Mobile BI: How to Run Your Business On the iPad

Business intelligence consultant Doug Lautzenheiser, general manager of Cincinnati-based Partner Intelligence, believes Apple’s iPad may be the greatest thing to hit BI since, well, the dashboard.

“We think mobile devices are just more convenient for BI,” Lautzenheiser says. “You have them with you all the time. They’re always on – a touch of a button and you’re right there – regardless of location.

“People often need [BI] information in meetings, for example, and sure, you could take a notebook PC in with you. But now, it’s even easier: you can take a tablet.”

Lautzenheiser is by no means alone in seeing the unique benefits to BI users of mobile devices in general and the iPad in particular.

A handful of BI system vendors – including SAP Business Objects, QlikTech International AB, MicroStrategy Inc., Yellowfin and Pentaho Corp. – have already launched dedicated apps for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system.

Extended Results Inc., a Microsoft-based BI systems developer and integrator, offers PushBI Mobile Business Intelligence for iPhone and iPad. And MeLLmo Inc. built its Roambi suite from the ground up as a mobile BI solution on the iOS platform.

Roambi was the most impressive BI app we saw on the iPad. It pulls data from existing backend sources and displays it in slick, BI dashboard-style visualizations that take full advantage of the iPad’s multitouch interface.

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