Five years ago, though, analytics was an Excel spreadsheet from accounting, or a complicated application that corporations spent millions on and business analysts pulled data from with blood, sweat, and tears. We’ve already come a long way, but in just a few more years, a full 25 percent of analytics capabilities will be embedded within business applications, according to Jaspersoft, which powers 130,000 apps with embedded business intelligence features.

But we’re not there yet.

Even though analytics is already a $34 billion industry, only 25 percent of workers have access to BI tools — mostly due to costs that are still too high, and complexity, which is still too great.

More data, and the solution, in the infographic below:

photo credit: pmarkham via photopin cc

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But let’s face it: That train is in the station. What’s next?

Also see: Forrester’s top 10 mobile trends for 2013

Analyst Bryan Hopkins gave us a peek into what Forrester thinks is next, and much of it builds on those four horseman of disruptive change. “We went a level deeper in our research by examining how today’s hot technolog[ies] create platforms for future disruption,” he wrote this morning in a blog post.

Here they are, in four groups:

End user computing technologies

1. Next-generation devices and UIs
   New sensors and new user interfaces. Think Leap Motion
2. Advanced collaboration and communication
   Think social inside, like Yammer or other social-inside-the-enterprise solutions
3. Systems of engagement
   Real-time data, in everyone’s hands. Think Roambi

Sensors and remote computing technologies

1. Smart products
   Thing that can sense, react, and communicate. Think operating system for places and buildings
2. In-location positioning
   GPS and in-building location sensors
3. Machine-to-machine networks
   Background intelligence on people and things. Think ReelyActive

Process data management technologies

1. Smart process applications and semantics
   Real business processes are a lot messier than your flow charts. Smart process apps know that.
2. Advanced analytics
   Smarter, more predictive data. Think Cloudera’s Impala tool for Hadoop
3. Pervasive BI
   People need business intelligence that comes every hour, not at the end of the month
4. Process and data cloud services
   Scalable, burstable, and cheap computing capability. PaaS, BaaS, etc. 

Infrastructure and application platforms

1. Big data platforms
   Infrastructure to handle big data and high speed … and use all that data you’ve been uselessly storing
2. Breakthrough storage and compute
   Yes, hardware may still be necessary, even if you’re never going to be like Google
3. Software-defined infrastructure
   Software that dynamically routes your networking and data center capabilities
4. Cloud application frameworks
   Technologies for deploying and running distributed apps in the cloud, like, perhaps, a multi-continent-spanning database
5. New identity and trust models
   New federated trust and identity models for a changing world of jobs and careers … and maybe even killing all usernames and passwords

An interesting thought for executives:

If you want a good look at the future of end user computing technologies and sensor and remote computing devices, check winning Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns in the technology and gadget categories. And for a picture of the future for the last two groups above, process data management and infrastructure and application platforms, look at Google and Facebook.

photo credit: ginnerobot via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After revolutionizing the way companies can interact with their business data on the go with its Roambi app, San Diego-based startup Mellmo is now aiming to let you use that data to create gorgeous interactive reports and presentations with its new iPad app and publishing platform Roambi Flow.

The move is the next step in Mellmo’s plan to make business intelligence (BI) more accessible, and dare I say it, sexy.

Mellmo’s initial Roambi app integrates with existing BI systems, including Salesforce and SAP, letting business owners and executives easily make sense of their data with interactive charts, graphs and more. Now with Roambi Flow, that data can be used to create magazine-quality reports and presentations that can be shared more easily with any iPad user.

While demonstrating the app last week, Mellmo president Quinton Alsbury likened the advantages of Roambi Flow to the way the Wall Street Journal combines insightful editorial with useful infographics. Take away either one of those elements and the WSJ becomes less interesting.

The Roambi Flow Publisher application, accessible on any computer and through a separate iPad app, lets you create reports with drag and drop capabilities and templates. In addition to text and Roambi’s analytics, you can easily add in video, graphics and pictures that will help you better tell the story of your data.

To help protect sensitive data, the Roambi apps feature app-level remote wipe and password capabilities. The app-level security is key, since many users will be using their personally owned iPads to access the data, which makes wiping the entire device difficult (and even illegal in some countries).

Mellmo plans to release Roambi Flow in June, and it will require the company’s enterprise-level Roambi ES3 service. The company will follow that up with a “Phase 2″ launch in the fall that will open up Roambi Flow as an online service, which will let anyone create stunning reports even if they don’t have BI infrastructure in place (and without the need to subscribe to Roambi ES3). That’s something that small businesses and students will be able to take advantage of.

Mellmo just recently landed another $10 million in funding last December, bringing its total funding to $20 million.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive mobile trends at our fourth annual MobileBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the rise of 4G and how it delivers the promise of true mobile computing. MobileBeat is co-located with our GamesBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com.