International Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor, Yellowfin, has confirmed its place as a top-scoring Mobile BI solution in Howard Dresner’s latest Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study.
The study, officially released Wednesday February 17 in a live webcast, ranked BI vendor’s mobile capabilities according to the number of mobile platforms supported, the level of platform integration and the number of BI features supported.
Yellowfin’s Mobile BI platform scored a total of 14 points out of a possible 20, awarding the Melbourne-based vendor the equal second highest score. The highest score achieved was 15 - no vendor scored 20 out of 20.
“We’re very excited about the result,” said Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie. “Whilst Yellowfin offers a complete BI solution, our Mobile capabilities are regarded very highly, which was reflected in the study outcome.”
Dresner explained, in the live InformationWeek webcast launch of the report, that the vendor ranking was designed to assess overall mobile capability and capacity to successfully support an organization-wide mobile communications program.
“It was based on several key dimensions: The platform support – so the mobile platforms that the vendor supports, and the depth of integration for those, with an emphasis on native integration. So vendors got extra points for native application – having an application on the device,” said Dresner, report author, former Gartner Research Fellow and President and Founder of Dresner Advisory Services. “It’s intended to indicate which vendors have sufficient Mobile Business Intelligence functionality.”
Yellowfin Product Architect, Peter Damen, explained that Yellowfin’s range of native applications and report interactivity guaranteed the vendor a high score.
“Yellowfin’s applications for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms are all native and support total device independence,” said Damen. “Users can simply log into their existing Yellowfin account and gain instant access to their report content - there’s no need to re-create content for the mobile platform, or repackage it for mobile distribution.
“Users can access and interact with their business data whenever they need to, the same as they would from their desktop back in the office. Users can filter results, drill down and through data, comment on and email reports to make critical business decision in real-time.
“Yellowfin’s 100 percent Web-based mobile applications also address security concerns – no data is stored on the device, meaning the confidentiality of sensitive business data is assured.”
Dresner said that whilst organizations should consider a raft of issues when selecting a BI solution to support a mobile communications network, the ability to support multiple platforms was a key factor.
“Business Intelligence vendors will have to support multiple mobile platforms, because the reality is, organizations have many of them [mobile devices] and they’re going to be around for a while,” said Dresner.
“There are lots of different devices out there, and it’s very difficult for them to standardize and [organizations] want to make sure that they get the full value of the investment that they’ve made. Whether it’s… an Apple device or an Android device, you shouldn’t have to standardize on a platform. You may choose to, but you shouldn’t have to as it relates to a Business Intelligence solution.”
Yellowfin for the Black Berry platform is expected to be launched within the next 12 months.
What is Business Intelligence software?
BI refers to a broad range of computer software applications and tools used to report, analyze and present data in a range of formats, to help businesses identify trends and opportunities, and support fundamental decision-making.
About Yellowfin
Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia. Yellowfin is a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution.
For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:
Lachlan James, Communications Coordinator on +61 03 9090 0454, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi
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