Top 10 Questions: Mobile BI for Operations

[Guest post by Dave Sherman]

All workers, no matter what role they play in an organization are now expecting to be able to get  access to corporate systems from their smartphones to make decisions and to help them do their jobs better.  It has indeed gone from being a nice to have to the more urgent level of “gimme!” and “must have, now!”  Gone are the days when checking critical systems in all types of discrete or process manufacturing systems, data operations and financial systems meant getting out of bed at night when there was a problem and going to the office or plant to check in. The expectations have changed because the number of smartphones and all other web-capable devices (e.g. iPad, tablet PCs, iPod Touch, flat screen TVs, etc.) has grown so large that almost every decision maker has access to one. Whether it is a personal device or a corporate issued device is irrelevant. 

Want some numbers?: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS22333410

(I am still wondering exactly why my 12yr old wants the latest android device with a full data plan, but that’s another subject)

So this begs the question, “Why not give workers access to their most important data to help them do their jobs?”  Well, ahead of this potentially contentious corporate decision to provide the access, is the research and comparison of current best practices for delivering any kind of data to a mobile device.

We thought you might like to hear what questions have come up most often from people just like you, who are looking to leverage their existing investment in data systems and find a solution to mobilizing it.

To date, here are the 10 most popular queries:

• Is my data secure if I deliver it to a mobile device?  How?

• What types of data are most beneficial to mobile users?

• What will my operational data look like on a small device?

• How long does it take to implement an Mobile BI project with my current data?

• Do we have to create a new data source or can we leverage our existing ones?

• Can I only view simple data, or can I perform lightweight analytics?

• Do I need to run software on my devices, and which ones are supported?  Blackberry, iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone, others?

• How much coding needs to be done during implementation, and must we do it again when we need to make changes?

• How much time and/or money will a Mobile BI system save my company?

• What are best practices for deploying operational data to smartphones?

As always, we would like to hear from you, and over the coming weeks we will post some answers to these questions and possibly even more questions.  Feel free to send us your own.

Also, if you want to get an idea of how we answer these questions right now, download our free guide to the most common Mobile BI mistakes and how to avoid them:  Free Mobile BI Guide 

Until next time…

Dave Sherman

Yet another video: Visual KPI Screen Overview

Look out – we’re stepping up the volume over here when it comes to video.  Here’s the second one this week.

This video is an overview of the various mobile BI screens that are available in Visual KPI for the end user.  They are all shown in both a standard web browser and on a mobile device (Windows Phone in this case, but it will work on almost any smart device like Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.).

If you want additional details on the screens, visit the Visual KPI product tour on our web site.  Also, for you iPhone or iPad users our there, be sure to download our new iPhone mobile BI app – it’s free!

As always, let us know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

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New Video: Visual KPI Excel Editor Overview

Luckily we got Michael to record a video or two recently that shows us various parts of Visual KPI.  This video covers the Visual KPI Editor which is an add-on to Microsoft Excel.  This is where setup, configuration and ongoing changes are made to deployments of Visual KPI.  As you can see, we leveraged all the work Microsoft has done (and continues to do) on Excel which not only makes it easier on us, but users end up with a configuration tool they already know how to use (read: low training cost) and one where changes can be made in seconds without any coding.

All the configuration work you do in the Excel Editor defines what the screens will look like in your web browser or on your mobile device (Blackberry, iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, etc..  In another video (which we will post soon), you will see an overview of those screens.

As always, please let us know if you have any comments or questions…

Excel Editor Overview

For see our web site for more information on Visual KPI for mobile business intelligence.  If you want us to demo the software for you over a web meeting, just contact us at info@transpara.com. 

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We are not a startup, but we play one on the Internet

Standing in for Michael today, mostly because he is too busy talking and not typing (he’s at the OSISoft PI User’s Conference in San Francisco), is me: Robert Hylton.  My role?  Not really sure, but I guess you could call me a long-time band member and they guy who aspires to make mobile business intelligence great for the masses, not just the massive.  Enough about that, on to today’s topic…

We’ve been talking to some folks that are not part of our core lately (I know, risky).  They are not customers, partners or our own employees.  They are industry analysts, reporters and various others that we interact with to gather feedback from time to time.  They are very helpful and we actually like them quite a bit, but they keep using the word startup when referring to us and we aren’t always sure if that is a good or a bad thing.  Good, I guess because we like to think of ourselves as a lean, scrappy, agile band of renegades that break rules in unique ways to better society.  Bad, because we write industrial strength real-time software for some of the largest enterprises on the planet and they aren’t always fans of risk. 

So, are we a startup?  Yes and no.  Let’s look at a few of the downsides (for customers) of working with a startup:

Startup Stereotype	Transpara Reality
New, often immature product	New product, but years in the making
Newly assembled team, often young	Core team has been together for over 10 years - this is the 3rd company.  Unfortunately for us, not that young anymore
Backed by venture capital	Self-funded
In the red	In the black

Ok, but forget that self-indulgent sales pitch for a moment and lets look at some of the things that make startups great:

Startup Stereotype	Transpara Reality
Small = Agile, nimble	Small = Agile, nimble
Frequent releases	Frequent releases (every month or so)
Modern business model	Modern business model
Community driven customer interaction	Community driven customer interaction

So, are we a startup?  We are five years old and most of us have worked together for over a decade.  To be honest, it doesn’t really matter the way I’ve described it above except to those who feel compelled to categorize us (like analysts – they get paid to – we understand).  What really matters is how a company like ours goes about serving customers.  In our case, that means mixing the two together into a stew of goodness that makes our customer want to buy software from us and keep doing so.  To that end, here are a few of our priorities

• Build agile software like a startup, with quality control and customer scenarios of a mature company
• Use the latest technology and processes, but never at the expense of quality
• Leverage our community like a startup, but maintain real relationships with our customers like a mature company
• Focus on usability and simplicity like a startup, but don’t limit customization like a mature product (this one is always a tough balance)
• Front end (web presence, marketing, community, training, education, etc.) like a startup, Back-end (development, quality, support, operations) rock-solid like a mature company.

There are many more, but to paraphrase my last bullet above, we are not a startup, but we play one on TV the Internet.

As always, comments are welcome.

Robert

5 Mobile Business Intelligence Myths

I just finished reading a great post by Hannah Smalltree at searchbusinessanalytics.com called Mobile Business Intelligence – Will it take off (for real, this time)?  Again, a good read, but it highlights many of the issues that still cripple mobile BI (for now).  Even the success story she highlights is riddled with flaws which have to be overcome before Mobile BI can really hit the mainstream.

Here are a few examples:

1. Why do BI vendors keep assuming that software needs to be installed on the device?  Somehow most companies in the industry have ignored how powerful the browsers are on these new devices, and I’m not just talking about the iPhone.  Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone, Android, Palm, etc. all have really powerful browsers that can accomplish nearly everything that an app can without putting software on the device (and this gets even better with HTML 5 on the horizon).  Do we have to remind software companies how hard it is (for the vendor and the customer) to create a new version of your app for every device that gets released?  There are hundreds.  It is impossible, frankly.  Oh, and if you solve for the phone’s browser you also get the desktop solution for free (and new devices like the iPad).  Some might say security is an issue, but it isn’t and here’s why.
2. Why does everyone assume there needs to be a big project to accomplish all of this?  I expect it is because most of these vendors make the majority of their money on services (the custom project that was referenced was $30,000, which was quite small, but still involved low-value services work which was unnecessary).  This is unfortunate, because when done right from the beginning, most key metrics can be viewed, in context and from all of the right angles, in just a few key screens (which should be generated by default), especially when those KPIs are operational in nature.  Key “views” always include:
   • What is the state of my x (business, factory, profit, product, supply chain, etc.) at a glance? (in our case, a % rollup view of all KPIs in a group)
   • What is the current value of a key individual metric? (found on almost every screen)
   • How does it compare with its expected value (thresholds, limits, etc)? (trend, KPI map, bar chart)
   • What does this value look like compared to other similar KPIs? (scorecard)
   • What led up to this point? (the history, trend)  This leads you to… (trend)
   • Are things likely to get better or worse given the trend? (trend)
   • Am I alerted when something is particularly bad or good? (monitoring, alerts via email, sms; see example on the right)
   • Optional: Who is responsible for this KPI and who do I alert?  (alerts)
3. Mobile BI should focus on operations data, not future planning data.  Traditional BI (OLAP cubes, data mining, hard-core analytics) often looks at planning data and also focuses on huge problems that need deep analysis (e.g. how many people might buy an iPad if we build it).  This is hardly the right application for the mobile platform.  Think about what people care about on their phones, regardless of what is possible:  email, Twitter, getting directions, text messaging, sports scores, breaking news – all of these are operational, or “here and now” metrics.  If you are going to analyze hundreds of variables around future planning scenarios, you are going to want to be in front of a big monitor with plenty of time and a pile of empty Mountain Dew cans – this does not make an ideal fit for the mobile scenario.
4. Mobile BI need not be rocket science.  Most vendors we run into think mobile BI applications need to be wildly customizable.  We respectfully disagree.  My second bullet above highlights this.  Transpara’s Visual KPI application has been running with customers’ data in industries as diverse at utilities and power generation, oil and gas refining, data centers and biotech and we talk with those customers all the time.  The funny thing is, we almost never get comments like “if only I could make a new screen that had x in it” which for a long time even worried us.  Are they even using it, we thought?  Turns out they were, and the screens we created showed them all of the key metrics in the right way.  Now, this doesn’t mean we don’t have a significant list of improvements to make (we do) but it does highlight how straightforward mobile BI software must be in order to deliver value.
5. Mobile BI software is not just a front end client to traditional BI.  Again, read bullet 3 above about operational data.  Traditional BI is a great source of data for a mobile business intelligence solution, but they are most often not a 1:1 match and certainly not exclusive to each other.  The ideal mobile solution often includes marrying multiple data sources to create that real-time solution.  For example, get some thresholds or limits from deep analysis in your data warehouse but combine that with some real-time data from a streaming database, historian, or even a traditional database that is refreshed faster for a true “here and now” mobile application.  With the right solution, this will be easier than you think.

I could go on for weeks on this topic, but customers await.  If you have comments we would love to hear them, especially if you disagree.  Oh, and you can read a potentially more intriguing operational intelligence case study here (See the intro section on Mohawk Paper and Information Everywhere on a Blackberry on page 3 - I will write up more about this one in another post soon).  Thanks as always for reading.

Michael Saucier

www.transpara.com

http://blog.transpara.com

http://twitter.com/transpara