Birst debuts cloud BI tool for iPad

Agile business analytics provider, Birst has unveiled an industry first with the availability of its cloud-based Birst mobile business intelligence (BI) software development kit (SDK) for the Apple iPad, Market Watch says.

The new iOS SDK enables developers to quickly and easily embed highly interactive and visual business analytics, powered by Birst, into their own iPad applications.

Taking advantage of the iPad's unique gesture-based interface, developers can build robust mobile applications that can quickly and easily filter information of interest and drill into more detail on both charts and report tables.

Instead of having to invest time and resources in the “plumbing layers” of a BI stack, including the data warehouse and data integration, Birst says its new SDK lets independent software developers focus on building BI into their applications, TabTimes notes.

By writing to Birst Mobile APIs, developers can bypass complicated data integration, quality and consolidation issues that underpin BI implementations, the San Francisco-based company said.

Specifically, Birst said the SDK will let developers create apps that take advantage of the iPad's touch and gesture interface in its dashboard access screen that lets user swipe and scroll through report tables and move from one report to the next. More detail in a chart or table can be gleaned by a simple tap on the screen.