Dresner Advisory Services Newsletter - September 2012

Dear Friends,

It's been a busy few months at Dresner Advisory Services and I wanted to bring you all up to date regarding our activities and achievements. Here are some highlights:

New channels for our research:
We're excited to announce the availability of our Business Intelligence market research through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Apple iTunes. While other analyst organizations may charge thousands for their research and require a subscription, our goal is to make our research both highly available and highly affordable.

Third annual Wisdom of Crowds^TM Study:
We've just published our third annual Wisdom of Crowds ^TM Business Intelligence Market Study ®. With more than 90 pages of analysis and commentary, including 70 charts and tables, we address key trends in the BI marketplace - as well as rating 17 of the most relevant BI vendors - using our trademark 33-dimension scoring system! We've received lots of great feedback from our research community and some great press too!

New Cloud BI and Collaborative BI Research plus a free webinar!
Based on user responses from last year's Wisdom of Crowds ^TM Business Intelligence Market Study ®, we expanded our research agenda for 2012 to include the emerging areas of Collaborative BI and Cloud BI. These exciting new studies are being released in early September!

Consider attending our free webinar to review highlights from this groundbreaking research. It will take place on Thursday, September 27th at 12PM ET. Click here to register for this event. Attendance is limited to 100 people.

Upcoming Mobile BI Study:
Later this year we will be publishing our fourth Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study - with a target date of late November. Data collection begins right away! Click here to be directed to the survey. As always, qualified users receive a complimentary copy of the research findings!

We're always grateful for your feedback. Please email us with your comments to bistudy@howarddresner.com.

Thank you for your continued support!

Best,



Howard Dresner

Chief Research Officer
Dresner Advisory Services

Cover Letter from our 3rd Mobile BI Market Study

Below is the "cover letter" from our latest (3rd) Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study, which "nets out" our observations and views on the subject: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we started researching the Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) phenomenon over a year ago, we knew we were on to something important, but it wasn’t obvious where the journey would take us.

This findings document marks our third published report on the subject since mid 2010 and offers the clearest picture of progress to date. Having over a year’s worth of data to compare and contrast has been especially helpful in developing a higher fidelity; real-world perspective!

To be clear, we believe that we’re in the midst of a profound shift toward Mobile BI (and mobile computing). We believe this paradigm shift will affect everyone and have as much impact as the Internet did, over time.

This latest findings report shows strong evidence that Mobile BI is taking hold - broadly. Although current adoption, plans and perceptions may vary, this is a global phenomenon - across all geographies, industries, functions and organization sizes.

There are also more choices for organizations than there were in 2010. More and better mobile platform options have emerged – with an abundance of new tablets. And BI software suppliers have invested heavily, offering a much more complete menu of mobile options.

However, there are significant risks and challenges along the way. A proverbial “moving target” of hardware and software standards presents difficulties to both customers and suppliers alike. And, the risk of privacy and security breaches remains at the forefront of industry challenges.

Nevertheless, the Internet is an apt analogy. How do we work differently now than before the Internet “revolution”? What we take for granted: our ability to effortlessly find, create and share information and to readily collaborate with others – was impossibly difficult before it.

Likewise, what will be the impact of Mobile BI - with information and insight literally following us - wherever we are; whenever we need it? It will change the way that we work, our ability to respond more quickly and to align towards common purpose. This notion of pervasiveness has always been the mission of BI, which may now finally be realized with the catalyst of mobile computing.

So what should organizations do with this information? To quote Pasteur, “Luck favors the prepared”. In this spirit, we must all prepare for and embrace Mobile BI, or risk getting left behind.

We hope that this findings report – and our other research – will help guide the way and better increase your chances for success with Mobile Business Intelligence.

Best,

Howard Dresner

President, Founder and Chief Research Officer

Dresner Advisory Services, LLC

Mobile Study TOC

Hello Folks,

Below is the Table of Contents from our 3rd Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study Findings Report.

The report will contain 62 pages of analysis and commentary, including over 40 charts and tables, plus side-by-side vendor and product capabilities and plans - through 2013!

The report will be released to enterprise licensees first (October 31st) and then will be posted to our member site on November 21st.

Best,

-----------------------------------------------

Contents

A Note from the Author: 6

Executive Summary. 7

Introduction: 8

Method: 8

About Howard Dresner and Dresner Advisory Services: 9

Study Demographics: 10

Functions Represented: 10

Figure 1 - Functions Represented. 10

Size of Company: 11

Figure 2 - Sizes of Organizations. 11

Geographies: 12

Figure 3 - Geographies. 12

Industries Represented: 13

Figure 4 - Industries. 13

Analysis of Findings: 14

User Importance of Mobile Business Intelligence: 14

Figure 5 - Importance of Mobile Business Intelligence 2010 vs. 2011. 14

Figure 6 - Importance of Mobile BI by Organization Size. 15

Mobile BI Pros and Cons. 16

Benefits of Using Mobile BI: 16

Limitations and risks to using Mobile BI: 17

Mobile BI Platform - User Priorities: 18

Figure 7 –Mobile Platform Priorities – Sept 2011. 19

Figure 8 - Mobile Platform Priorities - by Region. 20

Mobile BI Platform - User Penetration and Plans. 21

Figure 9 - Mobile BI Platform Plans: Today through 2012. 21

Mobile Integration Preferences. 22

Figure 10 - Preferred Platform Integration –Sept 2010 vs. Sept 2011. 22

Mobile Application Priorities. 23

Figure 11 - Global Mobile Application Priorities. 23

Figure 12 - Mobile Application Priorities by Function. 24

User Penetration of Mobile Business Intelligence: 25

Figure 13 - Mobile BI User Penetration: Today through 2013 – Sept 2010 vs. Sept 2011. 25

Figure 14 - Mobile Business Intelligence Penetration by Geography. 26

Figure 15 - Mobile BI Penetration by Function. 27

Figure 16 - Mobile BI Penetration Plans by Organization Size. 28

Exclusive Mobile BI Usage through 2013: 29

Figure 17 - Exclusive Mobile BI Usage by 2013. 29

Figure 18 - Exclusive Mobile BI Usage by Geography. 30

Figure 19 - Exclusive Mobile BI Usage: IT versus Business. 31

Figure 20 - Exclusive Mobile BI Usage by Organization Size. 32

Feature/Function Requirements. 33

Figure 21 - Changing Requirements for Features and Functions – Sept 2010 vs. Sept 2011. 33

Figure 22 - Mobile BI Features Weighted Mean. 34

Figure 23 - Advanced Requirements for Mobile BI Features and Functions - 2011. 35

User roles to be automated. 36

Figure 24 - Roles Targeted for Mobile BI 36

Device Data Storage and Mobile BI 37

Figure 25 - Data Storage: Device vs. Server. 37

Vendor Analysis and Rankings: 38

Table 1 - Vendor Survey Questions. 38

Vendor Importance of Mobile Business Intelligence: 39

Figure 26 - Importance of Mobile BI: Vendors – Sept 2010 vs. Sept 2011. 39

BI Vendor Mobile Platform Priorities: 40

Figure 27 - Changing Mobile Platform Priorities for BI Vendors. 40

BI Vendor Mobile Platform Support and Plans: 41

Figure 28 - BI Vendor Mobile Platform Support and Plans. 41

BI Vendor Mobile Platform Integration. 42

Figure 29 - BI Vendor - Mobile Platform Integration Today. 42

Figure 30 - BI Vendor – Planned Mobile Platform Integration in 12 Months. 43

BI Vendor Supported Features on Mobile Devices. 44

Figure 31 - BI Vendor Supported Features on Mobile Devices. 44

Figure 32 – Industry Support for BI Features: Present through 2013. 45

Vendor Scoring. 46

Figure 33 - Mobile BI Vendor/Product Scores – October 2011. 46

Table 2 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (Actuate, Arcplan, Birst; Connexica). 47

Table 3 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (Dimensional Insight, Extended Results, GoodData; IBM/Cognos). 48

Table 4 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (Information Builders, Jaspersoft, Jedox, LogiXML) 49

Table 5 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (MeLLmo (Roambi), Microsoft*, MicroStrategy, Oracle) 50

Table 6 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (PivotLink, QlikTech, SAP, SAS). 51

Table 7 - Detailed Vendor Product Capabilities and Plans (Tableau, Tibco/Spotfire, Transpara, Yellowfin) 52

Appendix: Survey Instrument. 53

Research Nugget from Our Impending Mobile Study

Hello Folks!

As we get ready to close data collection for our Mobile Computing & Mobile Business Intelligence Study, I thought I would share another research "nugget" with you.

In this analysis, I created a crosstab of major geography and expectations for numbers of exclusively Mobile BI users.


As you can see, North Americans appear to be the most aggressive in plans surrounding exclusive Mobile BI usage, followed by EMEA and APAC.

Of course, we're still collecting data for another 8 days - until September 30th! And, the larger the sample the more interesting the crosstab analyses will be.

So, we ask you to do your part and spend 10 minutes completing the survey. Not only will you be making an important contribution to this body of research, but we'll send you a complimentary findings report later this year!

Click here to be directed to the survey!

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Howard

Is Your Business Intelligence Vendor Listed? Vendor Participation in Upcoming Mobile Study

Hello Folks!

As with previous Mobile Business Intelligence Market studies, the current study, in addition to user input, will include information gathered directly from Business Intelligence vendors.

I feel that it is important to include this information to give readers a balanced view of BI vendor mobile capabilities and plans for the coming months/years.

My thanks to these vendors that have already provided this information:

• Actuate
• Arcplan
• Birst
• Connexica
• Dimensional Insight
  
• Extended Results (PushBI)
• GoodData
• IBM
• Information Builders
• Jaspersoft Corporation
• Jedox (Palo)
  
• LogiXML
• MeLLmo Inc. (Roambi)
• Microsoft
  
• MicroStrategy
• Oracle
  
• PivotLink
  
• QlikTech
• SAP
• SAS Institute
  
• Tableau Software
• TIBCO Software (Spotfire)
  
• Transpara
• Yellowfin

I have personally invited several dozen BI vendors to participate. If you don't see your vendor's name listed, please ask them to get in touch!

We expect to publish the results of this latest Mobile Computing/Mobile Business Intelligence study sometime next month.

Best,

Howard

Mobile Computing Study - Some Preliminary Findings

As many of you know, Bob Egan (MGI Research) and I have chartered a new market study, focused upon Mobile Computing and Mobile Business Intelligence.

In analyzing the preliminary data, some interesting trends are already emerging. For instance, 70% have indicated that Mobile Computing is either "critical" or "very important" to their IT/Business strategies.

However, we need more data to properly analyze this important market trend and that's where you can help!

Please use the link below to access and complete the survey:

Click here to access the survey!

The survey only takes about 10 minutes to complete and we'll provide you with a copy of the findings when they're published!

Thanks in advance for your support!

Best,



Chief Research Officer
Dresner Advisory Services

Cool Comments From New Mobile Computing Study

Hello Folks!

As you know our new Mobile Computing & Mobile Business Intelligence market study is now underway and we're getting some fascinating comments.

Here are a few of them:

Mobile BI is very important to us. Many here are mobile and not tethered to an office, so the ability to remain connected to the business / BI while away or traveling is very important.

For me mobile BI is nothing more than BI on the go. People don't talk of mobile email, as it is just expected. BI will go exactly the same way. It goes where I work. It's not mobile, it just is "BI ".

We are trying to think of BI not as a complex, expensive system, but as a pervasive form of corporate-wide reporting and alerting for every employee. Mobile BI will enhance this concept. But, the solution needs to be $5 per user per month and cannot have a $1M back-end system.

We plan to continue data collection through the end of September and would like to invite you to participate! Click here to be directed to the study to share your perspective and plans for Mobile Computing and Mobile BI. The survey process takes only about 10 minutes to complete.

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Howard