Mobile intelligence: Information Builders unveils BI for smartphones
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/7/2007 5:28:00 PM
The movement for making business intelligence (BI) solutions a regular part of an executive’s life has taken another step forward with an announcement from Information Builders that its WebFOCUS BI tools can be accessed through mobile devices.
Information Builders is at least the third BI software vendor to introduce a mobile solution this year. In May, Cognos and Business Objects both announced mobile solutions.
Cognos 8 Go! Mobile enables executives or front-line mobile workers to view and manipulate current company performance information via BlackBerry smartphones.
The BusinessObjects Mobile solution enables users to view and interact with a full range of reports and metrics from BusinessObjects XI Release 2. Users—also via smartphones—can respond to problems quickly by updating data or triggering remote processes directly from mobile devices.
Information Builders says its Mobile Favorites is a low-cost solution that does not require any additional software or hardware investments beyond the purchase of a Web-enabled mobile device.
With just two clicks, the company claims, content can be easily added or removed from the Mobile Favorites folder in Information Builders’ standard BI dashboard. The process is no different from adding content to the “favorites” folder in a Web browser, according to an Information Builders press release.
This wave of mobile BI releases obviously is being driven by competition among the vendors. But it is enabled by the drastic improvements in mobile devices. As Information Builders noted in the press release trumpeting WebFOCUS Mobile Favorites, smartphones continue to make up a greater percentage of the mobile handset market, and many analyst firms profess that all applications should become mobile-enabled to maximize the effectiveness of these devices.
“Today’s smartphone and Blackberry users tend to be business professionals who need to remain connected with their companies when they are on the move,” says Gerald Cohen, CEO of Information Builders. “Mobile Favorites is a powerful new tool that will help users not only stay connected, but allow them to make informed and effective business decisions anywhere they go because they have the current, accurate data they need.”
