BARC BI Survey 2015, Places Mobile BI as Largest Growth Sector

Mobile. Self-Service. Data Discovery. Visualization. BARC BI Survey 15 Results These three areas of Business Intelligence are set to be the most used functions in enterprise reporting by the end of next year.

The results of BARC’s 2015 BI Survey are directly aligned with feedback iVEDiX receives from the marketplace. On one front, users are tired of being locked into archaic directed reporting platforms that often take months to generate a new report, harming their ability to make quick business decisions. On another front, IT has to maintain high overhead with teams of BI developers constantly churning out new reports. This traditional BI reporting cycle takes time, requires overhead, and is inefficient at coping with changing requirements.

It’s no wonder IT is pushing for more self-service platforms and end users are clamoring for more empowerment. These driving forces are pushing Data Discovery and Self-Service BI front and center and as more corporations use tablets, the natural question becomes “Oh, and can I use it on my iPad too?”

Mobile BI is to be the largest growth area over the next 12-24 months. Currently in use by only 20% of organizations, over 2000 surveyed users, developers, and directors project mobile BI adoption to increase to 60% by the end of 2017.

Solving Data Discovery and Self-Service BI for the desktop is one endeavor, but extending these same features to a mobile device becomes quite tricky. One is now confronted with an entirely different UI and a unique interface device (one’s own finger!). Those small radio buttons and drop down menus now take up valuable real estate and are easily fat fingered by even the most nimble user.

How do BI vendors cope with this paradigm? There’s typically two approaches:

• Some leave their BI platform as is and render all options in HTML5
• And, others may restrict users with limited interactivity

We’ve opted for a third option – a mobile-first design emancipated from legacy support. The miVEDiX platform has been designed ground-up to be: self-service, mobile, discovery-driven, and visual. We are pleased to see that a third party like BARC has independently verified that the industry is moving in sync with our vision.

What are your thoughts on the BARC study? How is your organization moving toward mobile?