The modern version of an office workspace is not of one which is restricted to four office walls, a desktop computer, and a small area of carpeting. Office workers and executives from every corner of every business and industry are demanding more intelligent mobile applications as they are required to have access to analytical data regardless of their proximity to the office. Business intelligence solutions for mobile devices create an office everywhere you are. To take your company into the next phase of business computing means investing in mobile business intelligence. Mobile BI increases a company's ability to make educated business decisions in real-time, based on agile interpretation of various data streams.
The market for mobile business intelligence solutions is growing exponentially but until now has only been a very small niche in the overall BI market. As a result, advancements in the technologies designed to support and provide BI to users have been slow and inconsistent. Recently though, wireless and remote devices have had ever-increasing access to faster and faster web services. As mobile devices become more powerful many also become less expensive. The fall of two of the largest barriers (speed and accessibility) the door to mobile business intelligence is opening wider, allowing more users more access to important data while on the move.
Developers interested in building BI applications for mobile devices typically have two development options. One could develop native business intelligence apps which is an attractive method if you need apps with the best possible user-experience for one particular mobile platform. If you're developing only for Windows devices native apps can provide tremendous results. However as some companies begin instituting bring-your-own-mobile policies, developing apps to function over many devices is the only way to provide access to everyone who needs it, and everyone is going to need it. There are different methods and languages which can be used to write apps for use across platforms each with individual attributes, some positive and some negative, depending on how it's going to be implemented. What is most important is that mobile applications that provide business intelligence through smartphones and tablets is becoming a big part of the standard operating procedure for managers and decision makers involved in virtually every area of industry all over the world.
As the conclusion to 2011 approaches, the use of business intelligence in mobile application development is growing in popularity but remains in the early stages of utilization. It may be true that mobile BI is new on the scene, but there is proof that it is not just a fleeting trend, proof that can be observed all over the development landscape. Tablet ownership is up, as is tablet use in the office and among executives, and companies are implementing mobile data sharing strategies at rapid rates. The development of mobile apps to provide detailed, real-time data on tablet and smartphone devices grows alongside the numbers of users. Companies not already heavily invested in mobile have been making plans to use the convenience and quickly updated nature of mobile BI solutions to carry themselves into 2012.
