SAS, a provider of business analytics software and services, has formed a strategic agreement with MeLLmo, creator of Roambi software, to be the exclusive worldwide provider of Roambi ES for SAS. The agreement enables delivery of mobile BI to enterprises worldwide with Roambi ES for SAS software and SAS Enterprise BI Server.
"We have had a lot of interest from existing customers who have tremendous BI assets that they want to make more broadly available," Lisa Pappas, product marketing manager at SAS, tells 5 Minute Briefing, who emphasized that mobile access to business intelligence is one of the key ways to increase adoption. Despite the maturity of business intelligence, the adoption rate hovers around 25% in terms of the number of people consuming the information versus those that could potentially take advantage of it, she notes. "And, for companies that are trying to align strategically, one of the ways that they can do that is by sharing the key performance metrics, the things they are tracking, as broadly as possible. Mobile access gives them a way to do that."
The new technology transforms SAS business intelligence reports and data into immersive, dashboard-style analytics, delivered to compatible mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone and iPad and the BlackBerry Bold and Torch. By expanding the reach of their existing BI infrastructure to mobile devices, organizations can respond to market changes and customer needs with greater agility. For example, regional managers can monitor retail sales monthly performance trends, drilling down by state and by product category to compare profit margins and detect sales trends to guide purchasing and inventory decisions. Reports can be cached to devices for offline viewing and updated reports fetched when online. With flexible collaboration options, managers can share insights for timely response to market changes.
In addition, an important aspect of this solution is that what organizations deploy to mobile respects the access and authorization that has been set up at the enterprise level, says Pappas points out. Once a report has been made available to mobile devices, how far users can drill down is determined by enterprise credentials which specify what they are allowed to see and do. "There is no additional administration."
More information is available about Roambi ES for SAS, Roambi and SAS Enterprise BI Server