BMi, a primary market research firm, initially adopted QlikView to streamline its financial reporting. Soon after, it discovered the tool's true value for its business - an uncanny ability to link multiple data sets onto a single, uniform platform. As a result, the firm delivers much improved research insights to its clients.
The need
Before QlikView, BMi generated financial reports in Pastel and various client research reports from primary research systems. This provided valuable intelligence for its retail and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) manufacturing clients - with just one problem, says Gareth Pearson, CEO of BMi Research. "Building reports was not user-friendly at all."
Using Microsoft SQL and Excel to generate reports, BMi reporting cycles were lengthy and error-prone due to data extraction processes that left the company vulnerable to error, omission and manipulation.
The solution
Astech, a QlikView consultancy, approached BMi through a business network, and BMi invited a demonstration of the tool's value for its business.
Jan Botha, Business Intelligence, Performance and Management Consultant at Johannesburg-based Astech, says BMi was sold on QlikView's ability to reduce human error as well as delay by going straight into the data source and presenting it in easy-to-use and highly flexible reporting visualisations.
The benefits
What previous outings with other BI tools couldn't accomplish in over a year, QlikView achieved in six months, Botha says.
Turnaround times
"QlikView dramatically reduced their 'mean time to reporting' - whether they wanted the data in QlikView or in the form of an auto-generated PowerPoint report, as before."
User power
QlikView's easy user interface hands power to the user, says Davide Hanan, QlikView SA managing director.
"Its patented associative logic eliminates the need to create cubes, and its stunning visualisations deliver valuable business discovery in easy-to-understand ways. The tool's in-memory architecture further speeds up queries, making it the ultimate user-driven BI tool."
Changing the culture
The old processes were hard to root out completely, Botha admits. "QlikView seemed almost too good to be true. But with proper executive buy-in, it was enthusiastically adopted and its momentum sustained over time. It is now entrenched in the culture of the organisation."
Botha says BMi doubled its licence count since the initial purchase. "They made it their own. Each time we develop a new app, they take it over. And the benefits are obvious. Instead of spending half their time getting the information together, they have much more time to analyse information."
Pearson says the adoption of QlikView has been professional and seamless, with Astech's involvement. "But what really impresses us is the pay-off in our business. Every day we discover new things that can be accomplished with QlikView, all in the interests of delivering a better service to our customers."
The future
High on the strategic agenda is to fast-track QlikView's adoption across the enterprise. "We have instituted an internal competition, The Qlikview Challenge, to incentivise uptake, appointed business champions to raise general awareness, and created monthly QlikView Days, where developers and users show off their QlikView tips and tricks," says Pearson.
And as more clients and prospects use QlikView themselves, this makes BMi's value easier to market, he adds. "QlikView's great strength is that it can get data from anywhere and consolidate views in formats anyone can consume, but when companies across the industry embrace it, the experience is that much more powerful for them and us."
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