The lack of a defined data strategy, isolated data silos that cannot provide "one version of the truth", a reliance on a single stack vendor and budget constraints are the top issues facing companies struggling to extract useful business intelligence (BI) out of their data, says Qlikview evangelist John Sands.
Sands will discuss the benefits of natural analytics at the upcoming ninth annual ITWeb BI Summit, in Johannesburg, next week, where he joins several other top influencers who will assist C-level executives and senior BI practitioners to maximise their initiatives in this space.
"Natural analytics is a technology and design approach that taps into people's natural ability to search and process information by detecting patterns, comparing, sorting and categorising information to anticipate outcomes, collaborate and make better business decisions," says Sands. "It enables all users to explore complex data, making and sharing discoveries using natural human abilities rather than being taught advanced techniques.
"It is a design approach and philosophy for business discovery. Business discovery defined a new type of business intelligence that allows users to access data themselves without waiting for IT, something called self-service BI."
In Sands' opinion, among the main reasons that BI implementations fail are speed and user adoption. "If software is designed for our natural abilities to make sense of complex data, all people in an organisation can not only use the software, but gain understanding and collaborate for decisions far quicker than through a linear process confined by technology limitations.
"User adoption is also important. BI adoption has not budged since 2005 and still remains at about 25%. It comes down to this - if people like using a technology, if they find it natural, they'll use it repeatedly and become skilled in its use. Naturalness equals greater adoption by users.Greater adoption means greater ROI from the software investment."
Sands will cite various case studies in his presentation at the ITWeb Business Intelligence 2014 Summit, which show the benefits Qlikview's clients have realised through natural analytics. Click here to access the programme for the event and to book before registration closes.