Collaborative social decision making had a stronger impact than expected in 2012, according to QlikTech regional vice-president, Phillip Beniac, who was pleasantly surprised by this shift in the business intelligence (BI) market.
“If we look at the BI market, it really is more about how applications relate to the people in the field that are trying to make business decisions,” he said.
Looking at the market in general, Beniac recognises that businesses are having to grapple more and more with events that they have not planned for or are unable foresee on a real time basis.
“That’s why the infrastructure and the capability of BI is much more in the forefront than what it was before,” he said.
As businesses are faced with more and more challenges, such as where the market and their competition are heading, Beniac said they are looking at their infrastructure and wondering how they can deliver that information to their users in a speedy and timely manner.
“Having been in the BI market for nearly 30 years in one way or another, there is a definable gap that has shaped up around that, and it is more pronounced than what it was before” he said.
Got to get it all
When it comes to BI in 2013, it will be about how businesses can get attuned to their data and have the flexibility to use that data in an effective way.
This includes having the governance processes around that to make the most of it.
“It is about having accessible data in a flexible environment are going to be continual pressure points around data governance and the collection of data,” Benjac said.
Businesses increasingly want to be able to collect everything that may be useful in the future, but Beniac says they also want to collect it in a way that has some structure around it.
“This has been one of the big issues that companies are facing,” he said.
“So a lot of companies have tried to create a product platform that tries to all of these issues, but it is not functional or usable to user communities that need the information on a timely basis.”
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.