Business Objects Mobile – Introduction

Hello BOgglers,

Just a change from series of BO Administration series to emerging trends in SAP Business Objects.SAP BO Mobile is going to be the topic of discussion in my upcoming blogs starting from this.

The shift from a wired world to a wireless world of connectivity with the advantage of smart phones and handheld devices has lead to a new era of mobile computing, especially in the field of BI. BO Mobile allows to access favorite BI reports, metrics and right-time data with a single click from a mobile device with the following advantages

• Make informed decisions with instant access to personalized information on the move, can be alerted about changes to critical business data instantly.
• Leverage existing BI investments & skills to quickly reach mobile users.
• Users can intuitively access familiar reports without a need for additional training.

Devices Supportability

BO Mobile supports broad range of mobile devices including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS and any J2ME 2.0-compatible devices.

Supported document types

• Web Intelligence documents
• Crystal Reports documents
• Limited gauge analytics (speedometers, barometers and thermometers)

Functionalities Supported

• Save documents locally and consult them offline, to mitigate network interruptions and minimize communication costs.
• Receive alerts when a document is modified, a condition is met or a schedule is run.
• Follow-up actions by clicking on report cells to launch an SMS, phone call or email.
• Set up a default document that opens automatically whenever log into application.
• Refresh reports to retrieve the most up-to-date data.
• View results using zoom and navigational shortcuts.
• Navigate to related documents via hyperlinks on reports.
• Drill on results to analyze detailed or summary data.
• Track data changes via customizable highlighting set up by the document creator.

Target Audience

Information executives: Users who needs to know a few high-risk KPIs at the right time, no matter where they are. A business case for this could be a sudden fall in sales or inventory levels brought to the attention of the respective director.
Field workers: Users of this segment work in the field and need specific information at specific times. A sales representative, while finding an unexpected opportunity, can browse for required historic information such as price negotiation, contract tenure to give immediate feedback to the customer.
Business analysts: Business analysts need a few strategic KPIs in addition to static reports.
Clerical member staff: This people occasionally need reports while they are on the move.

Limitations

• BO Mobile is not guaranteed to work on all mobile devices and operating systems.
• Report data sets can be large and can theoretically saturate available device memory. The unsatisfactory display of large data sets can be mitigated by designing smaller report views.

We will see more in detail about Mobile Architecture and installation and configuration in upcoming blogs.

Thanks for reading! Happy Blogging!  Read More about  Business Objects