Understanding How Businesses Use Mobile BI to Achieve Results!

Mobile BI Business Use Illustrates Real Advantages!

Mobile Business Intelligence (or Mobile BI) is defined as ‘a system comprising both technical and organizational elements that present historical and/or real-time information to its users for analysis on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets (not laptops), to enable effective decision-making and management support, for the overall purpose of increasing firm performance.’

Aberdeen Group reports that businesses adopt Mobile BI to:

  • Improve business process efficiency
  • Improve employee productivity
  • Make better decisions, more quickly
  • Provide better customer service
  • Deliver real-time bi-directional data access to make decisions anytime and anywhere.

‘Mobile BI benefits go well beyond simple reporting and the sharing of data across user groups, to address real business issues and to keep users up to date and allow them to respond to real world, real-time issues.’

As local and global competition increases, most businesses are looking for ways to improve their competitive advantage, and to quickly adapt to the changing market, to employee needs and to customer buying behavior.

It can be helpful to consider some real-world business use cases, in order to understand the value and benefit of incorporating a Mobile BI solution within your technology landscape and your analytics approach.

The advantages of Mobile BI go beyond team collaboration and individual reporting needs, to provide the background and foundational information needed to make decisions on business strategy and to understand customer preferences.

Real World Business Use of Mobile BI Reveals Benefits and Advantages

The following list of companies represents a small sampling of businesses currently using Mobile BI to improve business results and efficiency:

Amazon – Amazon analyzes purchasing behavior and browsing history to predict what products a customer might want to see, and what they are likely to buy, personalizing the customer experience and making it easier for customers to complete a transaction. BI tools help the business to forecast demand and ensure that stock is available.

Starbucks – The business has implemented a loyalty program to help with customer engagement and sales, personalizing marketing strategies and allowing customers to order, pay and receive rewards. It gathers data using its digital channels and uses that data to create targeted offers and to improve customer retention, as well as increasing the amount customers spend during a visit.

Netflix – The company uses BI tools to personalize the viewing experience and to analyze customer viewing preferences and push specific options to the customer based on viewing history. Mobile BI tools allow teams to analyze and share information regarding regional viewing and to make decisions on the fly.

Uber – The company business model is dependent on the rapid changes and shifting behavior of customers from one local and regional area to the next. Real-time pricing and operational decisions are made to support surge pricing and driver deployment for high demand areas. The back-end systems and BI tools allow drivers to access information using the Uber app so that they can quickly respond to the changing environment.

Tesla – Mobile BI and wireless car data analytics allow Tesla to connect remotely to corporate offices and collect and analyze vehicle data to address issues and update customers on maintenance etc.

X/Twitter – Mobile BI provides support or moderators to identify and quickly address platform safety issues, violations, etc. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with BI tools allows the business to quickly respond and ensure a safe user experience.

Mobile BI provides the background and foundational information needed to make decisions on business strategy and to understand customer preferences.

These examples illustrate the many ways in which Mobile BI can be used to address business issues, providing user access and analytics for team members no matter where they are and how they need to use the data. Mobile BI benefits go well beyond simple reporting and the sharing of data across user groups, to address real business issues and to keep users up to date and allow them to respond to real world, real-time issues.

If you want to support your business user team and provide a foundation for BI tools that will better serve your team and your customers, explore Smarten Mobile BI benefits and features,  with powerful functionality and access for your business users including out-of-the-box Mobile BI and advanced analytics for every team member. For more information on Mobile BI and Augmented Analytics, read our article, ‘Understanding The Truth About Mobile BI.’

Original Post : Understanding How Businesses Use Mobile BI to Achieve Results!

Use Key Influencer Analytics to Understand Data Relationships!

Analytics Solutions Should Include Key Influencer Analytics!

What is Key Influencer Analytics ? Simply put, Key Influencer Analytics is an analytical technique that helps the user analyze and understand the various factors affecting an outcome, what variables impact the metric, and the ranking of those factors. Key Influencer Analytics takes the guesswork out of decisions by clearly illustrating what factors influence success of a pricing strategy, a business location choice, a marketing campaign, a research project, etc.

‘With the right analytics solution, your users can simply point to the dataset they want to analyze and Key Influencer Analytics will identify the target and the influencers or predictors that will affect the target, along with its impact.’

Grand View Research estimates the analytics software market at nearly 142B USD, with an expected growth of nearly 14% over the next five to six years. The reason for this growth is simple. In order to succeed in their market of choice, businesses must understand the competition, the customer and how their products and services are perceived and embraced in the market, so they can plan for the future and adapt to changes.

Key Influencer Analytics is Key to a Comprehensive Analytics Solution

There are a few factors that will impact the efficiency and effectiveness of the analytics solution you choose.

  • First, the data volume you want to analyze can be very large, and the data can come from disparate systems, so the ability to integrate and gather all data in one place is important. Depending on the size of the dataset a user selects, there may be hundreds or thousands of variables, and business users often find it difficult to identify the rights ones. Yet without the ability to identify the right variables, the business is likely to measure and attend to the wrong things.
  • Secondly, you must provide easy-to-use tools that your team can leverage to find what they need. Users should have interactive features that allow them to see and explore other combinations and impacts and can select target and predictors, and use them for models, reports or KPIs. Influencer Analytics empowers every business user and allows them quickly select and target data to achieve results without the assistance of a data scientist, IT professional or analyst.
  • Third, your team needs key influencer analytics to understand the interrelationships of data points and how they affect outcomes so they can adapt and adjust. With the right analytics solution, your users can simply point to the dataset they want to analyze and Key Influencer Analytics will identify the target and the influencers or predictors that will affect the target, along with its impact and it provides crucial metrics such as mean, outliers, and others and identifies relationship and distribution among variables. The system will auto-suggest relationships and present distribution and impact using the most appropriate visualization.

Here are just a few of the benefits of Key Influencer Analytics:

  • Identify what matters most in your data!
  • Understand the impact and interdependence of variables
  • Leverage auto-suggestions and machine learning to get data insights
  • Identify influencers affecting the target variable with auto-suggestions and quick maneuvers using different combinations

‘Key Influencer Analytics takes the guesswork out of decisions by clearly illustrating what factors influence success of a pricing strategy, a business location choice, a marketing campaign, a research project, etc.’

With Key Influencer Analytics your team can address the right issues and capitalize on opportunities to optimize results. Explore Smarten Augmented Analytics modules and components and the benefits of Key Influencer Analytics for your team and your enterprise.

Original Post : Use Key Influencer Analytics to Understand Data Relationships!

Embedded BI Simplifies Business User Analytics!

Use Embedded BI to Encourage Business User Analytics Adoption!

Today, even the smallest business depends on technology and software to manage the business process, capture data and move the enterprise forward. No matter the size of a business, executives and managers now realize the value of providing analytics to make decisions. In the past, the analytics process was the sole domain of IT, business analysts and data scientists but today, organizations know that data democratization and data literacy are key to business performance and to keeping pace with the market and with changing customer buying behavior.

In order to accommodate this need, the business must provide easy-to-use analytics solutions that offer sophisticated functionality and features in an intuitive environment so team members can embrace analytics and willingly adopt these solutions.

‘Embedded BI brings the power of analytics closer to the user and allows them to use popular software and apps to achieve analytical goals with a single sign-on approach.’

If you want to take advantage of this approach, there is a consideration you should include in your strategy – and that consideration might surprise you. Consider the number of applications and software products your team uses to complete tasks and to find information. Did you know that, by some estimates, team members lose up to ten (10) percent of their time switching tasks and applications. One of the most frustrating realities an employee can face is trying to gather and analyze data. Suppose you want to analyze sales for a particular location, or a particular sales team for a certain period of time. In the old technology world, you would have to export the data, or you might use an integrated analytics solution and gather the data there by choosing the fields you want to analyze.

Embedded BI Gives Business Users Access to Intuitive Analytics Within Familiar Applications

Today, you can use Embedded Business Intelligence (BI) to find and analyze data without ever leaving the confines of your sales software. Embedded BI is designed to embed within a popular, familiar software platform. By placing this capability within a familiar application or software solution, the organization gives its team members access to data, pulling information from the system of origin, integrating and streamlining data processing and reporting time.

Embedded BI brings the power of analytics closer to the user and allows them to use popular software and apps to achieve analytical goals with a single sign-on approach, so they don’t lose time switching between software solutions or exporting and importing data. Users have access to dashboards, charts, graphs and analytical tools, all within the ERP, HRM, CRM, SCM or other enterprise solution. Embedded BI allows users to integrate analytics within workflow and collect and analyze data easily.

When considering an Embedded BI solution, be sure you choose one that accommodates access both in the office and on the road, with mobile access that enables business users to take analytics on the road.

‘In order to accommodate this need, the business must provide easy-to-use analytics solutions that offer sophisticated functionality and features in an intuitive environment so team members can embrace analytics and willingly adopt these solutions.’

You can find out more about the Smarten Embedded BI And Integration APIs solution and add powerful functionality and access to existing ERP, SCM, HRMS, CRM or any other products. Provide analytics capabilities within existing products without major Investment. Your business users and your customers will appreciate the ease-of-use and access and you will gain a competitive advantage. Read our White Paper: ‘Making The Case For Embedded BI And Analytics.’

Original Post : Embedded BI Simplifies Business User Analytics!

Citizen Data Scientists Can Partner With Data Scientists!

A Citizen Data Scientist Initiative Can Optimize Data Scientists and Encourage a Data-Driven Culture!

According to some estimates, the average salary of a Data Scientist in the United States is over $150,000 per year. If your business wishes to accommodate a ‘data-first’ strategy to improve metrics and measurable success and avoid guesswork and strategies that are based on opinion rather than fact, it can either employ a team of expensive professionals, or it can take a different approach.

‘Citizen Data Scientists can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.’

Citizen Data Scientists are business users who have a place on your team and are hired because of their professional and career experience in a particular industry, business function or discipline. When they are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.

Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams

Depending on the size, market and industry of your business, you may choose to augment your staff with one or more data scientists to refine results produced by Citizen Data Scientists on a day-to-day basis. So, if a power user or business users discovers a challenge or an opportunity and your management team wishes to further explore the issue to understand its strategic or operational value, a Data Scientist can take the predictive model or other analytical report produced by a Citizen Data Scientist and refine the results for executive review.

Whether you choose to employ the services of a Data Scientist, provide business analysts or IT professionals to support your business users, you can create a comprehensive foundation for analytics across your organization.

By democratizing data analytics you can achieve many benefits, including:

  • Improved Data Literacy Across the Enterprise
  • Improved Productivity of Data Scientists, IT and Business Analysts (who can spend time on strategic initiatives rather than producing daily reports)
  • Optimized Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for all software and systems
  • Fact-Based Decisions and Metrics-Driven Strategies, Goals and Objectives
  • Team Member Career Advancement
  • Optimization of Resources and Improved Team Productivity

A comprehensive self-serve augmented analytics solution will include Modern Business Intelligence (BI) and Reporting with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Self-Serve Data PreparationAssisted Predictive Modeling, and Smart Data Visualization with auto-suggestions to drive the analytical techniques and illustration of data based on data type, volume, etc., and other tools like Embedded BIMobile BIKey Influencer AnalyticsSentiment Analysis, and Anomaly Alerts and Monitoring.

With these tools, the Citizen Data Scientist can leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) and search analytics with machine learning to ask questions using simple human queries and receive insightful answers. They can use their knowledge of a business sector, industry, function or market to drive questions and develop reports and presentations to illustrate issues, identify problems and find opportunities for growth and competitive positioning, and share this data (and the search and analytical techniques) with other users.

Citizen Data Scientists can predict customer responses to new product features, and to new marketing campaigns, analyze the likelihood of fraud or risk, identify supply chain issues, etc. These tools can also help the organization to foster collaboration and data sharing and encourage business users to innovate, create and explore opportunities using data-driven, factual information.

‘When Citizen Data Scientists are given access to data analytics, they can merge their knowledge of an industry, e.g., research, healthcare, law, finance, sales, supply chain, production, construction etc., with data integrated from databases, best-of-breed software programs, ERP, SCM, HRM and other systems and use sophisticated analytical tools in an easy-to-use, intuitive environment to gather and analyze data and produce insightful, concise results that are meaningful to their role.’

These are just a few of the factors you must consider when implementing a Citizen Data Scientist approach. Business users who are interested in becoming a Citizen Data Scientist must be willing to embrace new technology and tools and working at the leading edge of a new approach to collaboration and decision-making. initiative. Consider engaging an expert for your Citizen Data Scientist. IT consultants with experience and skill in this area can provide crucial support to help you succeed with your Citizen Data Scientist initiative and can provide simple Training Programs to bring your team on board and help them see the value to themselves and to the organization.

Original Post : Leverage Citizen Data Scientists to Augmented Data Scientist Teams!

Give Your Business Users Assisted Predictive Analytics!

Assisted Predictive Modeling Enables Business Users to Predict Results with Easy-to-Use Tools!

Gartner predicted that, ‘75% of organizations will have deployed multiple data hubs to drive mission-critical data and analytics sharing and governance.’

With all of this business data, how can your organization a) help your team gather and use data to make fact-based decisions, and b) use that data to predict which products and services your customers will need in the future, how your customer buying behavior is shifting, how your competition will respond to the market, when and how to sell your products, which marketing campaigns will work in the future, and how and when to recruit new resources and open new locations.

‘Giving your team access to sophisticated, complex analytical techniques in an intuitive environment, allows them to leverage predictive analytics without a data scientist or analytical background.’

A misstep in any of these areas can create risk, damage your business reputation, or put you years behind your competition. That’s why your business needs predictive analytics. And, not just any predictive analytics! If you want to democratize data among your team members and provide easy-to-use tools to encourage user adoption and enable data-driven decisions, you must choose wisely.

Leverage Predictive Analytics for Every Business User

Assisted predictive modeling can take the guesswork out of analytics, by helping users to choose the right techniques to analyze the type and volume of data they use to analyze. These tools allow the organization to apply predictive analytics to any use case using forecasting, regression, clustering and other methods to analyze an infinite number of use cases including customer churn, and planning for and target customers for acquisition, identify cross-sales opportunities, optimize pricing and promotional targets and analyze and predict customer preferences and buying behaviors.

Prescriptive analytics for regression models combines predictive modeling and optimization techniques to produce actionable recommendations for decision-making. While descriptive and predictive analytics use past events to predict future outcomes, prescriptive analytics goes beyond this process to recommend optimal actions that will help the business to achieve specific goals. By merging prediction with prescription, the enterprise can proactively identify challenges and opportunities, and drive more effective and strategic outcomes.

These are just some of the tools your business should consider to build a solid foundation for predicting outcomes using historical and forward-looking data analytical techniques.

Giving your team access to sophisticated, complex analytical techniques in an intuitive environment, allows them to leverage predictive analytics without a data scientist or analytical background. Your users can access:

  • Time Series Forecasting
  • Regression Techniques
  • Classification
  • Association
  • Correlation
  • Clustering
  • Hypothesis Testing
  • Descriptive Statistics

‘Assisted predictive modeling can take the guesswork out of analytics, by helping users to choose the right techniques to analyze the type and volume of data they use to analyze.’

With the right predictive analytics solution, your business can also support data scientists, IT and business analysts with tools that allow for R script integration, so these users can perform complex statistical and predictive analysis and reporting to support strategic organizational needs.

Smarten Assisted Predictive Modeling will support your team with tools that are intuitive and easy to use and will encourage user adoption.  Leverage the essential components of Augmented Analytics and improve decision-making and outcomes.

Original Post : Leverage Predictive Analytics for Every Business User!

Choose the Right Mobile BI Solution for Your Business!

What Do I Need to Know Before I Choose a Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) Solution for My Business?

What makes a great Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) solution? There are many factors to consider and, if you do not choose wisely, you risk a) spending a lot of money and getting very little in return, b) working with incorrect, old or incomplete data, c) having to upgrade and spend even more money, d) disappointing your team and falling short of objectives, e) missing your Citizen Data Scientist initiative goals.