Cognos, a vendor of business intelligence [BI] software announced this week Cognos 8 Go Mobile for SAP, mobile client software that will give SAP users the ability to access decision support information on handheld devices.
The rich client applet will be available for the Blackberry in the first half of 07 with a version for both Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems expected in the second half, according to Scott Lawrence, director of product marketing at Cognos.
The convergence of BI and mobile is not unexpected as the need for BI is being driven beyond C-level executives down to work group managers and knowledge workers while more and more companies are looking at mobile access to respond more quickly to events, according to Liz Herbert, a senior analyst with Forrester Research.
"If you just got off the plane and something happened that you need to know about a mobile solution is a must," said Herbert.
Other areas where mobile is playing an increasingly important role, said Herbert, is in team selling when one member of the team makes a change to the data and everybody else needs to know about it quickly.
Also, where products are commoditized as in relationship industries like financial services where a rapid response through mobility offers a way to differentiate other than on price.
Cognos 8 Mobile will allow users to view and interact with BI reports using SAP data sources as well as non-SAP transactional and warehouse data in a single view.
The application will give users views of dashboards, alerts and customer status among its numerous features.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on November 16, 2006 12:57 PM
