Market Perspectives

ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Mobile Analytics: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research.

The processes and technology of the mobile analytics software industry play an instrumental role in enabling an enterprise’s business units and IT organization to optimize data in both tactical and strategic ways. To accomplish this, enterprises must provide technology to access the data, generate and apply insights from analytics, communicate the results and support collaboration as needed.

ISG Research defines Mobile Analytics as the ability to view and interact with data and analytics on all mobile devices, including phones and tablets. These capabilities can be delivered via native applications; responsive, web-based applications; or a combination. For many years, mobile analytics were delivered via third-party providers specializing in these applications. Today, nearly every analytics software provider offers a mobile application.

The early days of mobile analytics preceded responsive, web-based displays. This also meant that mobile analytics were developed and maintained separately from desktop or laptop analytics. The premise behind these early mobile analytics efforts was to make them available to line-of-business workers as needed in the normal course of conducting business.

Today, accessibility alone is not sufficient. Expectations for mobile applications have grown dramatically. Now, it means providing access to rich, mobile analytics for a workforce seeking to conduct business in any location at any time. Many workers need these mobile capabilities to do their jobs as they switch between desktop/laptop devices when in the office and mobile devices when outside the office or even when attending an internal meeting. Integration between these two modes is critical, and organizations must choose analytics platforms that can deliver on these needs.

This Buyers Guide assessment focuses on the challenge of delivering analytics and business intelligence on a variety of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. When it comes to smaller devices such as smartphones, it may not be realistic to expect full-blown analyses due to the small form factor, but screen resolution on larger devices such as tablets can support nearly any type of functionality that mobile workers require. These needs are substantial: two-thirds of enterprises (67%) consider it important to access analytics from mobile devices, and more than two-fifths (45%) of organizations report that it is important or very important to be able to address data preparation tasks on mobile devices.

Analytics providers are divided in the approach to providing mobile capabilities. Many software providers invested in developing applications that are native to the two platforms that dominate the mobile landscape: Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating system. Other providers opted to invest in an HTML5 approach, often in combination with a helper application that provides some of the native capabilities, such as participation in the store or marketplace where applications are distributed. Our research suggests that both approaches can be effective. Regardless of the approach, workers need to be able to access the same information whether they are in the office or not. Consequently, we assert that through 2026, enterprises will prioritize investment in analytics products that facilitate seamless switching between mobile and desktop devices to conduct business in any location at any time.

Software providers also differ in the approach to designing mobile applications. Some take a design once and deploy anywhere approach, where every visualization is available on all devices. This approach requires some interpretation of the best mobile layout for each analysis. For instance, a dashboard may consist of four individual visualizations, each occupying one quadrant of the display. On a small mobile device such as a smartphone, these are often presented with each visualization occupying the entire screen and vertical scrolling enabled to move through all four. Other providers offer a mobile design view that provides the opportunity to preview how the devices will display information as well as design visualizations specifically for mobile devices. The former approach makes it easier to build and manage the applications. The latter allows for more control over limited screen real estate for mobile devices.

The small form factor of these mobile devices, especially smartphones, has helped push the boundaries on ease of use. Users can’t be expected to make multiple selections and

accomplish complex interactions using a small display, so software providers simplified how tasks are performed. In addition, mobile devices offer capabilities such as voice interaction, location information and cameras that can enhance the user experience. Voice interaction can interact with natural language queries and natural language responses. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence, we are seeing more natural language usage, including multilingual capabilities. As support for wearables becomes more prevalent, voice interaction could make those devices much more interactive. In some cases, mobile device information can initiate queries or charts based on location information. Cameras can identify products on retail store shelves by location to help drive sales analyses and projections.

We are also seeing a growing interest in—and increasing capabilities for—collaboration in conjunction with analytics. Two-thirds of enterprises report using or planning to use collaboration with analytics. Collaboration enables organizations to derive more value from analytics by sharing results and interacting with others who use the information in business operations. Collaboration also helps make it easier for individuals to find the information or analyses they need quickly. Mobile technology is critical for successful collaboration because it reaches far into the community of potential collaborators. Users can be informed via mobile devices that a topic of interest requires input or that new information is available.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Mobile Analytics evaluates software providers and product capabilities in three key areas: data, analytics and communications. The richness of the data model and the variety of data sources are important to enabling a mobile workforce. The types of analytics displays and interactions, including mobile-specific capabilities, are evaluated in addition to how mobile analyses are developed and maintained. The communication of information via mobile devices is evaluated, including the types of devices supported, the types of visualizations and interactions available and whether users can collaborate via mobile devices.

This research evaluates the following software providers that offer products to address key elements of mobile analytics as we define it: AWS, Cloud Software, Domo, Google, IBM, Idera, Incorta, Infor, insightsoftware, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Qlik, SAP, SAS, Sisense, Salesforce, ThoughtSpot and Zoho.

This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of mobile analytics software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.

We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating mobile analytics offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.

The Buyers Guide for Mobile Analytics in 2024 finds Oracle first on the list, followed by Microsoft and Domo.

Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.

The Leaders in Product Experience are:

• Oracle
• Microsoft
• Domo

The Leaders in Customer Experience are:

• Oracle
• SAP
• IBM

The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:

• Oracle, which has achieved this rating in six of the seven categories.
• Microsoft and SAP in five categories.
• AWS, Domo, Google, IBM and Qlik in one category.

The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.

Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle mobile analytics, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.

ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our mobile analytics blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.

You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.