MicroStrategy’s Mobile History
MicroStrategy is a leader in the Mobile BI space. The first Apple iPad hit the marketplace in April 2010 and MicroStrategy unveiled their Mobile BI capabilities and application to iTunes by September 2010. It gave them a distinct advantage in the newly forming mobile marketplace. Many of the other big vendors struggled to catch-up and still are working to truly integrate their platforms into a Mobile capacity. SAP, for example, initially released functionality to only Flash supported devices, thus alienating the entire iOS segment. They have since caught up, but in that time MicroStrategy has made gains/improvements to their Mobile offerings. The image below shows the number of connection options as well as the necessary infrastructure to fully utilize MicroStrategy Mobile.
For more information about MicroStrategy Mobile, click here
Ease of Mobile Deployment
I’ve seen no easier platform to develop mobile content for in my years of experience. The simple steps below show how easy it is to take existing content and deploy to a mobile platform. 1
1. Open your Report in Grid mode
2. Under Tools, select Create Document
3. Save the Document in a Shared Folder structure
4. Access the Document from your mobile device
Extra Credit for UX Design
As with everything, except even more critical here, User Experience (UX) design is the key to the success or failure of your analytics. Their ability to deliver a message and provide an intuitive, yet full featured, interface is indispensible.
Key Areas to Focus:
1. Screen Real Estate – Limited, so extremely valuable.
2. User Prompts & Filters – Important to SMART2 message delivery
3. Dials, Sliders, or Buttons – Use with restraint, see #1 above
What next?
Let Axian come to the rescue and help define your BI strategy, develop a roadmap, work with your business community to identify the next project, and provide clarity and direction to a daunting task. For more details about Axian, Inc. and the Business Intelligence practice click here to view our portfolio or email us directly to setup a meeting.
Footnotes:
1 –This assumes that you’ve already installed and configured the MicroStrategy Mobile server component.
2 – SMART = Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based