This allows for new scenarios for usage of mobile BI to grow. Users no longer need to be connected to a specific solution as they did before. For example, now retail floor personnel customizing an order for a specific car can go stay on the floor while working on this job. The same goes for some a sales consultant who needs to look into some new designs and specifically alter it on the go.
A production manager for example and an inventory manager standing in the warehouse can analyze in real time the analytics and forecast to determine what would be the optimum storage and shipping plans for one off many compelling -- these are one of many compelling applications that drive usage of tablets in the business intelligence world. Users are already getting value out of these devices. They have changed the way they work. It's a fundamental paradigm shift. The ability of two people to look at the same data on the same device is key here.
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Business users are not only doing deep analysis when they are meeting with a partner or a prospect. Sometimes they simply need to be able to access important data while they are on the road and the advantage of a tablet is that the rich visualization and the work capabilities that are associated with that allow them to very quickly evaluate the situations and should they need it, they have collaborative capabilities, so they can very quickly reach out for other teams and work together. Mobile phones really don’t have the real estate to allow all these scenarios. And laptops are, well how can I, I am sure you understand when I say that they are simply too heavy to carry around all the time with us unless we really have to do that. So tablets are really a perfect fit for business intelligence on-the-go people.
Because access to data is at your fingertips, BI adoption will grow and expand into new areas. A typical user here might be a road-warrior, somebody who spends a lot of his time away from his office, away from his desk and he is usually away from his office or any relevant replaced office. Workforces are becoming more and more mobile and detached from their desks not just from the teams the organic teams they are part of.
These folks see the advantage of having tablets with them and when they are out in the field to both input data and access data. Naturally this has to be supported in the context of their business intelligence system. Even employees in the field need the ability to connect with their own business intelligence software for just-in-time updated information, make doing business easier and less time consuming.
Mobile business intelligence applies to an entire range of users that may not be only road warriors, but also may be in an office campus environment. So in the case of healthcare organizations, for example, going from your office to a conference room to meet other employees who are on the campus and being able to take the information with you is very important.
The same concept also applies to a manufacturing environment. The ability to take decision-making process right down to the manufacturing floor adds significant value both to the ability for making decisions, but also making the decisions in a timely manner. It's true also for many other types of organizations such as retail organizations, consumer product companies, etc.
This is also true for the senior leadership across verticals. They travel a lot, but they also want to have key business drivers and metrics available to them at all times. We see more and more employees needing to have access to real time analytics and in order to do that they need to do it via mobile devices. What we see is that by next year, almost half of out of the office employees will be able to access business intelligence systems.