Posted by Noel Shannon on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 @ 09:31 AM
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.
Posted by Noel Shannon on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 @ 10:29 AM
At a time when there are massive problems in getting funds for new movies in Hollywood, Ryan Kavanaugh the 35 year old millionaire has bucked the trend by using software tools to gain insight into what works and what doesn't. In the short time since his company - Relativity Media - began operations his stature in Hollywood has appreciated tremendously thanks to his access to the one key ingredient that major studios and filmmakers alike are having an increasingly difficult time securing: money. In the last 6 years he has raised around $10 billion in film financing - and this during a time when the motion picture economy was in a severe downturn.
So that explains why everyone is trying to attract Kavanaugh. He finances or co-finances around 32 movies a year - and the major studios are only producing around a dozen or so each, per annum. According to the Internet Movie database, Relativity has produced 95 features since 2006, including Ghost Rider, Baby Mama, 3:10 to Yuma, The Pursuit of Happiness, Wanted and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Last year alone he had Burn After Reading, Duplicity; Fast and Furious; The Tale of Desperaux; The International; The Hangover; Zombieland; and State of Play, and both 9 and Nine, to mention a few. It's an impressive list and even his failures are honourable - of which most studio heads would be happy - e.g. Kevin Costner's Mr Brooks.
Kavanaugh explains how he does things differently when determining whether to finance a film. He uses a software program to cull data from every single film that's come out in the last 10 years - he tracks revenues, line by line and costs, line by line and of course profitability. He rates the actors and - thats the bit that requires intuitive skills - and then he runs them through 10,000 different simulations of box-office outcomes, then he calculates the percentage of times the picture would be profitable and how profitable it would be in each case. ‘'Ultimately, it's a tool that tells us that if the movie would have lost money a certain percentage of the time then it's too risky. It's not a magic movie picking system'' he says ‘'it's a movie rejection system.''
Business Intelligence can help you understand the data you have in your organisation and by understanding how it has behaved in the past will provide you with the basis for predicting future outcomes.
QlikPower, is a dedicated QlikView Partner focused on helping our customers realise the full potential of QlikView, that is why we give a free Trial together with free Professional Services to get your first application up and running
Click here to sign up for your free trial
Posted by Noel Shannon on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 05:21 AM
Lat month saw the official launch of the new Data.gov.uk portal. Advised by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt and others, the UK government has opened up all this data for reuse. This site give access to a wealth of government data and is under constant development. The aim of the site is to provide easy access to reams of public sector data, such as traffic, crime and housing figures. All this information has been made available free of charge, and can be consumed by third party applications. The hope is that the site will encourage individuals and businesses to find ways to make better use of this information.
As they say on their website
''We're very aware that there are more people like you outside of government who have the skills and abilities to make wonderful things out of public data. These are our first steps in building a collaborative relationship with you.''
The launch of the portal mirrors a similar project kick-started by the Obama administration last year to make US Government data available to the public in an open and accessible manner. Boris Johnson has also announced that data relating specifically to life in London will also be made available publicly and for free.
It seems 2010 may be the era of open data access. It's an exciting propsect to watch what people do with it! Here at QlikPower we have a number of ideas which we will be announcing shortly which will show you the power of QlikView to take real advantage of this valuable data source.
For more details on the new government portal, check out this BBC News article, or visit it for yourself here.
QlikPower, is a dedicated QlikView Partner focused on helping our customers realise the full potential of QlikView, that is why we give a free Trial together with free Professional Services to get your first application up and running
Click here to sign up for your free trial