This Changes Everything: Mobile Analytics and the Future of Business

Mobile analytics is at the core of a shifting business intelligence industry. With data-rich, interactive dashboards that can be accessed and explored on any device, a competitive advantage is literally at the fingertips of a company’s workforce.

Through three short case studies, see how the mobile business intelligence transformation can empower your organization to make better, faster decisions, achieve significant cost savings, and gain an advantage over the competition.

We've also pulled out the first several pages of the whitepaper for you to read. Download the PDF on the right to read the rest.

The world of business intelligence is shifting rapidly, and mobile business intelligence is at the core of that shift. With data-rich, interactive dashboards that can be accessed and explored on any device, a competitive advantage is literally at the fingertips of a company’s workforce.

Mobile business intelligence allows an organization to:

• Support mobile data access to improve day-to-day operations
• Align the organization around a single, comprehensive view of data
• Quickly define and iterate on new metrics
• Draw simultaneously from multiple in-house and third-party data sources
• Assess data opportunities without extensive up-front IT investment
• Accelerate the work of analysts and business users with self-service functionality

In this white paper, we’ll look at three key changes enabled by mobile business intelligence:

• Change the way you communicate value
• Change the way you operate
• Change the way you work together

Through three short case studies, you’ll “see” how the mobile transformation can empower your organization to make better, faster decisions, achieve significant cost savings, and gain an advantage over the competition.

Change the Way You Communicate Value

You’re wearing your nicest suit. You even had it drycleaned. You and your team have spent weeks on this pitch. You know your competitors also want this account, but you’re sure that your team is the best for the job. You’ve studied the prospect’s market, their products, their challenges and their strengths. You’re crystal clear on what you can offer them. You’re nervous, but optimistic. You shake hands with their executive as you enter the conference room.

The Old Way

Your analysts have run projections. You’ve tried to anticipate the prospect’s every question. You’ve printed and bound a 30-page report, filled with charts, graphs, and bullet points. The executive thumbs through the report as you give your pitch. She checks her watch.

“These projections look fine,” she says, “but, internally, we’ve decided to discontinue two of these brands at the end of the year. I’m not sure that this analysis will still make sense.” You assure her your team is still the best for the job. “We’ll run the new numbers and have it in your inbox by this afternoon,” you tell her.

You’ve heard your competition is meeting with her later in the day, and you hope you can convince one of your
analysts to create the revised report before someone else closes this deal.

The Mobile Transformation

Your team has created interactive dashboards for the prospect, and you’ve loaded them onto an iPad. They
feature visually compelling maps, forecasts, and charts at an executive summary level, with the capacity to drill
down into the most granular levels of the data with a single tap. The dashboard has filters for brand, location, year, and department.

You walk into the room and hand the executive your business card and your iPad.

“We’ve created some dashboards that demonstrate what we’ve done for our clients in the past, as well as what we expect we can do for you,” you tell her.

“These projections look promising,” she says. “But we’re discontinuing two of these brands at the end of the year. Can I filter them out and see what it looks like then?”

You nod. She spends the next hour asking—and answering—her own questions, glued to the iPad.

“This is really exciting stuff,” she comments. “Really exciting.”

She never once checks her watch.

Change the Way You Operate

You’re the regional manager for a chain of retail stores that have been hit hard by the recent recession. Your general manager has told you, in no uncertain terms, that if you can’t improve the numbers this quarter, the company will find someone who can. You know your prices aren’t competitive in your region, and the company-wide figures show that your distribution center is operating at particularly high cost. Vendor deliveries are often delayed, rush orders and overtime pay are commonplace, and some of your best individual store managers have found new jobs rather than face the daily frustration. You need to fix the distribution center.

The Old Way

You spend several days reviewing hundreds of pages of logs from the distribution center. You have questions about the delays with particular categories and vendors, so you submit a request to the corporate business intelligence team in Baltimore. It goes into a queue.

In the meantime, you drive to the distribution center to meet with its manager. He’s eager to see things improve, too, but he’s working from the same stale data as you are.

“I wish we didn’t have so many rush orders,” he says, “but I only get the inventory reports once, in the morning. When a store sells out of something quicker than we expect, I don’t know
about it until the next day at the earliest – so it’s a rush order. And then I’ll find out we had the extra inventory at another store, but I didn’t know it when I placed the order.”

He surveys the distribution center floor from his second floor office. “I never know when the rush order’s gonna show up, so I have to keep all the guys here until it does. They don’t mind. They’re making overtime. To them, it takes as long as it takes, you know?”

You nod and take notes. The manager steps out to go downstairs and help with an issue on the floor, and you check your email on your iPad. The business intelligence team has responded to your request; they expect to have the revised reports to you by the end of next week.

You crack your knuckles and wonder if you should start going to more networking events.

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