Mobile dashboards – What to choose? Apps or browsers

Business intelligence and mobile dashboards are terms which are amongst the hottest discussed topics in the corporate as well as industrial world. This is quite justifiable too, as the access to important company data on the mobiles is extremely critical for aiding the process of decision making. However, as the industries and companies are contemplating and evaluating various aspects for the deployment of business intelligence on the phones, and this field seems to be exploding like never before, there is one debate which is seen rising; the debate about applications versus browsers.

The rising popularity of functions of mobile dashboards and the application marketplaces such as Android marketplace and iTunes stores is witnessing the developers swooning for more and the customers are caught in frenzy for downloading the latest apps to aid their work. From the business perspective; especially when we consider the medium and large enterprises, the demand from the users is seen increasing. However, clouds still loom over the management of these mobile dashboard, applications and the security concerns.

Business intelligence and mobile dashboard are soon becoming the latest technologies which are caught in the crossfire of the debate. There are two important thoughts which pop up when we consider mobile business intelligence. The first is the installation of dedicated applications on every device, and the second is the delivery of screens which are based on server apps to browsers of every device.

Both the approaches as mentioned above have their pons and cons. Common understanding will suggest that the dedicated apps will work faster along with the mobile dashboards. However, with technological advancements, the gap between the two arguments is quickly closing. The browsers too are seen to provide quick solutions.

So it will not matter what you choose for your mobile dashboards. The benefits will result in aiding you, rather than burdening you with more learning time.

5 Best Advantages of Mobile Dashboards in Business

Business intelligence is taking the commercial world by storm, and the importance of mobile dashboard in this activity is increasing day-by-day. The culture of decision making is getting data driven; however, people are still confused on ways of getting there. Let us consider the 5 best advantages of Mobile Dashboard in business.

Approach of author-once

Instead of getting into the trap of proliferation of dashboards, take the approach of author-once and distribute everywhere. You need to plan the mobile dashboard once for adapting the existing dashboards with the use of BI solutions, thus benefiting everyone in the process.

Screen

The better use of the screen space results in putting the most viewed and vital data at top of dashboards. This provides for better data receiving for the business world.

On the go

The use of mobile dashboards has made it easy for the sales persons to view the important files while on the go and take important decisions accordingly. The specific data along with filters makes their job easy.

Customized solutions

The existing dashboards can be customized with the use of mobile intelligence software. You will find this process positively enhancing the usability of the mobile phone. Receiving all the data as per requirements is facilitated due to the optimization of the mobile dashboard.

Leverage the natural process of the mobile

Mobile business intelligence fosters more than just the social interaction provided by traditional BI processes, wherein the employees are just stuck to their desks. With the advent of Mobile BI, employees can now move around at any place and location, and still stay connected with important information and colleagues.

Along with the 5 best advantages of mobile dashboards in business as mentioned above, the high interactivity while walking through live data allows various other benefits too. This function has become a necessity nowadays, and businesses just cannot avoid it anymore.

Mobile Dashboard solves many communication hassles

In literal terms a dashboard refers to a real-time UI or a page (mostly, single) that showcases a graphical representation of the present condition and serial trends observed in a company's KPI's . These graphs assist the concerned user in taking spontaneous yet accurate and logical decisions. However, please note that, dashboards are completely different from routine score-cards, even though both the options sound quite similar.

For instance, a dashboard of a production company may show detailed KPI's related to manufacturing right from the number of failed quality inspections to the number of concerned parts manufactured per hour. Similarly, a mobile dashboard shows KPI's related to the various functions related to the concerned mobile phone.

As, most of the mobile phones have a comparatively restricted viewing space, It is always recommended to have a mobile dashboard design that can easily cope up with most of the concerned limitations and drawbacks of the device, primarily the available screen-space. Moreover, a mobile phone also has certain limitations with respect to some of its in-built functions and apps like saving data and PDF files, downloading data, KPI ( Key Performance Indicators) pop-ups etc. Technically, the reason behind the same is the absence of a Java-Script in these phones, which is exactly where the mobile dashboard steals the shows as they make use of a Java-script language tool for all their important interactions.

A dashboard for a mobile phone can be designed by using any of the two methods noted below:-

1. A dashboard design restricted solely for mobile access or


2. A dashboard design for both, the Web browser as well as the mobile access.

Some of the major benefits of having an on-board mobile dashboard on the device include:-

• Saves your valuable time


• Helps to check, identify and, thus rectify negative trends


• Provides an access and better visibility to multiple systems instantly

Enhance the Performance of Business with Mobile Dashboard

Mobile Business Intelligence has become a trend setter in the market of Business Intelligence or BI. The past years have seen solution providers placing considerable efforts for the development of mobile applications that are interactive and can be useful for the decision makers who are always on the move. Although the trend in this regard was slow to pick up, mobile BI has started making inroads into general practices of business in the marketplace. Almost every business entity has understood the various benefits offered by using mobile dashboards as information providers for the success of any business activity.

Mobile business intelligence is just one of the trends in the huge market of business intelligence. There are numerous other trends that are emerging in this regard that affect the overall adoption of the concept for use. With the advancements in technology and the widespread acceptance of iPhones, iPads, tablets and Androids, the different vendors are now able to render various business intelligence offerings that permit the companies in providing enhanced information and analytics access to the executives who are out of office for most of the time.

The market of business intelligence has seen slow expansion for including mobile dashboard. With the years spent in accessing important data in the form of PDF files, executives are now attracted to the ease of using the mobile applications for accessing vital information. The interactive dashboards in mobiles provide parameterized reports, and businesses are now deploying the concept of mobile BI as a key element in the functions of their work. All this means that the offerings of mobiles have reached a stage where they are able to meet diverse requirements of business intelligence in regards to ease of interaction and use. With the advent of iPads and tablets, the use of mobile BI has become the preferred choice of businesses across the globe. Not only is this concept able to provide enjoyment, the ease of accessing vital company and client information is a major booster for the executives. All this has resulted in the vendors trying to place their efforts in expansion of the concept with enhanced applications.

Mobile Dashboards Provide the Much Needed ease for Monitoring Vital Information

Mobile business intelligence has introduced latest and new considerations on how the various organizations are monitoring their Key Performance indicators (KPI's) and such other metrics. A recently conducted study has claimed that by the year 2013, almost one-third of the users of BI will start accessing mobile dashboards for decision making concerns and analyzing important information. This is proof that mobile business intelligence is fast catching on. The concept has started to utilize the methods which the community of BI was predicting for some years now.

The challenge involved in the designing of mobile dashboard for BI users rests in the provision of important and relevant content that can be easily obtained and processed with the use of mobile devices. The on-premise or traditional desktop solutions for BI are great ways for providing the users with dashboards that are content-rich by way of visualizing a wide range of KPI's and such other vital metrics. It should be understood that the mobile dashboards need not compete with the traditional dashboards or desktop BI; they need to compliment the solutions provided by the desktop dashboards by the provision of KPI access from anywhere and at any given time.

The consumer culture demands the mobile applications to be friendly for the users, simple in nature, and fast in processing. These are the lessons that the organizations and users of BI need to remember after they have spent precious time, money and effort for deployment of solutions of mobile dashboards. The vendor of dashboards and BI need to stay up to delivering solutions and match the hype created by the mobile BI applications.

Mobile Dashboard- All in One Glance.

"Mobile Dashboards....Is it something to replace my car dashboard?  :) "

A mobile dashboard is a simple view of selected data, associated with an business entity, through a suitable mobile application for business purpose. Business, administrative and managerial usage of mobile phones need innovative and efficient mobile software that can present business data into a form that is usable and understandable by business community and mangers. Achievement of this objective is done by mobile dashboard software available with mobile business intelligence package or in standalone application. Mobile dashboard can be also be used for social connect, personal usage, gaming, expense tracker etc. The mobile software products which function to integrate local or remotely available data and information into an integrated display are known as dashboards.

"Hmm...Got it...how do one use it in real time?"

A good mobile dashboard must be an single screen view of all information to be seen by the mobile user.  For example – Mr. Salesman is a dynamic person who goes to client, takes order, track delivery and collect payments. In this mobile business intelligence era he also uses mobile application to all his data and companies centralized database. He also gets his targets, progress and other assignments from mobile app only. So in his mobile app he will have a single screen view of information on his mobile about his progress, targets, tracking, new assignments and other information from management side. Similarly company employes many salesman, and each one has it's own dashboard that present individual data to them. Now similarly Mr. Sales Manager, who has responsibility of performance of his team of all salesmen, interested to view overall figures of his team. So he will have a dashboard that will show a summary of total figures, performance of individual team members, achievement, lagging and other information in a single screen.

"Okey..but how do I get it...which is best dashboard? Will it suit to my requirement?"

Different business enterprises require different dashboard structure as per their nature and mode of operations. Even different departments within an enterprise may require different dashboard. A mobile dashboard for a business purpose, need be designed in a structure that it represent core business operation detail pertaining to objective tasks, responsible person, and help management to take appropriate decision. A large number of open source applications are available by mobile software providers to address business, social or personal dashboards requirement. You can also get a customized software from your technology vendor. Advanced dashboards allows you to select data on specific parameters, drill down details, mark your comments,  visualize more graphic details etc on a single screen dashboard.

Rapid technology changes may obsolete your device and it's software after a period. A new device may work on a completely different platform. So a mobile dashboard system, which can work on cross-platform technologies, is highly required.

Mobile Business Intelligence

The concept of Mobile Business Intelligence has been present for a decade. But initially a dedicated server was necessary for taking advantage of the features offered by Mobile Business Intelligence. It is a trend that sales professional need to devote bulk of their time in traveling and visiting customers. Not only the sales people, but some of the senior executives also spend quality time away from their offices.


This necessitates the need of access to information anywhere and at anytime. This will aid them in getting access to vital information for correcting problems or identifying the right opportunities when they are not at headquarters. Mobile Business Intelligence does just that.


In the recent years, Mobile Business Intelligence has evolved enormously for giving the employees the much needed control to satisfy their analysis and reporting motives. The feature of Mobile Reporting provided by Mobile Business Intelligence aids the employees when they are working off site. The Mobile Dashboard type information delivery has been made possible by the various applications provided by Mobile Business Intelligence. The Dashboards add value to the operational reporting process through the dimensions of data visualization. Such techniques, that Mobile Business Intelligence provides, enhance better interpretation of information for the users.


Every company who has a long list of employees who work in remote areas from the base, or are mostly away from their office, need to access the tremendous benefits available with the use of Mobile BI. The timely access to corporate data obtained by the use of Mobile Business Intelligence not only provides for an improved operational performance; the efficiency also increases dramatically. The decision making activity gets boosted due to the extension of the critical data to the employees on the field. This is a major advantage of opting for Mobile Business Intelligence applications. The increased productivity provided by this activity is bound to boost the revenues of any company.


Mobile Business Intelligence accelerates the decision making process and renders a better insight to the people involved. Just imagine the amount of time that is saved between the identification of an issue and the final decision making. Mobile Business Intelligence lays a solid framework for affirming fast and better decisions via reports which are easily procured.


Things to remember when opting vendors for Mobile Business Intelligence:


• A simple yet spontaneous interface
• Maximum flexibility for users to run, interact and access reports in a manner they need.
• Admittance to the authentic corporate data
• The ability to adapt to any common handheld device
• Intelligent security for keeping corporate information confidential


Hence, we can conclude that the permeating use of Mobile Dashboards ameliorates the overall performance of the business. It has been proved that the organizations that use Mobile Business Intelligence virtually deploy double the workforce which they already have. The benefits offered by the use of Mobile Business Intelligence are significant if correctly incorporated in the operations of the company. A sense of empowerment will be visible in the employees who will further boost the prospects of the company as well as themselves.


After seeing the overall advantages offered by the technology of Mobile Business Intelligence, every company wanting to heighten its performance will opt for it.