White Paper

Know Now: The Case for Mobile Business Intelligence

Sponsored by: SAP
Dan Vesset
November 2016

IDC OPINION

Pervasive business intelligence (BI) and analytics continue to be a goal for many organizations. Better
information leads to better decisions, richer interactions, and enhanced relationships — both inside the
enterprise and with clients and partners. Pervasive analytics means several things, such as having an
analytics strategy, culture, processes, relevant data, and technology. All of these inputs must come
together to create a data-driven decision-making environment where the right data is available at the
right time to all decision makers for strategic, operational, and tactical decisions.

Right data means actionable data — accurate and trusted data that is available at the right time, in the
right location, in the right format, and on demand. Right data can be internally produced or externally
procured, it can be structured or unstructured, and it can be big or small — these are variables that
depend on the context of the decision support or decision automation process and the specific needs
of the decision maker. Therefore, one of the key components of enabling pervasive analytics is
ensuring that technology for mobile BI and analytics is available as part of the organization's overall
data management, analytics, and information access architecture.

The range of use cases for mobile BI and analytics spans all organizational, functional, and employee
groups. It is important to note that mobile BI is not just for executives or sales staff who may be the
most visible representatives of the user base. In fact, other customer-facing and operational
employees are often not perceived as decision makers, leading to the assumption that they don't need
decision support functionality from the technology they use. This is a mistake. Operational and tactical
decision making is a critical part of any organization and a testament to the ability of that organization
to ensure that its strategy is being successfully executed. It is therefore imperative that customer-
facing and operational employees have access to information or prescriptive guidance as part of or
embedded in enterprise applications that they use on a daily basis, irrespective of whether they are in
the office or in the field using a mobile device.

In this white paper, IDC combines findings from surveys of hundreds of users of mobile enterprise
applications and multiple interviews with users of SAP BusinessObjects Roambi mobile BI and
analytics software. We also highlight demand trends and use cases for mobile BI and analytics
software and provide recommendations to consider as organizations consider the deployment or
expansion of existing mobile BI and analytics technology.

November 2016, IDC #US41887116

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Adoption of mobile enterprise applications, including BI and analytics software, is already at a healthy
level. A recent IDC survey of over 400 organizations shows that 80% of organizations already use or
have current plans to adopt mobile BI and analytics software. Only 20% of organizations responded
that they have no plans of adopting mobile BI and analytics software (see Figure 1).

FIGURE 1

State of Mobile BI and Analytics Adoption

No current plans
(20.0%) In use
(30.0%)

Evaluating
solution
(20.0%)

Deploying in 2016
(30.0%)
Total = 100
Source: IDC, 2016

Importantly, these adoption trends are not restricted to any particular industry or size of organization.
As part of IDC's research into the use of mobile analytics software, we not only surveyed organizations
of different sizes but also conducted qualitative interviews with companies in North America and
Western Europe. Each of the companies had specific business needs that drove them to adopt mobile
BI and analytics technology. For example, Icade, the French commercial real estate firm, needed to
provide its executives, who travel frequently across the country, key information about various
properties. A global retailer needed to provide hundreds of its district, regional, and store managers the
ability to quickly review relevant data throughout the day. PECO Pallet, a leading pallet pooling
provider in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, needed to provide its executive sales and service
associates key information to support account management.

These are just a few examples of mobile BI and analytics deployments that highlight the range of
organizations, use cases, and users of this technology. In some cases, the users represent a few top
executives; in other cases, the users were a few dozen sales associates or several hundred
managers. More broadly, IDC's market research indicates that the top reasons organizations cited for
the adoption of mobile enterprise applications were to increase revenue, improve employee
productivity, and provide ease of information access.

Yet, in the past, few users of mobile BI technology have been truly satisfied with the functionality
provided to them. For example, in a 2013 survey of over 700 organizations, we found that only 13% of
organizations were very satisfied with their mobile BI solution. Part of the reason being that most
solutions available on the market were attempts to retrofit existing laptop/desktop-based software for
mobile devices despite significant differences in the form factor and user interaction methods.

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However, things have changed. Technology buyers have put more pressure on IT vendors to improve
mobile BI and analytics software and have demanded better mobile user interfaces, which significantly
impacts satisfaction with the BI application. Users who are more satisfied with their mobile BI
applications cite much more frequently that the data available to them is timely. Figure 2 shows that
72% of users who are highly satisfied with their mobile BI software also agree that data available to
them is timely. That compares with only 34% of users who agree with having timely data among users
who are less satisfied with their mobile BI software.

FIGURE 2

Timeliness of Data
Q. To what extent do you agree that data available in your organization to support decision
making is timely?
Q. How satisfied are users in your organization with functionality of apps for consuming data in
support of decision making on mobile devices?

72% agree that 34% agree that

data is data is
timely timely

More satisfied w ith mobile BI Less satisfied w ith mobile BI

Source: IDC, 2016

However, timeliness is only one characteristic of data. Ultimately, what is most important is whether
data is actionable.

At PECO, actionable information means having the data on key performance indicators (KPIs) related
to inventory and the movement of pallets available at the fingertips of top account managers and
executives. This information helps in the sales and customer services processes. The company, which
issues iPhones to employees, was looking for a mobile BI solution that would provide users with just
the right information. As PECO's director of software systems said, "We did not want to turn everyone
into an analyst but rather wanted to have key analyzed information pushed out on a routine basis."
Like most medium-sized and large organizations, PECO has other BI and analytics software, but these
applications can serve different platforms, purposes and audiences. PECO's director of software
systems put it this way, "We have other reporting apps , that can be very granular and confusing or
intimidating to interact with, while Roambi is intuitive, easily displayed and begs to be interacted with."

At the global retailer, actionable information via the SAP Roambi mobile analytics software means
providing access to information that originates from the company's point of sale and other operational

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systems and flows through several data warehousing and BI components. Executives and store
managers use their mobile analytics solution to view consistent information in the flow of their regular
interactions with each other and with customers and suppliers. The global retailer's BI team estimates
that productivity gains associated with time savings due to the availability of consistent, near-real-time
information via Roambi have been about $1 million.

When we looked at the correlation between the extent to which the information provided to users is
actionable and their satisfaction with mobile BI software, we again found positive results. Figure 3
shows that 76% of the users who are more satisfied with their mobile BI software agree that the data
provided to them is actionable, while only 44% of the users who are less satisfied with their mobile BI
software state the same.

FIGURE 3

Timeliness of Data
Q. To what extent do you agree that data available in your organization to support decision
making is actionable?
Q. How satisfied are users in your organization with functionality of apps for consuming data in
support of decision making on mobile devices?

76% agree that 44% agree that

data is data is
actionable actionable

More satisfied w ith mobile BI Less satisfied w ith mobile BI

Source: IDC, 2016

Although correlation does not always equate to causation, our interviews with the users of mobile BI
software consistently showed that the users who are using the software on a regular basis, because it
meets their functional and user interface requirements, felt that the data provided to them was
actionable.

Satisfaction with any software can sometimes be a subjective issue, but there are certainly objective
measures of satisfaction. IDC's surveys show that organizations list security, performance, and ease of
use as the top 3 evaluation criteria for mobile enterprise applications. In a growing number of cases, BI
software has been found to provide increasingly robust functionality. As the manager responsible for BI
and reporting at Icade stated, "For us in the IT group, there is now very little ongoing interaction with
end users, which is an indication that everything is working as it should. We now have users who have

©2016 IDC #US41887116 4

become highly dependent on their mobile BI software, and the only internal calls we get are in cases
when the latest data is not updated on a timely basis."

Icade, the global retailer, PECO, and ALDO Group have all been using mobile BI software from SAP,
which can point to a growing number of satisfied customers.

SAP BUSINESSOBJECTS ROAMBI

SAP's mobile BI and analytics product is SAP BusinessObjects Roambi. It is a cloud data visualization
and publishing platform that securely transforms data from enterprise data sources to information that
can be consumed on the go. SAP customers that are using Roambi deploy this software to a broad
range of information users, ranging from sales staff and account managers to executives and store
managers. Roambi provides "on the go" access to customers traveling for business and also to those
simply looking for access to the freshest data on their mobile devices anywhere — whether it is in the
office or outside. Most recently, at the request of many of its Roambi customers, SAP has added the
ability to deploy the same visual experience as on mobile devices to personal computers. Roambi also
includes a module called Roambi Flow that lets organizations create rich, multitouch publications,
which allows users to surround analytics with contextual text and tell the story behind the numbers.

SAP BusinessObjects Roambi is not meant to be a replacement for an organization's BI and analytics
platform. For example, it doesn't provide calculation engines like those found in SAP BusinessObjects
Enterprise or other BI platforms, but Roambi can access and integrate data from these BI platforms as
well as a broad range of cloud and on-premises data and content source systems. Roambi's core data
visualization, information access, and publishing functionality are supported by robust security and
management features. Security between the server and device, access authorization, offline
application password protection, file expiration rules, single sign-on, and remote wiping are all part of
Roambi's solutions security functionality.

MOBILE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS IN ACTION

The enterprises interviewed by IDC said that the SAP BusinessObjects Roambi solutions have
become an integral part of a broader information access and decision support toolset. All the
enterprises mentioned in this document have multiple BI and analytics tools from SAP and other
vendors and have clearly identified the role for their mobile BI solution in the context of broader BI and
analytics needs.

At the global retailer, managers at various levels were challenged with getting an integrated view of
information relevant for their decision making. Prior to Roambi, getting access to this type of
information required extensive and time-consuming data integration and spreadsheet-based data
manipulation. This inefficient process had to accommodate regional differences in currency, calendars,
and business metadata. This caused inconsistencies in metrics that were delivered to managers and
executives. About four years ago, the global retailer deployed SAP Roambi, which today is used by
more than 700 employees and provides them all with consistent, near-real-time, and easily accessible
information throughout the day. Interestingly, 60% of the global retailer's Roambi mobile analytics
users are located in retail stores, while 40% are true road warriors, not directly connected to any
physical office. These users also appreciate Roambi's offline mode, which provides them access to
information downloaded to the device.

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At PECO, Roambi has been in use for more than five years for internal information access and
decision support. More recently, the company has also started to provide access to relevant
information to some of its customers via Roambi. In fact, availability of Roambi, as part of PECO's set
of sales tools, is playing a key part in helping close sales deals.

At the ALDO Group, a retailer with more than 2,000 stores across 95 countries, the past practice
included sending out static PDF reports with KPIs. Information in these reports was comprehensive but
was difficult to analyze and impossible to manipulate into views that mattered to individual users. To
address these user needs, ALDO's BI team made the case for a new mobile BI software and deployed
Roambi in August 2015 to about 100 district managers, sales directors, and executives. Like other
SAP Roambi customers, the software's offline functionality was a feature that has proved
indispensable for ALDO. The company uploads data to Roambi cloud servers in near real time. The
company's senior manager, BI and Data Governance, said, "The data and reports in the Roambi app
are just 30 minutes behind the last store transaction." The KPIs, reports, and charts based on this data
are available in a highly visual and interactive format that includes aggregates and the ability to drill
down into the data. ALDO also highlighted the value its users are getting from Roambi's collaboration
features. For example, users really like the ability to make annotations directly on a screen with a
finger or a stylus and send them to someone. The tool automatically takes a screenshot after the
annotation is complete and embeds it into a draft email.

At Icade, executives who travel around France to various real estate site locations were looking for a
BI solution that provided both connected and offline access to relevant information. Icade executives'
devices download data from the company's centralized SAP BusinessObjects BI and analytics
platform. With 64-bit devices, the volume of relevant data downloaded to the device has not been an
issue for Icade. The company's IT manager responsible for BI mentioned that because they are pre-
calculating all metrics in their core BI and analytic platform, the Roambi application is used simply for
visualization and user interaction with data organized into appropriate views and dimensions.

Thus Roambi has become a strong companion product for Icade's SAP BusinessObjects platform
implementation. Icade also appreciates Roambi's security features that balance appropriate level of
mobile information access with corporate security policies. With Roambi, Icade executives are able to
get instant access to sales data and key information about site locations and are exploring the need to
provide access to other data domains, such as human resources. In addition, the company is
evaluating the opportunity to integrate SAP Roambi with Google Maps to add the location dimension to
other corporate data.

CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNITIES

In the current environment, as the adoption of mobile BI and analytics has begun in earnest, SAP has
a tremendous opportunity to innovate and ensure that its current and new clients are able to fulfill their
mobile analytics technology strategy and plans. Yet the company, along with all other similar software
vendors, also faces certain challenges.

©2016 IDC #US41887116 6

Challenges
One of the challenges is to keep innovating the mobile BI application to keep pace with, and take
advantage of, the rapid functional improvements to mobile devices. Another challenge for software
vendors is to ensure that the software is available on multiple mobile operating systems. For example,
originally, the global retailer wanted to have — in addition to the iOS version — a Windows version of
Roambi, which is now available from SAP. Similarly, at PECO, Roambi is now available on iOS,
Windows, and via browsers. Another challenge for any provider of mobile technology is to continue to
maintain and improve, as needed, the security of such solutions.

Opportunities
Advances in mobile technology provides a big opportunity for innovation for future mobile BI and
analytics software that can leverage new sensors, cameras, and audio inputs and outputs to create
new user interface and interaction experiences.

Also, the healthy growth rates of mobile users will continue to create demand for mobile applications
like Roambi. According to IDC, the smartphones alone will have a CAGR of 5.3% over a five-year
period, and business use tablet is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% over the same period.

Recommendations
At the risk of stating the obvious, mobile BI and analytics must be part of every organization's
technology architecture. For employees who travel, for those who work outside the office, and for
those who simply move around within a building, having actionable information at their fingertips is one
of the key enablers to better decision making, better communication, and better collaboration.

Today, 84% of organizations plan to increase their mobile enterprise applications budgets.
Organizations that contemplate deploying or expanding the use of existing mobile BI and analytics
software should consider the following:

 When making a business case for investment in mobile BI and analytics software, highlight not
only productivity gains but also impacts on increasing revenue and decreasing costs. On-
demand, on-the-road access to actionable information does help improve employee
productivity, but in addition, availability of such information can have other business impacts.
For example, at PECO Pallet, the ability of sales staff to show clients key performance
indicators on the mobile device in real time has been a differentiator and has been shown to
help close sales deals. It allows for more seamless information exchange between different
organizational roles as well as with external parties, such as customers and suppliers. IDC's
research shows that information sharing strengthens relationships with clients based on
codependence on a set of data and metrics that both parties incorporated into their respective
decision-making processes.
 Ensure there is integration with non-mobile BI and analytics as well as other enterprise
applications. All the companies we interviewed also had other BI and analytics software, some
from SAP and some from other vendors. But in each case, mobile BI had become a key
component of the broader business analytics technology architecture. Ensure that you match
user needs with the appropriate BI and analytics software functionality, and as our
interviewees pointed out, "Don't assume, expect, or force all users to become analysts."
 Ensure all needed devices are supported. Organizations of all sizes continue to issue
employees mobile devices or allow the use of personal mobile devices for work. As the range
of mobile devices has expanded, there is a need to support multiple mobile platforms and form

©2016 IDC #US41887116 7

 factors. These are likely to continue to expand as new human–computer interface options are
brought to the market.
 Security is important, but not when it is at the expense of ease of use. SAP BusinessObjects
Roambi provides multiple levels of security that apply to devices and the cloud service and
communication between the two. The security architecture provides the necessary flexibility to
address connected and disconnected use cases.
 Just because it is a mobile BI solution doesn't mean that other best practices in BI and
analytics don't apply. Because mobile BI deployment typically involves a large number of
users, it is a good idea to ensure that all users agree on KPIs and more generally on relevant
data definitions. This process will typically add to the overall deployment time frame but is a
necessary step to ensure broad adoption and to enable collaboration. Another important
benefit of cloud-based mobile BI solutions is the ability to track usage of the application. At
ALDO, this capability allows the company's BI team to identify who needs coaching or training
or if something isn't working.
 Don't just provide the software, but also focus on providing users with guidance. Mobile BI
solutions, like any BI and analytics tools today, don't replace human decision making nor does
the availability of the software guarantee its pervasive use. For example, at the global retailer,
the BI team educated users on which KPIs to focus on and what they mean by including
metadata about those KPIs in the Roambi application itself. This way, when users see a red
indicator on the dashboard, they can quickly confirm the indicator's definition and access the
potential impact on any given decision.

©2016 IDC #US41887116 8

About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology
markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-
based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts
provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in
over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients
achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology
media, research, and events company.

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