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Embracing the cognitive engine in the pursuit of insights from analytics


Johannesburg, 15 Oct 2018

Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are hard pressed to innovate, cut costs and utilise value, driving tools to streamline their operations. In a digital world, achieving this requires the ability to draw real insights from data analytics; and this in turn requires the ability to analyse data in a unique and powerful way.

James Hickman, MD, SA Qlik.
James Hickman, MD, SA Qlik.

Recognising this need in the market, Modernising Management (a Top 5 South African Qlik Master Reseller [SAQMR] Gold and OEM Partner) recently launched its innovative Analytics2Insights platform. The company's CEO, John Paul Kirton, confirmed the platform was born from a desire to help others reap the benefits of effective analytical insights.

"As a small, medium enterprise (SME), we gained great value from our own analytics on our own finance and productivity solutions," confirms Kirton. "We wanted to support other SMEs to gain insights into their own businesses, helping them make informed decisions, and teaching them how to take specific actions to drive and manage their own growth and success."

After two years of careful consideration, cloud research, development, testing and the inculcation of best practices, Analytics2Insights was officially launched on 1 August 2018. The solution itself is based on an OEM agreement between Modernising Management and SAQMR. Kirton first experienced the Qlik application while working in Finland, and it was a natural choice to partner with SAQMR in South Africa, knowing what the applications can achieve.

Having already won a Partner Innovation Award, it is clear that this is a solution that SAQMR believes in. According to James Hickman, Managing Director SAQMR, an EOH company, there is much excitement about the value that this solution will drive for customers. "We believe this solution to be a game-changer. Featuring high levels of innovation, and the inclusion of cutting-edge emerging technology, it will certainly help many small companies succeed."

The driver behind the development of the solution remains helping other businesses make better decisions, in order to enhance performance. When looking back, Kirton recalls that Qlik's investment in the cloud space gave Modernising Management the impetus it needed to begin developing the solution. As the businesses move forward, they do so with a focus on "1SAQlik"; working together to drive more value for customers.

John Paul Kirton, CEO, Modernising Management.
John Paul Kirton, CEO, Modernising Management.

This unique insights as a service, end-to-end solution is purpose-built for cloud-based services. As it goes further than simply delivering software, it is not considered a SaaS solution. "We've automated the integration to cloud platforms, proving pre-built, best-in-class, advanced analytical applications and reporting, built on Qlik technology," advises Kirton. "Customers have access to their insights within five minutes, so it's fully automated. The purpose is to empower organisations to achieve DIDA (Data Insights Decisions Action)."

Incorporating emerging technology, the cloud for cloud solution offers artificial intelligence (AI) pre-built within the analytical solution. This effectively delivers predictive and machine learning type models for recommendation within the solution. "An example would be our cash flow prediction model for Sage Business Cloud Accounting. Additionally, we will launch our chatbot early in October 2018, so users can ask questions from their analytics across various chat-based platforms," states Kirton.

The Qlik Sense platform also provides cognitive-driven self-service methods, allowing the application to generate recommended views, answers and visualisations of data. This supports the self-service drive and enhances the user experience, ensuring customers can build insights according to their preferred visualisations of the data. This cognitive engine ensures the more users utilise the solution, the easier it becomes; it learns and grows with the user.

"I do believe, however, that this will be most successful when planned as part of building data literacy and supporting the customer to really understand their data and how to interpret it. Once we have achieved this, then self-service is a natural progression of addressing the customer's requirements going forward," adds Kirton.

The solution, which is packaged for finance, social media and productivity, CRM, HCM is geared to help any business in any industry make better decisions, based on reliable data. With a simple online, instant subscription, the solution can be functional within five minutes, even when initiating the implementation from a mobile device.

Kirton concludes with a quote from Mark Twain: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Often, silo data-based reporting solutions deliver inaccurate information, which lead to poor decision-making power. "This is what we are fighting against through the delivery of an analytical AI-driven solution that gives users a comprehensive understanding of their business."

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Qlik

Qlik delivers intuitive platform solutions for self-service data visualisation, guided analytics applications, embedded analytics and reporting to approximately 40 000 customers worldwide. Companies of all sizes, across all industries and geographies, use Qlik solutions to visualise and explore information, generate insight and make better decisions. Qlik optimises business intelligence (BI) by harnessing the collective intelligence of people across an organisation. Qlik focuses on empowering people, by enabling everyone in an organisation to see the whole story that lives within their data.

South Africa Qlik Master Reseller

South Africa Qlik Master Reseller (previously known as QlikView SA) has been a member of the EOH group of companies since 1 July 2014, facilitating a great partnership that aims to accelerate growth for Qlik in southern Africa directly or through its specialised partner channel. SA Qlik MR's portfolio of products meets customers' growing needs, from reporting and self-service visual analysis to guided, embedded and custom analytics. Over 1 800 customers rely on Qlik solutions to gain meaning out of information from varied sources, exploring the hidden relationships within data that lead to insights that ignite good ideas.

These solutions bridge the gap between traditional BI solutions and inadequate spreadsheet applications. The in-memory associative search technology that Qlik pioneered, pioneered the self-service BI category, allowing users to explore information freely rather than being confined to a predefined path of questions. Appropriate from SME to the largest global enterprise, Qlik's self-service analysis can be deployed with data governance in days or weeks. The platform's app-driven model works with existing BI solutions, offering an immersive mobile and social, collaborative experience. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Qlik does business in more than 100 countries with over 40 000 customers globally. For more information, please visit www.saqlik.com.

Modernising Management

Modernising Management is a leading business intelligence and advanced insights provider. Its business focus is to deliver insights that are derived from a quality data process.

The company provides comprehensive analytics advisory, software implementation, training and support services. The experienced team of data architects, data engineers, business intelligence analysts and data scientists ensures the successful deployment of customers' advanced analytics solutions.

Editorial contacts

Raynique Ducie
Perfect Word Consulting
perfectword@trinitas.co.za