The last in the series discusses about the landscape of the mobile BI and key product offerings from major players.
There are 2 types of mobile BI players
1. Major BI players
These are the big guns who are typically slow in bringing their solution to market. They are focused on tightly integrating their offering with their existing BI capabilities.
2. Mobile BI vendors ( Integrators )
These new players are bringing consumer focused products to market faster than established players. Mobile BI has given new startups to take a stab at the new opportunity it presents. The new players of course don’t provide a complete BI platform but a publishing platform which can integrate with the other major BI solutions. These startup are integrators and they are effective in providing a compelling reason to look at the new solution.
Lets look at what the big guys are offering now
Key Features
I have done my best in capturing the most accurate features in these different platforms.
The Future of Big Data
With some guidance, you can craft a data platform that is right for your organization’s needs and gets the most return from your data capital.
SQL Server 2012 not included: As of now, microsoft is still playing catch up in terms of offering a true mobile BI solution. though you can access some of the reports and dashboard in iOS safari, they are not usually good at performance and speed. There is no native app for iOS or android for SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence. It is rumored that Microsoft is building the mobile BI solution for the different platforms.
New Kid in the block
The opportunity was there for the small startups to become a true integrator for mobile BI solution and products like RoamBI and YellowFin have grabbed the opportunity with both their hands.
RoamBI
I recently had the opportunity to evaluate roamBI. In the process of evaluation, i integrated the OBIEE server with the roamBI. It involved setting up security for the BI server so the VPN access was successful. Though limited in its capabilities during my evaluation, the product has grown rapidly and has cut a cord with enterprises. The reason RoamBI is successful is because they can integrate with any of the top BI vendors and offers an interesting visualizations and implementation.
YellowFin
This is another solution that is providing promising mobile BI solution. The company provides a solid mobile BI solution and has been known for its visualization and collaborative BI efforts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv13VX6ABuc&list=UUY9QucpwrnTweq90PZ4jKog&index=2
Native Apps and Supported Devices
Companies which are deploying mobile BI solution need to be cognizant of the devices that a vendor supports. The list below gives a gist of the supported devices for the various platforms. Although all the devices can support web based solutions, Native applications have been recognized to be much faster and reliable.
Best Use Case for the different device types ( Screen Sizes )
Finally
The market is so dynamic at this time, there are a lot of changes to the product offerings and key differentiation. But most of the mobile BI product have almost the same vision for the future of mobile BI.
Excellent article! I really enjoyed the summary tables. They provided a good overview of the vendors.
I also like this article – it is straightforward and with a overview between different vendors. BI mobility is becoming hot in nowadays but looks like there is not much deployment of mobile BI in enterprise. I know the successful story in Starbucks which has deployed Microstrategy BI. Here, it is interesting that MS SQL Server Mobile doesn’t support for Windows 8…
Its true that many organizations have not deployed a mobile BI solution. I believe they are doing and wait and watch approach as far as mobile BI goes. And if rumors are to be believed MS is currently developing a mobile BI solution for iPad and Windows 8..