QlikPower's Blog

Key Performance Indicators, Driving you to Success

Love them or loathe them Key performance indicators drive your life whether you are in a private or public organisation.  You can’t manage anything unless you “measure it” and “what gets measured gets done”, these are just two of the justifications for developing key performance indicators.  The objective of producing Key Performance indicators is to give you the information to allow you to make better decisions. 

In theory, Key Performance Indicators provide a series of measures against which you can judge success or failure.  They are intended to be quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization and their objective is to reduce the complex nature of an organisation to a small number of key measures. In practice, unless developed to improve the organisation, Key Performance Indicators can be a rod for your back. Too many Key Performance Indicators have no specific and achievable measures and they simply create more work without benefiting the organisation.

When you decide which Key Performance Indicators to use, it is important to use factors that are key to the organization reaching its goals. It is also important to keep the number of Key Performance Indicators small just to keep everyone's attention focused on achieving them. You should also define the Key Performance Indicators and keep them consistent from year to year.  In addition you will need to set agreed and achievable targets for them.  

Key Performance Indicators can, and should, be used by all parts of the organisation. They should be used to as indicators from which the necessary actions to rectify problems or resolve issues can be taken.

At QlikPower we have been able to spend more time with our customers developing appropriate Key performance indicators because we use QlikView as our Business Intelligence tool of choice.  By not building a data warehouse we can spend more time working with a company to identifying and implement the key performance indicators they will use.  

See how QlikView and Key performance indicators work with our new World Cup App. 

 

9 Emerging Trends in Business Intelligence

Kurt Schlegel is a vice president in Gartner Research, where he focuses on business intelligence and its ability to improve decision making and optimise performance. He joined Gartner in April 2005 with the acquisition of Meta Group, where he wrote extensively about the business intelligence market.

At a recent Gartner Summit on Business Intelligence he gave a discussion on emerging trends in this market, I have added my comments to his 9 points

1) In memory analytics: As memory capacities increase and costs continue to fall, it absolutely makes sense for us to use in-memory models to analyse data - it's faster and requires less pre calculation; it's only the software that has been built to take advantage of this technology that gives any benefits. Beyond super-fast analysis, one of the compelling features of QlikView business intelligence and a few other in-memory business intelligence tools is the ability to perform what-if analysis on the fly. For example, users can input budget values or price increases to forecast future sales. The results are immediately available and held in memory. In contrast, most disk-based OLAP tools would require the database to be recalculated, either overnight or at the request of an administrator.

2 ) Columnar databases: This is a discussion that has been rumbling on for decades, and in these days of multi-billion row tables and petabyte-sized systems, you might think that columnar databases make more sense than ever, but not everyone agrees, particularly those who argue that analytics is better through row-based models.

3) Cloud: The Cloud isn't the problem here. The existing players are having trouble moving their pricing models to a SaaS model with the consequent reduction in upfront revenues. So I expect it's the new entrants like GoodData that will start to rise here.

4) Interactive visualization: The right graphics deliver insight faster and deeper than simple pie charts. But can the front line troops really understand a scatter plot?

5) Integrated search: I think the Google interface should dominate here.

6) Mobile Business Intelligence: iPhone and IPad applications are already available from some business intelligence vendors like QlikView.

7) Analytical MDM: Master data management combined with brains and analytics can help solve the multiple version of truth problem plaguing most companies. This is the solution to the data quality morass, but it will take time.

8) Data mash-ups: In an increasingly unstructured world we are going to need solutions that combine internal structured data with an exploding growth in social media.

9) Scenario modeling:. In memory analytics and increased computing power will allow everyone build sophisticated what-if models based on vast quantities of data.

To see how QlikView and in-memory business intelligence works, check out our WorldCup Kick It & Qlik It App.

Free QlikView World Cup Application

QlikView has developed a FREE World Cup application so that soccer fans can enjoy discovering how Business Intelligence is great for discovering hidden facts and statistics really quickly from all the available data on World Cup performances.

Known as Kick IT and Qlik IT, this application gives World Cup fans a quick and easy way to discover unique facts and access comprehensive football data. Find historical data as far back as 1930, to as recent as the past hour of world football action. Analysis can be done by Year, Country, Player, Major World Tournament, or by dozens of other dimensions - like ‘'does player age equate to more wins''. Grow your football IQ! Qlik to see the fascinating facts and figures you can find in this World Football Fan App. Get the app now by going to http://www.qlikpower.com/kick-it-qlik-it/

QlikPower is the leading Professional Services and Implementation Partner for QlikView, the fastest growing Business Intelligence product in the world.

Why QlikView In-Memory wins over OLAP Technology

So why choose QlikView in-memory software over your traditional business intelligence tools? Let’s first talk about all the confusion. After many acquisitions and mergers in recent times such as SAP, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft, you now have a choice of multiple disparate solutions without any insight into the future of these products.

However if you did decide to purchase one of the many OLAP-based solutions over an in-memory product like QlikView, which one do you choose? Lets take SAP Business Objects for example. Do a search on Business Objects Intelligence Solutions and you will find SAP B.O. Voyager, Set Analysis, Predictive Workbench, XCelcius, Desktop Intelligence, Dashboard Buidlder, and many many more. Are you required to purchase the B.O. Enterprise XI platform as well?

If you have simple Ad Hoc analytical requirements, all you require is a simple solution. Select a product that does what it says with a simple pricing model. In-Memory software is the answer for many reasons. Many of the solutions owned by these large business intelligence vendors are OLAP based solutions. OLAP engines can be very limiting:

• Creating OLAP cubes is an iterative process that takes considerable time, requires specialist skills and involves significant cost. Consequently it’s often restricted to Sales and Finance only. Surely other department have important data too. Just try adding another data source.
• Cube builds often take many hours and are usually built overnight or at the weekend, so real time reporting is not possible. Can you really afford to wait?
• Business user requests to create alternative drilldown paths or change hierarchies must be referred to I.T. and seldom are prioritised, leading to frustration and low expectations
• The staff originally trained have moved on so innovation is scant, resulting in a ‘it’s not broken so don’t fix it’ mentality So what’s the solution?

Learn more about the limitations of OLAP-based solutions, how business had changed, and what the advantages are of selecting QlikView in-memory business intelligence tool. Join our free webcast on How much is your business intelligence software costing you?

Join QlikPower in How much is your business intelligence software costing you?

NOAD for QlikView

NOAD for QlikView!  Recently announced, QlikView has formed a new partnership with NOAD, a leading provider of high-performance, enterprise platform management software for BI applications. The announcement states that NOAD's "EQM product suite provides customers with solutions to cost effectively control change management, automate and monitor business intelligence life cycle processes, conserve resources and control costs on an enterprise scale". This is great news as the existing Qlikview product suite does not lend itself to easily managing change, especially in a multi-developer environment. Tracking changes with ease has always been on my Qlikview wish list. Although the press release does not refer to it, I am hoping that NOAD for QlikView product will contain a module for merging versions of Qlikview documents. From a development perspective there are not many weaknesses to be found in the existing Qlikview suite but the absence of a merge facility has been an inconvenience for my colleagues and I over the years.

This partnership is an excellent move for Qliktech as NOAD for QlikView will also provide complete transparency of the BI life cycle. With ever increasing regulation, Qliktech now have an offering that enables blue chip organizations to remain compliant on an enterprise scale. BI projects and processes can be defined, controlled, monitored and audited through all phases and the deployment facility will assist in alleviating security concerns. Surely such additions to the Qlikview suite can only strengthen the phenomenal growth of the product. All the more reason to understand how much your business intelligence tool is costing you and understand how in-memory technology has found its way to the front of the line with business intelligence products.  I wait in anticipation for the release of Qlikview 10 and cannot wait to see the latest batch of new features and functionality. Previous new releases of Qlikview have always invigorated my passion for the product and I am sure that NOAD for Qlikview and QlikView 10 will follow suit.

To learn more about in-memory technology and how much your business intelligence software is costing you, join this free webinar.

Register here: http://www.qlikpower.com/how-much-is-your-business-intelligence-tool-costing-you

Darren Kerfoot - Senior BI Consultant with Qlikpower

QlikView In-Memory Business Intelligence Moves in on Cognos PowerPlay

QlikView in-memory business intelligence has moved in on Cognos PowerPlay like the iPhone has moved in on the old brick mobile phones with attached antennas.  PowerPlay was one of the world's leading OLAP based analysis tools. However, it was also originally developed back in 1990.  For old technology it functioned, but new needs and higher demands were developed, similar to the evolution of mobile phones.   QlikView in-memory was created out of these demands. As businesses changed, as requirements increased, and data became more complex, technology improved to meet these needs.  Unbelievably PowerPlay is still being used by some organisations today; so why the ‘perceived' loyalty?

As a former Cognos partner, I know of many reasons:

• A large economic investment was probably made in the product originally
• It took a long time to implement and ‘bed down' the original solution and there is no appetite to go through that pain again. Upgrades are difficult enough.
• The traditional Cognos rivals like Business Objects, SAS, Hyperion and Microsoft all have similar offerings using the same OLAP based technology, so why switch horses!

But the software does have its limitations:

• Creating OLAP cubes is an iterative process that takes considerable time, requires specialist skills and involves significant cost. Consequently it's often restricted to Sales and Finance only. Surely other department have important data too. Just try adding another data source.
• Unlike in-memory business intelligence, cube builds often take many hours and are usually built overnight or at the weekend, so real time reporting is not possible. Can you really afford to wait?
• Business user requests to create alternative drilldown paths or change hierarchies must be referred to I.T. and seldom are prioritised, leading to frustration and low expectations
• The staff originally trained have moved on so innovation is scant, resulting in a ‘it's not broken so don't fix it' mentality

In-memory business intelligence gives you the flexibility and ease of use technology to analyze your data when and how you need it.  To better understand the challenges of businesses today, and how decision-making and data analysis has changed since the purchase of your business intelligence tool register for "how much is your business intelligence tool costing" you and learn how you can fix the current issues that your company may be challenged with today.

Register Here:  How Much is Your Business Intelligence Tool Costing You?

How is QlikView doing on Twitter

QlikView's growing market share can be measured in many ways but it's in the Social Media that we can see the most dramatic results.

In case we didn't already realise the growing importance of Social Media for promoting our products and services just consider the following chart:-

 

This shows that in the last 182 days Twitter was responsible for 64% of all Social Media Activity for QlikView. This compares with News at 18%, Blogs at 14% and Forums at 4%.

This shows the importance of Twitter for brand recognition.

By using SiliconCloud's Internet Marketing tools you can optimise your traffic, convert into leads and engage with the social media. www.siliconcloud.com

QlikPower is the leading QlikView Business Intelligence Solutions Partner for the UK and Ireland market.

We provide QlikView Licences and Support at the most competitive prices and a top quality Professional Services team to deliver the best value consultancy training and support.      Qlik here to contact us now

 

10 Reasons Business People Love QlikView

10 Reasons Business People Love QlikView
And why we think you should check it out.

1.    You don’t have to be a guru to be a power user, so there’s less reliance on IT to generate reports. A business person proficient with Excel or Access will quickly become competent whereas a good SQL programmer will quickly become a development guru.
2.    BI gurus love it too, read this post
3.    Analysts speak highly of it.  Read IDC, Aberdeen and BARC.
4.    2,000,000 users…96% customer satisfaction rating*
5.    Customers make movies about us, check it out
6.    44% deploy QlikView in 1 month or less…77% deploy inside of 3 months*
7.    Nobody ever got fired for recommending QlikView (we’re the only BI vendor offering a risk-free, 30-day money-back guarantee)
8.    We’re the only BI vendor delivering immediate value with payback measured in days or weeks (198 on average*, to be precise), rather than months, years – or not at all
9.    TCO 53% lower than those other solutions… 34% increase in productivity*
10.    You can play with the developer’s version FREE… Click here (or Qlik)

*IDC/QlikTech Joint Survey - Click here (or Qlik)

One more thing, QlikView often sits comfortably with other BI solutions, so don’t worry if you already have SAP, Oracle or some other BI tool.

A quality product needs a quality partner and with our impressive track record, we believe that QlikPower fits that bill.

Should you wish to evaluate QlikView or have any additional questions we’d be delighted to help you.

Pastures Greener - is it time to say BI BI with QlikView?

To ‘’emigrate or not to emigrate’’ – this is a thought on many people’ minds at the moment as they experience the current gloomy economy and contemplate their future. Maybe it’s time for pastures greener…

 

 

How about experiencing the American Dream, the freedom of Australia or the exciting opportunities evolving in the Middle East? There are lot of options but which offer the best ‘quality of life’?

 

 

The term “quality of life” is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies (Wikipedia).

People perceive many different things when they speak of quality of living. It is a broadly used term and for individuals it may differ according to their personal situation.

 

But besides the subjective and personal estimation we all make of our situation, there are also some important aspects that are more or less ‘objective’: personal safety and security, health issues, transport infrastructure, availability of consumer goods , adequate housing and schooling, recreation opportunities and the interaction of political, socio-economic and environmental factors.

 

There are a wide range of quantative measures that are used to describe quality of life. In the following QlikView business intelligence application, a few of these can be analysed:

 

Please Qlik (or click) on the link below. 

 http://community.qlikview.com/media/p/101681.aspx

Blue Tree choose QlikPower

 

Blue Tree Systems is a leading provider of Fleet Management solutions to the transportation industry. Dave Miller, Software Development Manager has chosen QlikView  to help improve their reporting and analytical capabilities