I Want it and I Want it Now

Such is the consumer of data in the modern age. They want their data anytime, anywhere. Sounding like a spoiled child, they are backed up by masses of people and by technology. And by three megatrends - the proliferation of mobile devices, cloud computing and social collaboration. It is possible for them to get what they want.

Companies who use the web for disclosing their information to their stakeholders, or to their partners and collaborators, need to respond fully to these trends. Lets take a quick look at what this means.

Mobile devices are evolving so quickly it makes it difffcult to plot strategy. However, we do know that smart phones are likely to be around for a while and that they are likely to have small screens but big capabilities. Information needs to be made available so it can be consumed on these devices as well as on more conventional devices. That part is not too difficult.

However, we also know that the consumers of data want to be able to work with the data themselves, rather than just receive a bunch of prescribed reports. That means they need to get the data into applications that are powerful enough to do good analyses. That's a challenge for the small devices, even though they are powerful. Also, people using any computers are increasingly using cloud apps for various purposes. The companies therefore need to provide the analytical ability and the logical way to do this is on a SaaS basis - in the cloud - so that the users don't need to worry about finding good analytical tools every time they want to consume some data.

Third, users are accustomed to social networks, and becoming more so. Collaboration is the key and understanding data is a natural for collaboration - between the organization providing the data and the consumers as well as between the consumers themselves. This is the way people work online, and the way companies need to provide their information.

So Mobiles, Cloud computing and social networking (see this related article) - all are key to the disclosure of information in the new and developing information environment.