Posted by Joe Maume on Thu, May 10, 2012 @ 08:23 AM
I recently read an article on Forbes.com talking about recent infographics that show the ongoing shift to mobile technologies. One quote that caught my attention was from Apple's CEO Tim Cook talking about iPad sales.
"through the last quarter <Q1 2012>, I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones"
Figures like that show you that mobile technology is what consumers want. I wouldn't be surprised if you now see software companies clambering over each other to develop mobile applications. Lucky for you us QlikView is ahead of the pack and has already gone mobile. To find more information on QlikView for iPad - or download the Whitepaper QLIKVIEW ON MOBILE:BEYOND REPORTING Click Here.
Posted by Noel Shannon on Mon, Jan 24, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
One of the hottest buzzwords in business intelligence these days is mobile BI. Nearly every analyst firm is publishing a report on mobile BI, most BI vendors are announcing capabilities or partnerships in the mobile arena, and the 2011 prediction reports list mobile as a key trend. At the recent NRF show mobile was a key topic. But lost in much of this hyperbole is the fact that mobile isn’t just another delivery platform for BI – it is a new world. The discussion about mobile BI today seems to be centered on what platforms are supported, the debate over native vs. browser-based approaches, and the advantages of tablet displays vs. smart phones. While those are important technical considerations, there is a much bigger question and opportunity that is being glossed over: why do I need mobile BI? To look at many of the mobile BI demos out there you might guess it is simply to take my sales performance application and view it on my tablet or smart phone. In other words, do the same thing on my mobile device as I do at my desk. There is certainly a use case for that, but I believe the real future of mobile BI comes in applications that have not been possible until now. In a recent blog post, Forrester’s Ted Schadler outlines three ways mobile devices will enter the workforce: •Displace – perform a task on a mobile device instead of a laptop in some situations.
•Replace – start using a mobile device to improve a business activity, often replacing paper-based approaches
•New place – identifying opportunities to do things with mobile devices that simply weren’t possible heretofore. While displacement and replacement activities are interesting, and are the low-hanging fruit of moving to mobile, “new place” opportunities will be the real fuel for mobile BI – and for the future of BI. Ted identifies some non-BI “new place” examples in his blog – what are the equivalents in BI?
How about:
•A retail store manager doing a floor walkthrough and reviewing promotional plans discovers that inventory for a key product is low. She is able to immediately check stock at neighboring stores and replenish.
•A pharmaceutical rep sharing drug study information with a physician in the hospital cafeteria has the freedom to look at the information in new ways and answer the physician’s unique questions (and follow-on questions) on topics such as prescription rates among key demographic groups.
•A service technician checks availability of specialized parts and personnel for a suggested follow-up visit, allowing him to confirm with the client and close the appointment before leaving the site. It is easy to simply port existing BI ideas, applications and demos to mobile devices – but I think the real opportunity is much greater.
Where do you see mobile BI going?
Posted 01/24/2011 05:32 by Jeff Boehm
Posted by Noel Shannon on Wed, Jan 19, 2011 @ 03:08 AM
The National Retail Federation (NRF) trade show in New York last week was focused just on the retail industry. But because retail is all about consumers, and consumer trends heavily influence trends in business technology, the trends in mobile computing from NRF are especially significant for BI.
Across the vast show floor, vendors were pitching mobile solutions for inventory and asset visibility, stock room management, mobile marketing, and virtual transaction processing―even augmented reality. Companies like IBM and NCR were talking about mobile as a key element of converged, cross-channel retail solutions, to help retailers increase revenues by improving the shopping experience for customers.
Here are a few things that popped out at me from the (massive) show floor at NRF:
- Mobile is the future of business intelligence. QlikTech and other BI vendors were demoing mobile BI solutions, to put business information and analytics in the hands of decision makers when and where people need it.
- Tablets are proliferating. The Apple iPad will soon have lots of competition. Many tablet PCs were on display at NRF, including Cisco CIUS, Dell Duo, Fujitsu LIFEBOOK, and HP Slate.
- Mobile printers round out the picture. One of the downsides of mobile computing to date is lack of access to a printer from your device. This will change, evidenced by availability of mobile printers from companies like BIXOLON, Epson, and HP.
- Mobile payments are hot. Companies like Mobile Pay USA are offering solutions to enable consumers to make payments directly from their mobile devices. Check out these results from an IBM survey of 30,000 consumers. One of the key findings was that 50% of respondents said they were willing to use a personal mobile device to make payments, in order to avoid the checkout lane.
- Special-purpose mobile devices aren’t going away. Despite growing adoption of multipurpose mobile devices, the need still exists for ruggedized devices from companies like Bluebird Pidion and PSION TEKLOGIX, for example, and mobile payment terminals (point of sale systems) from companies like Denso, Ingenico, and Micros.
What do these trends in mobile for the retail industry have to do with you, cherished reader of The QlikView Blog? A lot! Imagine rich, easy-to-use analytics in the hands of a salesperson on the retail floor, guiding the salesperson through the up-sell and cross-sell process as they ring the customer up. And what better way to provide and deliver insight into inventory and asset status and real-time response to in-store marketing campaigns than with up-to-date analytics?
QlikPower is a leading provider of QlikView BI solutions in the UK and Ireland.
Posted
01/14/2011 09:12 by
Erica Driver