A special report titled ‘Mobile Business Intelligence and Analytics – New Trends in the Retail Industry’ was released by Manthan Systems, a leading retail technology vendor in the Business Intelligence and Analytics space. The report challenges the common view of Mobile BI as yet another platform for delivery of Business Intelligence. The real future of mobile BI lies in applications that take analytical insights to novel retail scenarios and new users that had no access to it until now, the Manthan report states.
Atul Jalan, CEO, Manthan Systems, said, “Mobile Business Intelligence is most definitely the latest buzzword in the retail industry. But what most people are forgetting is that there is a lot more to mobile analytics than taking reports that were accessed on desktops and pushing them on to smartphones and tablet devices.”
“Retailers deploying a mobile strategy should remember that the true potential of mobile BI can be realized only when it is deployed in a variety of business situations and roles that were untouched by BI and analytics so far. That is the true indication of a successful mobile BI strategy,” Jalan adds.
The report outlines a variety of such retail scenarios that can benefit from effective mobile BI usage. These include:
- Store executives pulling up information on product availability, features, price and real-time offers on their tablets without ever having to leave their customers’ side
- Store managers implementing price changes into POS systems with the help of real-time BI updates
- Campaign managers receiving alerts and notifications on their hand-held devices about upcoming promotions, enabling them to get stock ready
Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) has been one of the biggest game-changers in the retail industry in 2011, fueled largely by the explosive growth of tablets and the iPad. In a Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study (2011) by Dresner Advisory Services, nearly 68% of companies surveyed considered mobile BI as “critical” or “very important” to their business.