Ubiquitous Computing - an Application Domain for Business Intelligence in the Cloud?

A number of IT providers have introduced web-based services for management support that are discussed under the label "Business Intelligence (BI) in the Cloud". It has been argued that these Cloud products might become valuable complements to on-premise enterprise BI infrastructures by allowing a flexible addition of sizeable components, tools or - in selected areas - complete solutions. In this publication, it is discussed in how far a Ubiquitous Computing setting based on technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) or sensor technology could become a relevant application domain for "Cloud-BI". The main insights come from a literature review, a series of expert interviews on BI and Cloud Computing, and a case on spare parts logistics. The results indicate that the addressed domain indeed comes with business potential and highlight the need for further design oriented research.