white paper business intelligence for the mobile workforce

White Paper Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce

Empowering Employees With Mobile BI LeveragesExisting BI Systems and Ensures Better Decision Making

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Authors:

Contributors:

Audience:

Tristan Southgate.

Jennifer Meegan, Frank Prabel, Paul Clark.

Business users and IT Managers.

Business Objects • Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce i

Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ii

The Benefits of Mobile Business Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

The Need for Better Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Decisions Don’t Stop at the Company Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Competitive Forces Require Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Leverage Existing BI Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Extends BI to New Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Mobile is the Next Growth Phase for BI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Mobile Technology is Here Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Mobile Devices Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

The Mobile Decision Making Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

“Push BI” – Broadcasting Timely and Relevant Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

“Pull BI” – Information When and Where it’s Needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Closing the Decision Making Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

How Does Business Objects Deliver Mobile Business Intelligence? . . . . . .11

“Push BI” – BUSINESSOBJECTS BROADCAST AGENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

“Pull BI” – BUSINESSOBJECTS INFOVIEW Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Mobile Testimonials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Executive Summary

In recent years, business intelligence (BI) applications have become a vital part of an organization’sIT infrastructure and are crucial for making accurate and informed business decisions. But until recently BI was a technology bound to the office by the constraints of an organization’snetwork. In the past, if employees wanted to tap into and analyze the wealth of knowledgecontained in corporate data warehouses, they needed to be in front of their office PCs. This mayhave suited some employees, but with the ongoing need for intelligence and a growing trendtowards a more mobile workforce, it’s important that every employee be given the ability toaccess BI anywhere, and at anytime. Getting information to these workers becomes essential iforganizations want to avoid mobile employees making critical decisions based on guesswork.

With today’s advanced mobile devices, the mobile workforce can have access to the same BI capabilities as their deskbound colleagues. The rapid adoption of personal digital assistants(PDAs) and internet-enabled mobile phones means that the workforce is often alreadyequipped with mobile platforms, and Business Objects provides the means of extending BI to these users.

This paper:

• Addresses the benefits of business intelligence for the mobile workforce

• Examines the business case for mobile business intelligence

• Considers the mobile decision making process

• Explains how mobile business intelligence works

ii Business Objects • Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce

Executives, managers, sales people, and other workers are spending more time out of the officethan ever before, and this trend is on the rise. Regardless of job or title, the common link thatbinds this mobile workforce together is their dependence on, and often lack of, information.

For years, organizations were content to send employees into the field with limited, and oftenout of date, information. The mobile workforce was expected to operate efficiently andproductively in spite of the fact that they had sporadic email access, often had to make callsback to the office for more information, and were using documents that were printed daysbefore. While many organizations are saying, “this is the way things have always been done sowhy change?” the innovators are gaining a competitive edge by seizing new opportunities anddoing away with status quo and outdated business procedures. They are equipping their mobileemployees with PDA devices and internet-enabled mobile phones. This ensures that workforcemobility doesn’t interfere with the flow of business intelligence.

Imagine three scenarios in which mobile BI can help the mobile workforce:

• The CEO is on a two-week investor and analyst tour. Many of the questions he expects tobe asked will require him to have the latest available information. In order to be one stepahead of the questions, the CEO receives a daily key performance indicator (KPI)dashboard on his PDA device. Information such as sales revenue, share price, employeeheadcount, sales pipeline, and profitability is always available and always up to date.

• At the end of the quarter, the vice president of sales is visiting some regional offices toreview the sales figures and to discuss future strategies. She is aware that the company isvery close to missing its sales target and has set up some alerts to notify her if sales fallbelow predefined limits. Upon receiving a real-time notification of a shortfall via her PDA,she is able to wirelessly access all of her sales reports and drill into the underlying rootcauses to decide on the best means of resolving the problem.

• A sales person is visiting the office of her largest redistributor. She has a good workingrelationship with the client and is eager to provide the best level of service possible. On her PDA or mobile phone, she is able to access the customer’s purchase history andorder delivery status just before the meeting. She can even review inventory levels whileface-to-face with the customer to ensure that any subsequent orders can be quickly filled.

If any of these individuals were cut off from their office-based BI, their standard response to difficult questions would probably be, “let me get back to you on that” or “if you can hold onI’ll just check this with the office.” The unexpected does occur so it is crucial that mobile employeesbe able to make the right decisions at the right time.

The Benefits of Mobile Business Intelligence

Business Objects • Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce 1

2 Business Objects • Business Intelligence for the Mobile Workforce

� Figure 1:Managers must make more decisionsin less time. Mobile BIensures that travel time can bemade productive.

The Need for Better Decision Making

A manager spends the majority of his or her time making decisions so it is vital that decisionsbe made based on quality information that is relevant, accurate, and timely. With BI,organizations can access, analyze, and share information internally, and extend the sameprocesses, as a value-added service, externally to customers, suppliers, and partners. Businessintelligence gives companies a better understanding of their business, which allows them tomake the most effective decisions.

Many managers travel extensively in the course of their work. Maintaining a close eye on the keyperformance indicators of their company is often difficult when cut off from the office network.Because management decisions often have considerable impact on the organization, it is essentialfor managers to consider all relevant business information, and to examine the possibleconsequences of their actions, in order to make the best judgment. As a result, the manager mustbe able to analyze and review detailed BI at any moment in order to be adequately informed.

With rigorous travel schedules, a constant view of the key operational metrics can only be givenby empowering mobile employees with BI when and where they need it. At the same time,managers are faced with the need to make more and more decisions within a shorter period oftime. Gaining additional time outside of the office can ultimately help in better decision making.According to the results of a BusinessWeek survey, almost 80% of respondents indicated thatthey had more decisions to make, and of these respondents, over 40% claimed to have less timeto make these decisions than ever before. Hence, mobile BI offers a new mechanism for betterand faster decision making and allows mobile employees to use travel time more efficiently.

“Bad decisions in the corporateworld can cost millions. Yet managers in the digital age report having to make moredecisions than ever in the sameamount of time or less.” 1

1 Business Week, 14 May 2001.

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60

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Numberof decisions

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Timeto make them


Decisions Don’t Stop at the Company Doorstep

Business applications that provide much-needed information access, analysis, and decisionmaking support should not be limited to an office-bound user. All too often, BI is containedsolely in an organization’s wired network, providing office employees with virtually limitlessinformation resources. Business intelligence applications, email, phone, and fax constantly feedthe office worker with real-time information.

However, most organizations virtually “starve” their workforce of information when the employeesare out of the office. Field workers are cut off while remote executives and sales representativesare often forced to turn to guesswork and “gut feeling” rather than hard data.

When evaluating the total information needs of an organization, it is vital to remember thatdecisions must often be made while employees are traveling. Rather than being inconveniencedby return visits to the office, or making calls to a telephone helpdesk for support, it is mostpractical if decision makers can obtain information at their discretion and without dependenceon others.

Competitive Forces Require Responsiveness

Most of us work in a very competitive corporate environment. As a result, managers are requestedto outperform, outproduce, and outsell the competition. This requires that the manager seekgreater efficiency and productivity in a workplace where the employees are already near the limit of their capacity. These managers need to look beyond product-based differentiatorsand try to leverage competitive advantages from existing resources.

One area for improvement is better utilization of “out-of-the-office time.” Placing BI in the handsof mobile employees effectively makes their travel time more productive. At Palm Inc., studies 2

have shown that mobile business solutions have given mobile employees an additional 24 minutesper day of valuable working time. Over the course of a year, and with large numbers of employees traveling, this 24-minute increase quickly turns into heightened efficiency, moreproductivity, and less need to recruit new staff.

Organizations can also seek to differentiate themselves by offering better service to their clients.By obtaining the relevant purchase record and inventory status reports, mobile BI helps travelingsales reps to answer client questions and facilitate new orders. So precious time is not lost on phone calls and trips to the office. This is impressive for the customer, and convenient for the sales person. The result? A win-win situation.

Better use of time, improved customer service, and a more streamlined mobile workforce areclear reasons for the adoption of mobile technology. The “first-movers” and early technologyadopters, those who have made the move to mobile BI, are already gaining a low cost competitiveedge and mobile BI solutions are now being evaluated by mainstream businesses.

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2 Results from the Palm @ Enterprise mobile business solutions deployment.


Leverage Existing BI Investment

In many organizations, BI is a common part of the IT infrastructure. The IT group has been trainedand business reports have been created for end users. These organizations are experiencingconsiderable return on investment (ROI) through cost savings and by restructuring their operationsto allow greater efficiency and productivity. Investments in BI allow these organizations to gaineven greater ROI by leveraging the existing infrastructure and empowering additional userswith business intelligence.

With little additional investment, and by reusing the reports already commonly available in the office, mobile BI is a low-cost strategy with a high potential for further cost savings andproductivity. Close integration with the organization’s already established IT security, stability,and performance frameworks also helps mobile BI easily reuse existing infrastructure.

Extends BI to New Users

Mobile business intelligence has the opportunity to open up the world of BI to a newer andbroader audience. In some cases, business intelligence is held by a group of “power users” whoare responsible for number crunching and building queries and reports for business users.Mobile BI, on the other hand, is designed to democratize information access and deploy thebenefits of business intelligence to the people with real business and operational needs. Mobile BIis designed to be a simple and user-friendly means of accessing and receiving information.

In the past, executives and other frequent business travelers often ignored the benefits of businessintelligence because it was not convenient for their needs. By simplifying this information, and providing it on readily available mobile devices, any interested party can now obtain the information they need, from executive KPIs and mobile dashboards, to customer recordsand expense reports.

Mobile is the Next Growth Phase for BI

Mobile BI is expected to be the next phase in the already rapid growth of business intelligence.According to Gartner Inc., “Although the web has been a driving force for extending the use of BI tools and applications beyond the desktop to the browser, mobile and wireless may verywell be the next phase for BI growth and importance.” 3

While today’s use of business intelligence is limited to networked PC’s and power users,Gartner Inc. envisages a large shift in the type of user, the type of information, and the meansvia which the user will access this information. This “market discontinuity,” as Gartner Inc. has termed it, represents a period of greater information democratization in which informationwill become more personalized and relevant so that any business user can take advantage of it.As mobile and wireless devices become more common and readily accepted, Gartner sees thesewidespread devices as having great potential to deliver the information required.

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3 From the research note “Mobile and Wireless BI: Is Its Time Here or Near”, Alan Tiedrich, Gartner Inc., July 11th 2001.

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� Figure 2: Mobile devices are often seen as the vehicle for driving BI growth in the future.

Source: Gartner Inc. 4

4 From the presentation “Business Intelligence – Making the Data Make Sense”, Howard Dresner, Gartner Inc., July 9th 2001.

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UserExperience

Information objectsrequested (pulled) byuser through browseror Windows GUI

Targeted, interactive“insight objects”delivered to users,based on adaptativeprofiles

Ubiquitous: Wirelessdevices with varyingcapabilities

Inclusive: All internaland externalconstituents

Uniform: Contextualaction links to back-office applications,based on roles

Limited: Network-connected PCs

Exclusive: Knowledgeworkers and powerusers

Haphazard: Manualalteration of businessprocesses

Vehicle

Penetration

Actions Steps


Mobile Technology is Here Today

While devices capable of “surfing” the wireless internet have been available for a few years,certain aspects of the technology have taken longer to mature. The earliest attempts to providecontent on mobile phones, such as the widely publicized WAP, were often over promoted bymobile operators and tended to fall short of end user’s expectations.

The market has recently taken steps, and has issued a number of new devices, designed to makemobile business applications a reality and to offer multiple deployment options. In the comingmonths, mobile operators will be rolling out high-speed wireless networks, and PDA deviceswill be equipped with greater memory capacity, higher-resolution screens, easier wirelessconnectivity, and a greater range of software. With advances like these, it is clear that businessescan now begin leveraging these devices and networks to deploy mobile business applications.As a result, mobile business applications have now left the early adopter and innovator stagesand have entered into the enterprise mainstream.

Based upon research from the Giga Information Group Inc., business use accounts for 79% of allmobile adoption. 5

According to many industry analysts, the number of handheld devices accessing the internetwill exceed those of personal computers by 2003. With such popular support, mobile devicescan no longer be considered a trend or fad, and must be treated as legitimate and convenientbusiness tools. Many companies are now investing in the purchase of mobile devices for theiremployees so as to equip them with the benefits of mobile business applications. This suggeststhat organizations now see the business value in mobile technology and are making investmentsto ensure increased productivity and efficiency for their mobile workers.

� Figure 3:Business usage is the leading causefor mobile adoption.

5 From the presentation “Essential Elements of a Mobile/Wireless Strategy”, Giga Information Group, 15 November 2001.

37%

31%

11%

21%

Employees: line of business apps(SFA, field service, etc.)

Employees:for productivity(e-mail, calendar,travel, etc.)

Business Partners

Consumers


Mobile Devices Supported

The market for mobile devices is still in a high growth stage. There is no clear leader amongthe manufacturers, and a number of competing mobile platforms still exist. With this in mind, a mobile application must be capable of supporting numerous devices and standards.

Business Objects recognizes this trend and has created BUSINESSOBJECTS™ INFOVIEW Mobile, a product that is open to different standards and device types. Business Objects provides mobileBI via four broad categories of mobile devices:

PDAs INFOVIEW Mobile supports all of the leading PDA platforms:

• Palm Operating System devices: Palm, Handspring, Sony, Kyocera etc.

• Windows CE (Pocket PC) powered PDA: Compaq iPAQ, HP Jornada, Sagem, Casio etc.

• RIM Blackberry devices

• EPOC operating system: Psion, Nokia etc.

PDA devices offer a relatively large screen (useful for viewing charts, tables, and graphs), large RAM and storage capabilities (for storing and analyzing business intelligence reports), and additional features such as email and internet access.

Mobile phonesINFOVIEW Mobile supports any WAP or cHTML phone with a microbrowser that supportsWML 1.1, cHTML, or HDML 3.0. Device manufacturers include: Alcatel, Ericsson, Mitsubishi,Motorola, Nokia, Sagem, Samsung, Siemens, and Sony. The cHTML standard is common inJapan as a result of the popularity of NTT DoCoMo’s i-Mode service, and phone manufacturersinclude Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, and Sony.

� Figure 4: Access real-time BIfrom any internetenabled mobile phone.

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The Mobile Decision Making Process

When employees are away from the office, information has varying degrees of importance.Importance is often measured by the relevance of the information to the user, and its timeliness.

While traveling, the mobile workforce needs to be constantly aware of the information that is relevant to them, and to their work, and employees need to be able to quickly act on this information while it is still valid. In many cases, the window for effective decision makingis limited, and opportunities can be lost by getting information too late, or through poorinformation management.

In order for your workers to be well informed, without being overloaded with information,Business Objects provides mobile BI in the format that caters to the individual’s needs. Time-sensitive and critical information can be pushed out to mobile devices in the form of alerts,the user can interact with real time BI by “surfing” the wireless web and pulling downinformation from a mobile portal, and commonly used reports can be pulled onto mobile devices(using synchronization) where they can be stored for viewing at a later date.

For a mobile decision to be truly effective, it will often require information access via a numberof the above channels. Therefore, a fully-integrated mobile BI solution must offer push, pull, andsynchronized access.

“Push BI” – Broadcasting Timely and Relevant Information

Today’s managers need to be able to respond immediately to changes in business information.The most effective means of doing this is by automating the delivery of information, so thatregardless of time or location, the user is notified of critical events as they occur.

The vast majority of today’s mobile employees carry some form of mobile device, from the widelyavailable mobile phone to the PDA. With push delivery, the user can establish predefinedconditions and reports that will be broadcast to them when important exceptions occur. For example, if the production manager is traveling and inventory levels fall below the minimumrequirements, he could be notified of this by the broadcast of a Short Message Service (SMS)alert to his mobile phone. Being aware of this in a timely manner will allow him to take the necessary precautions before this problem gets out of hand.

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The broadcasting of alerts can take the form of email delivery, paging, or SMS, all of which canreach the mobile worker, regardless of his location, within an actionable timeframe.

“Pull BI” – Information When and Where it’s Needed

At times it will be necessary for the mobile worker to gain access to the reports that he or shecommonly uses while in the office. While push delivery answers the users’ demand for timelyinformation, and brings key issues to their attention, it is largely focused on event-driven decisionmaking and doesn’t cater to ad hoc information requirements.

The need to review and analyze business information can occur at any time, and not necessarilyas a result of particular events or schedules. The mobile workforce must be given the opportunityto pull business intelligence from the organization’s servers using a mobile BI portal. Thisinformation can be pulled in real time by using a wireless modem and PDA, or internet-enabledmobile phone, to dial up to the organization’s BI server, or by synchronizing and downloadingthe necessary reports in advance.

Wireless accessUsing a wireless modem, available for most PDA devices, or an internet-enabled mobile phone,a traveling employee can gain real-time access to the organization’s information network. Thiswill enable him to proactively search for information relevant to the situation at hand, and thenanalyze this information as needed.

A user can never predict and build pushed alerts for every situation or event. Therefore theability to draw upon BI at will is vital to answering many unexpected questions and for helpingemployees be more proactive and self sufficient with their information needs.

� Figure 5: By receiving mobile email alerts,users can react quicklyand efficiently.

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SynchronizationMost PDA devices support synchronization with desktop PCs. Synchronization enables network-based files to be shared with the PDA device, which permits the owner to take business reportswith them when they leave the office.

Often users will need to make their reports mobile but will not necessarily need real-time access.Synchronization lets the user download the necessary reports without requiring a wireless networkto gain access to those reports at a later date.

Closing the Decision Making Loop

The combination of push and pull mobile BI, empowers the user with event-driven alerts andthe ability to make ad hoc requests on reports as necessary.

These delivery modes are highly compatible. By drawing on the benefits of both modes, users areable to develop a well-rounded view of all available information, and make the best-informeddecisions possible.

In general, an alert provides a notice of exceptions to the predefined business conditions. Thistimely and relevant notice creates awareness of the business issues but does little to help therecipient analyze and drill into the underlying causes for the alert. When mobile workers havepull access to business intelligence, they are able to proactively delve into other relevant reports(with either a wireless connection or with pre-synchronized reports) so as to gain a 360° view of the business issue. For these people, the alert serves as a notification and is the first steptowards opening the decision making process. These alerts can be programmed to includeURL links to the organization’s servers, thereby notifying the users of relevant reports that canbe pulled onto their PDAs and provide the real means with which to make the correct decisionand ultimately close the decision loop.

� Figure 6:A combination of pushand pull mobile BIhelps users close the decision loop.

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Business Intelligence Server

PDA

Event driven alertsand scheduled reports are pushed to the PDA

A PDA user pullsadditional

information fromthe mobile BI portal

The additionalinformation is available

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How Does Business Objects Deliver Mobile Business Intelligence?

With a fully-integrated BI platform from Business Objects, an organization can easily leverageall of its existing infrastructure and IT skills to quickly and easily mobilize information.

Using Business Objects reports, and with the security and stability of the BUSINESSOBJECTS

INFOVIEW portal, an organization can deploy BUSINESSOBJECTS BROADCAST AGENT™ and INFOVIEW

Mobile to ensure a comprehensive push and pull mobile BI strategy.

Mobile users need to access BI anywhere and anytime, so reliability is crucial. BROADCAST AGENT andINFOVIEW Mobile run on the same robust server as INFOVIEW. Its distributed component architectureensures high reliability and 24x7 availability – something that today’s mobile users expect.

Data integrity and security is also a vital concern, especially when information is made availablevia wireless technology. Both BROADCAST AGENT and INFOVIEW Mobile share a common securitylayer. Exploiting this existing technology also simplifies the setup and day-to-day operation of delivering information. IT administrators can manage user-rights at a granular level. Forexample, marketing users can only see the information related to their department whileaccount managers can only see information related to their customers. Both BROADCAST AGENT

and INFOVIEW Mobile also use proven industry standards for security, such as secure socketlayers (SSL) and over-the-air encryption. This guarantees data confidentiality.

“Push BI” – BUSINESSOBJECTS BROADCAST AGENT

BUSINESSOBJECTS BROADCAST AGENT delivers timely, personalized information via multiple wiredand wireless devices to hundreds of thousands of users, through intelligent and cost-effectivedelivery mechanisms. BROADCAST AGENT provides a flexible and reliable solution for:

• Personalized information anywhere, anytime

• Intelligent information delivery

• Enterprise scalability

� Figure 7:BROADCAST AGENT

pushes alerts andscheduled BI reportsto mobile workerswherever they are located.

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Personalized information anywhere, anytimeBeing mobile is not an advantage unless individuals can feel confident that critical informationcan reach them, in any location and at any time. Critical information – like an alert of conditionshitting pre-programmed thresholds, or an urgent personal notification – could come up at anytime. Traveling and remote workers need to get on with their jobs knowing that they will alwaysbe informed about critical or changing situations.

• Personalized content, context, and format. BROADCAST AGENT delivers personalized contentto users, depending on their profile or hierarchical position. This is critical for mobile BIwhere the information-viewing area and speed of delivery are limited. BROADCAST AGENT

also gives information publishers the flexibility to deliver information in a format that ismost appropriate to the recipient’s needs. Emails, for example, can include HTML, links tothe corporate portal, PDF, CSV, and RTF attachments.

• Multiple device support. BROADCAST AGENT delivers vital information or alerts anywhere,anytime through a variety of delivery mechanisms such as email clients, PDAs, pagers, SMS,mobile phones, and faxes.

• Subscription-based delivery. BROADCAST AGENT uses a publish/subscribe model that lets end users manage their information subscriptions in one central location, theMySubscriptions page in the INFOVIEW portal. Here users can subscribe or unsubscribeto information, and choose when they would like to receive it. These functions save timeand focus attention on decision-critical content.

Intelligent information deliveryOne role of BI is to automate decisions about information delivery, based on both cyclical andchanging business conditions.

• Dynamic BI delivery. BROADCAST AGENT determines who should receive critical information,and exactly what that information should be. This is key for remote and traveling workers,who must be free to focus on the situation at hand.

• Alerts. Effective and proactive decision making requires that the right people be notified of critical business changes as they occur. The fastest, most economical alert format is toflash key indicators that signal change and invite further query. BROADCAST AGENT providesuser-defined metrics that alert the right person in real time when business conditionsmove out of a pre-determined range. Users then have time to anticipate the likely effects of the change and respond accordingly.

• Proactively schedule delivery. A large percentage of the information that people need isroutine, such as weekly sales or monthly financial reports. BROADCAST AGENT automates the delivery of routine business information to arrive just in time, wherever the relevantdecision makers are.


Enterprise scalabilityBecause BROADCAST AGENT pushes out information to many remote workers at once, it hasbeen architected to be scalable, built on industry standards, easy to use, and highly reliable.BROADCAST AGENT also leverages an organization’s existing Business Objects repository(metadata, security profiles, etc.) and platform administration tools, increasing speed ofdeployment and cost effectiveness.

• Distributed architecture. BROADCAST AGENT uses a distributed component architecturecalled CORBA (common object request broker architecture) that offers a proven, stable, and reliable solution for distributed computing. IT managers can add extra servers andusers easily and seamlessly, facilitating the rollout of their mobile BI solution.

• Single infrastructure. All components in BROADCAST AGENT are tightly integrated,underpinning the timely delivery of information that enables enterprise publishers andmanagers to respond early to business change.

• Maximum reliability and performance. Information must systematically reach those who need it, when they need it. BROADCAST AGENT provides this assurance through suchmechanisms as load balancing and failover.

“Pull BI” – BUSINESSOBJECTS INFOVIEW Mobile

INFOVIEW Mobile allows users to access key corporate information on web-enabled mobilephones and to perform extensive analysis with web-enabled PDAs. INFOVIEW Mobile provides:

• Mobile BI

• Personal and secure information access anywhere, anytime

• An open and progressive BI solution

� Figure 8:With INFOVIEW

Mobile, users can pull BI information from an ERP system,a data warehouse, or a database.

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Mobile BIINFOVIEW Mobile extends the business intelligence of the office to the mobile community.

• Empowering the mobile workforce. Instead of losing precious time visiting the office, ormaking calls to an already overburdened call center, INFOVIEW Mobile enables the user tosynchronize her PC information onto a PDA that accompanies her on the road, and to easilyobtain online updates when she wants.

• Business analysis on the move. The computing power, memory, and large screen of PDAsallow rich graphics and functions such as drilling, bringing desktop power into the palm of the hand. Information stored in a PDA’s memory is available for offline retrieval andanalysis.

• Ease of use. As mobile technology puts business intelligence within everyone’s reach,mobile access to BI needs to be easy for all types of user. The intuitive interface of INFOVIEW

Mobile lets users access information in just a few clicks and with no special training.

Personal information access anywhere, anytimeThe concern of CIOs is making as much information available as possible, around the clock.The information must be relevant, and available only to authorized people.

• Information always available. Markets do not follow 9 to 5 office hours, and INFOVIEW

Mobile gives mobile users on-demand access to information, any place and at any time, so that they can react quickly to unpredictable events. With INFOVIEW Mobile, the user hasfull self-service and on-demand BI access.

• Source-independent information access. Business information is usually a mixture of inter-related data stored in several heterogeneous systems. INFOVIEW Mobile can accessany data source – a customer relationship management system, payroll software, operationaldatabase – and make the results available to mobile BI users.

An open and progressive solutionThe mobile sector is rapidly developing and changing. To ensure continuity of an organization’smobile BI solution it is vital to be sure that, regardless of technology changes, the underlyingmobile application is flexible enough to support new platforms and standards. Business Objectsworks with the leaders in the mobile and wireless sector to provide the best solution now, andin the future.

• Designed for unique mobile characteristics. Given the limited screen size and relativelylow bandwidth of mobile devices, users need information that is filtered for relevance. To meet these challenges, Business Objects has developed INFOVIEW Mobile to be platform-independent, flexible, user-friendly, and universally supported.


• Best-in-class partners. By working with the key players in the mobile space, Business Objectsprovides state-of-the-art mobile technology to its customers. Business Objects created the Mobile Business Intelligence Initiative, the first alliance program dedicated to mobile BI.Working closely with leading companies in the mobile space allows Business Objects to provide better mobile solutions for today and for the future. The Mobile BusinessIntelligence Initiative currently includes AvantGo, IBM, Microsoft, Neomar, Nokia,Openwave, and RIM.

• A solution for today and tomorrow. INFOVIEW Mobile supports all of the recognizedinternational standards for information access on internet-enabled mobile devices. By keepingthe underlying technology flexible, Business Objects is perfectly placed to adapt to futurestandards as they emerge.


Summary

Mobile BI should bring the power of office-based business reporting and analysis to the mobile workforce. For BI to be useful, the user must be able to successfully and easilyanalyze the information at their disposal.

Common BI features include the ability to query multiple databases and build user-friendlyreports, the ability to refresh these reports with updated information, to “drill” into thesereports so as to understand the underlying causes for business issues, to provide filters andprompts so that users can access information relevant to their needs, and to convert thisinformation into graphs and charts for easier visual analysis. A mobile BI solution shoulddeliver all of this.

Mobile BI from Business Objects provides all of these functions, thereby ensuring that the mobileworkforce can once again use information that closely resembles the reports that they are familiarwith from the office.

� Figure 9:The INFOVIEW Mobileportal brings powerfulBI capabilities to the mobile workforce.

INFOVIEW Mobileoffers easy

report selection and viewing

Tables can be viewed and drilled

upon for in depthmobile BI analysis

Full color graphsand charts bringmobile BI to life

Users can setprompts to ensureonly the mostrelevant informationis available


Mobile Testimonials

“ British Airways aims to leverage our existing corporate standard solutions to provide a range of business intelligence capabilities across client/server to web to mobile. Building upon the ease

of use and functionality of our existing Business Objects solutions, INFOVIEW Mobile offers us the opportunity to extend our existing business intelligence infrastructure to mobile workers.”

Anthony Jones, Data Exploitation Architect at British Airways

“ The major benefit is time. For example, I just arrived in North Carolina, and plan to visit one of my customers today. With wireless eBI, I don't need to go to my hotel room and dial in to view

a report. I can view the information that I need on my way to the customer site via my cell phone. It's great, convenient, and I know the data is accurate and up to date.”

Wendy King, Butler International

“ Management is able to access reports, and therefore answer questions, ‘live’ during meetings andbriefings. They can also lookup information as discussions steer away from the material that they

had prepared for the particular meeting. During a recent meeting on Delinquency, a question arose aboutcycle Time. Our director had not brought his cycle time statistics, but luckily had his PDA with a CycleTime report by division. He was able to answer the questions while other directors agreed to provide the information when they got back to their offices. So our leadership gets real time information. This has greatly improved the decision process time lines. We no longer have to wait for mid levelmanagers to get data.”

“ Providing our leadership with timely, concise information is a core function of the US ArmyCECOM Acquisition Electronic Initiatives Group. We have been rolling out PDAs to a pilot group

to facilitate information sharing. We saw the opportunity to expand the PDA pilot and incorporate INFOVIEW

Mobile into the mix. The leadership now have the ability to use their PDAs with Business Objectsexecutive reports and have instant access to the information. We hope to soon enable leadership to refreshreports while on travel or in a meeting and provide instant, real-time answers to critical business questions.”

Matthew Meinert, US Army CECOM

“ It is imperative that the mobile workforce have the same access to information as their deskboundcolleagues without being overloaded with information that doesn't affect them at that moment.

With INFOVIEW Mobile, TaylorMade's traveling sales force can have easy access to the time-sensitive and critical information that is relevant to them and our business, such as a last minute order for left-handed golf clubs from a major retailer, and is able to act on that information while it is still valid.”

Tom Collard, Director of Information Systems at TaylorMade-Adidas


Conclusion

The convergence of wireless and mobile technologies with business intelligence brings aboutdramatic changes in how people understand information and make daily decisions.Business people no longer have to sit in front of their office PC in order to access the rightinformation. These managers can now venture into the field, to see business issues first hand,while being confident that urgent issues requiring their attention will come to them regardlessof time or place.

With existing BI systems in place, the mobilization of business intelligence becomes a simpleand low-cost procedure. Mobile BI has the potential to further leverage the benefits ofbusiness intelligence and to ensure that the mobile workforce is no longer starved of muchneeded information.

The combined push and pull information strategy from Business Objects means that mobileemployees receive broadcasts of the timely and relevant information that requires theirattention, while at the same time equipping them with resources and reports for understandingand analyzing the pushed alert. This decision loop of awareness, analysis, and well informeddecision making, arms the mobile worker with the power of the office while on the road.

If you would like further information on Business Objects and what its products can do for youand your organization, please visit www.businessobjects.com.


The Business Objects product and technology are protected by US patent numbers 5,555,403 and 6,247,008. The Business Objects logo, BUSINESSOBJECTS, andBUSINESSOBJECTS BROADCAST AGENT are trademarks of Business Objects SA in the United States and/or other countries. All other company, product, or brandnames mentioned herein, may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Specifications subject to change without notice. Not responsible for errors or omissions.

Copyright © 2002 Business Objects SA. All rights reserved.

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