by Keith Smith, Senior Consultant
During some recent interactions with colleagues, as well as current and prospective clients, I was again reminded how important it is that the platform used to develop your business intelligence dashboard applications be flexible. What, exactly, do I mean by this? Let me explain.
Your business, like most businesses, probably has lots of data residing in different locations. Some of it, perhaps, in an ERP system with an SQL Server or Oracle database and other pieces in Excel, CSV or text files. Or maybe some of it is in a data warehouse, or out on the internet, and more likely than not, all of it needs to be brought together prior to doing any meaningful analysis and reporting.
This is just one of the many reasons our clients love using QlikView. It has a flexible, powerful scripting engine that is built right into the product. Bardess helps clients identify critical data elements needed to measure and monitor different areas of their business. Together, we discuss how each element fits together and describe how easy it is for QlikView to connect to each one and load it into their custom application. Many times we’ll even demonstrate this capability in our very first conversation.
One of our current clients has an internal application developer that has simply fallen in love with QlikView’s scripting abilities, allowing him to connect to multiple source systems, extract, transform, and load data from these sources (ETL), and then publish his analyses for managers and executives. Just today, he mentioned how much he’s been able to do with QlikView in a relatively short time period, and that if someone told him he’d have to use another tool to do this same work, he would rather leave. NOW THAT’S SAYING SOMETHING!
Similarly, one of my colleagues at Bardess has been working on developing a dashboard prototype with a prospective client, using a competitive software product other than QlikView. He was surprised and shocked upon learning this product did not offer the ability to modify the data loading script after its initial creation. In other words, he needed to have all of his data sources identified, and script each one perfectly on the very first attempt!
In today’s era of data explosion, information overload and increasing complexity, flexible products like QlikView can offer quick relief. With an average implementation time of just 12 weeks, business users at all levels are spending less time gathering, and more time analyzing critical business information.
Are you interested in learning more about how Bardess can make QlikView work for your business?
Contact us today for a free consultation. We also invite you to learn more about QlikView by visiting our website, downloading informative articles and browsing our Success Stories.
About the Author
Keith Smith, a Consultant at Bardess, has been blending business data with cutting-edge processes and technology for the past 15 years. He looks forward to challenging projects that involve delivering the right information, to the right people, at the right time. He is especially interested in data visualization techniques that foster acceptance and comprehension of management performance dashboards.
