Johannesburg, 25 Nov 2009
QlikView SA, the local representative of the world's fastest-growing business intelligence (BI) software company QlikTech, used the first ever South African QlikView User Conference on 10 November, in Johannesburg, to unveil QlikView Version 9 - its flagship BI platform.
Davide Hanan, MD of QlikView SA (QlikTech's 2008 Partner of the Year), welcomed a near-capacity turnout of 350 QlikView users, including a QlikTech delegation led by chairman Mans Hultman and CTO Jonas Nachmanson.
A full-day speaker programme followed, offering among others a rare look at QlikView's roadmap and a range of top SA customer brand case studies - including Mondi Packaging, Distell, Rand Refinery, ICC Durban and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The day was rounded off with networking around the platform that analysts, media and competitors unanimously acknowledge as revolutionary today.
Deployments anywhere, anytime for anyone in the organisation
Providing companies with the ability to access and analyse real-time operational data for meaningful business answers, QlikView has set the standard for BI simplicity, usability and time to value, noted Hultman.
“Today, QlikView 9 builds on our long-standing success as the first and only BI tool to meet the needs of all business and power users. It works equally well in any size deployment and on any platform, and can be accessed anywhere and at any time - including on-premise, in the cloud or on a laptop or mobile device.”
In addition, QlikView 9 offers significantly enhanced enterprise manageability, performance and scalability, as well as real-time reporting capabilities.
Highlights of QlikView 9 include:
* Enterprise manageability - “While supporting larger-than-ever deployments through significant new manageability, performance and scalability as well as real-time data and reporting enhancements, QlikView will continue to support its foundational midrange market,” commented Nachmanson.
* Comprehensive, highly visual control panels - a single view of all QlikView servers and modules across an entire deployment.
* Load balancing - auto-senses multiple loads and automatically re-routes users.
* Field Frequency Calculation Optimisation - better handling of large, complex and concurrent queries without impeding performance.
* Supports data sets with billions of records.
* AJAX and Java Thin-Client Collaboration Support - sharing of user objects and shared objects between browser-based QlikView users, for collaborative analysis, and ensures the same version of truth.
* Real-time data - In-memory data is refreshed in real time, ensuring that analyses reflect reality in business-critical environments. For example, financial institutions can analyse trading patterns and call centres can evaluate agent performance.
* PDF report generation and distribution - seamlessly integrated into QlikView process flows, ensuring users requiring static reports automatically get them.
* Cloud availability - through Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Web service, QlikView 9 can be deployed in the cloud for shorter time-to-value, “elastic”, on-the-fly scalability and lower upfront cost. Companies running QlikView 9 in the cloud enjoy platform neutrality and can be up and running in 15 minutes.
* QlikView Mobile - QlikView 9 is the first BI tool that delivers a truly interactive mobile BI experience by taking full advantage of leading devices' native functionality. It supports iPhone, BlackBerry and Symbian-based smartphones. The new QlikView Java Mobile client further supports devices running Java Virtual Machine.
* QlikView Personal Edition - Create custom apps with no previous technical training or experience, with a fully functional, free downloadable developer tool for personal use - supported by community.qlikview.com.
* Enhanced visualisation and search capabilities - new, state-of-the-art visualisations, including detailed charting features and live chart backgrounds provide more analytical and display flexibility than ever. QlikView 9 also incorporates the BI industry's most comprehensive global search functionality, allowing users to search every QlikView field simultaneously, from anywhere in the application, with just one click.
An industry in transition
“The BI industry is in the midst of a major transition,” said Hanan, in conclusion. “Time to value and usability are now the defining forces influencing adoption. Our dramatic growth to date is a testament to that fact, with 63% growth on average over the past five years (internationally). In contrast, traditional BI providers are experiencing significant revenue declines and are surviving on maintenance and services fees.”
QlikView 9 is available as a download through community.qlikview.com and the QlikTech partner network. QlikView Personal Edition is also available as a download at www.qlikview.com.
Note to editors: The following analyst evaluations and surveys on QlikView's BI platform can be used in conjunction with this article, if required.
Critical acclaim:
Gartner's January 2009 BI Magic Quadrant listed QlikView high among the leaders, noting its disruptive technology, “most performant” status among equals, customer satisfaction and ease of implementation (freedom from a reliance on IT without undermining IT's role). Another Gartner survey put QlikView first in four out of five metrics.
A recent IDC survey of 800 global customers cited the following revealing figures:
* The satisfaction level is twice as high as the satisfaction recorded with other BI tools.
* QlikView achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 48, a new world record for the software industry. The NPS measures the willingness of customers to promote a product to other people.
* The software shows 186% return on investment, with payback after 198 days.
* Its implementation is accompanied by a 16% increase in revenue on average, 20% increase in cash flow, 34% increase in productivity, and 20% decrease in cost.
* Forty-four percent of respondents deployed QlikView within one month.
Aberdeen's January 2009 Aberdeen BI Axis lists QlikView as the sole champion among BI vendors, also noting its customer satisfaction and the likelihood of getting value from its implementations.
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