Yellowfin Set to ‘redefine’ Mobile Business Intelligence

SOURCE:  Yellowfin

Global Business Intelligence (BI) vendor, Yellowfin, is set to release a new native application for the iPad that CEO Glen Rabie says will “redefine” Mobile BI.

The details of the soon-to-be released app have been kept a closely guarded secret, although it is understood that developments include a completely restyled User Interface and “significantly enhanced” functionality.

“Yellowfin’s new application for the iPad brings together our renowned usability and collaboration capabilities,” said Rabie. “It will offer a unique and compelling mobile reporting and analytics experience.

“By combining unparalleled user-friendly interactivity and information collaboration within a single application, Yellowfin is set to change the way people use and think about Mobile Business Intelligence.”

Rabie said that the desire to create an absorbing and intuitive end-user experience drove application development from start to finish.

“User experience has been at the core of this development from day one,” said Rabie. “Yes the new app includes all the latest market-leading functionality that our customers have come to expect, but the sheer ease-of-use and depth of interactivity were always the main focus.

“Yellowfin is about to deliver an enterprise mobile application for reporting and analytics that is genuinely enjoyable to use. We believe that people will find it as fun and easy as browsing their favorite online magazine, or sharing ideas across their social networks of choice.”

The well-documented trend towards user-friendly enterprise products for analytics – the consumerization of BI – proved a major driving force behind Yellowfin’s decision to undertake the project.

“At Yellowfin, we fundamentally believe that advances in both consumer and enterprise mobile technologies, in conjunction with shifting working habits and environments, means that a significant proportion of BI will be consumed via mobile devices – primarily tablet PCs,” said Rabie.

“We also believe that both consumer-oriented and mobile capabilities hold the key to markedly increased and sustained BI user adoption. And sustained user adoption is the best way to achieve ROI for any BI project.”

Leading research groups, including Gartner, Forrester and Aberdeen back Rabie’s assertions regarding the need for, and potential benefits of, BI usability and mobility.

Gartner’s 2011 BI Magic Quadrant report listed ‘ease-of-use’ as the new number one consideration when purchasing a BI platform, surpassing ‘functionality’ for the first time. Gartner also recently predicted that 33 percent of BI functionality would be consumed via handheld devices by 2013. Forrester Research claims that “enterprise mobile workers will make up 73 percent of the workforce in 2012”.

And the Aberdeen research report – Mobile BI: Actionable Intelligence for the Agile Enterprise – found that companies with Mobile BI can make critical business decisions six times faster than organizations without a mobile platform for reporting and analytics. A recent Aberdeen survey of 277 companies using BI found that employee usage of BI systems doubled with the introduction of Mobile BI.

Yellowfin offers customers the ability to receive mobile analytics out-of-the-box, on any device or platform, via native applications for the iPhone, iPad, Android platform and new HTML 5 integration.

Yellowfin’s new application for the iPad will be publicly available for free download from Apple’s App Store by mid November.