can check emails or browse data at any time, virtually anywhere.

Due to the popularization of Business Intelligence (BI) software in organizations, and its practical benefits to the real “mobile” workforce, those people who are often on the go, it makes sense that businesses are open to the idea of adopting BI in their mobile apps.

There are five groups that derive the greatest benefit, who would most appreciate having the ability to access real-time (or near real-time) visual representation of data to make business decisions. This would encompass marketers, salespeople, field workers, operation managers, and executives.

Business Intelligence Mobile App for Marketers

It’s not enough for a marketer today to be a creative artist who cranks out pretty graphics, banners, and brochures, or crafts crispy and snappy content. Today marketer also needs to be a data scientist to understand and track analytics generated from customised content. It’s already difficult enough to keep tabs on the different marketing channels without having to consider the staggering number of social media platforms and the tools to manage them. Imagine having to do all of them only from a desktop or a laptop. Marketing analytics and statistics tend to be historical and not real-time, and the marketer does not necessarily need to make quick decisions compared to the next four groups. However, being able to have an overview of relevant data and reports from marketing activities, whenever and wherever they wish, from their phone or tablet provides them with flexibility and the freedom to do more creative work.

Business Intelligence Mobile App for Salespeople

Equipped with a right BI mobile app, the sales team can have up-to-date information about their customers before the sales call. They can track their sales pipelines, monitor deals, and review sales figures. All this is possible while preparing for the next meeting, doing sales calls, commuting between meetings while in a car, riding the train, waiting at the airport, or simply being at home.

Members of the sales team can discuss sales figures without waiting for all involved to be present in the office and connected to the BI backend systems. Salespeople can run analyses, look up information on the product, pricing, and status on-the-spot for their sales prospect, or for existing customers, which will help shorten the sales cycle. Who knows if that piece of information might play an important role in helping them to close more deals.

Business Intelligence Mobile App for Field Workers

Additional fertile ground for mobile Business Intelligence is field service. Field engineers and technicians monitor, fix, and perform maintenance on company infrastructures like railways, highways, or utility stations. They manage spare part inventory at various stations and make sure they are stocked, maintained, and prepared at all times. Not only they are responsible for maintaining their company infrastructure and inventory, field workers also visit customer sites to perform installation or provide repair services.

Business intelligence, combined with real-time or near-real-time data from sensors such as GPS, can ensure the nearest driver is allocated to a pick-up, or trucks take the shortest (or greenest) route between deliveries, according to traffic conditions, the urgency and value of the delivery or even the employee's driving style. [Computer Weekly]

These people are in the field most of the time, doing the clutch work. Having access to product, location, or customer information from their smartphones, tablets, or ruggedized devices would add value, not only helping them to be more productive but also helping them to be more responsive to prospective and current customers.

Business Intelligence App for Line Managers

This can be vital for Managers who need information to manage resources, staff, production lines or for any activity that is a cyclical process operation by nature. Sometimes, these managers need critical information, or to be alerted to an emergency or crisis. Having this visibility and real-time information helps them make better decisions and allows them to respond quicker to the urgent situation, thus increasing operational efficiency.

Business Intelligence Mobile App for Executives

Often mobile BI apps are directed to the senior level management team before being rolled out to the rest of the organization. Executives and senior level managers are often either in business meetings or traveling to different cities, countries, or even continents to meet with employees, customers, and partners. They can have simple dashboards and reports for high-level understanding. Some decisions can wait while some decisions are critical thus need their immediate attention. Having the ability to gain insight into important information across the enterprise, to understand market trends, or even to be apprised of key business metrics at any time, or in any place, not only boosts their productivity but also directly influences the bottom line of their departments, or potentially the whole organisation.

What are you using Business Intelligence mobile for? Send us an email info@teskalabs.com or tweet to us @TeskaLabs to tellyour story.

About the Author

Cindy Dam

TeskaLabs’ Marketing & Community Manager, Cindy Dam, has a penchant for hacking and storytelling. When she's not reading and writing about cyber hacking, she reads, writes, and comes up with mind and travel hacks.