Putting Risk and Performance Information in the Palm of Your Hand
This year, the Aberdeen Group has released two linked papers on mobile BI (business intelligence). They are both available with free registration:
- 2012 Strategies: Putting the Intelligence in Mobile BI to Work
- Mobile BI 2012: Accelerating Business on the move
Their message is clear: putting access to information in the hands of management and employees improves the timeliness and quality of decisions, and helps enable improved performance.
Mobile BI (described here) refers to the ability not only to see dashboards and other visualization of information on mobile devices (tablets and smart phones), but in most cases to analyze that data directly on the device. Generally speaking, the device is connected over the internet to enterprise systems so that the data is current and subject to corporate internal controls.
Key points include:
- 46% believe that mobile BI will give them a competitive advantage
- The average time to make a decision is just 66 hours for those with this technology enabled compared to 190 days without
What does this mean to board members, risk, and assurance professionals?
- Board members can get not only their board books on their iPad, but intelligent dashboards that enable them to drill down into and explore the numbers
- Board members, executives, and practitioners can get real-time alerts of changing conditions delivered to the palm of their hands for rapid response
- Risk information can be delivered to managers, enabling them to make business decisions based on the risks today (assuming risk monitoring is in place)
- Practitioners can continue to monitor risk conditions even when not at their desks. In addition, they can monitor performance – and I continue to assert that Key Performance indicators provide a window into how well risks are being managed
- Internal auditors can explore CAATS on the go! This new technology is simple to use and will improve the quality of the audit
- Internal auditors should consider the quality of information when assessing internal controls. After all, Information and Communication is a COSO component!
I welcome your comments and perspectives.