Ease and Use of Functionality - A QlikView Perspective 

By Philip Duplisey - Senior Manager, Consulting Services - Bardess Group  

I spent the last few weeks on the road, onsite with clients, and a recurring theme has been the "Ease of Use" of a BI solution and the often times contradictory ability of that software to solve complex business problems. These clients in particular, had extensive experience deploying enterprise-wide BI solutions with traditional stack BI vendors, SAP Business Objects and IBM Cognos.  Click to see 2010 Gartner Chart of "Ease of Use" vs. Functionlity.

The progress we were able to accomplish in a few days and weeks with QlikView astounded them. In their experience, it usually takes months of development before data can even be visualized, and then an equally long period of validation. With QlikView, we were checking chart totals against their production reports within hours. Moving on in confidence knowing our dataset control totals matched the production reports, we start to build out the visualizations. Most of the first and second day I let them "drive" and use the wizard to create all kinds of interesting visualizations of their data. It's normal to hear things like, "we've never seen this relationship before", or "this is so easy"!

There are 2 main requirements I have for an engagement to go smoothly:

1. Data that is of fairly good quality (QlikView has ETL functionality, so denormalization and transformation of the data is possible, but if the data quality is bad, this process can be time consuming).
2. The SME (subject matter expert) I'm working with is exactly that, an expert. They know their data and they know the business processes and workflows that created the data. Also important is that they know how decision making will be supported by the application we build and how those decisions fit into the overall business process.

By the third or fourth day, the customization of the visualizations is starting to tax the general options available in the chart wizard. Instead of a stacked bar graph showing component contribution to the total, they want to try a waterfall chart. Or, instead of filtering data by making selections, they want the end user to be able to come into the dashboard and display the most current data by default. Year on year and quarter on quarter analysis is also particularly common.

It's at this point that I take over and demonstrate some of the advanced functionality QlikView has to offer. After admiring the results, I then hear, "that's great, but our end users aren't going to master these advanced features", and that is quite true. QlikView is a product that is BOTH "easy to use" and has deep product functionality. End users can achieve tremendous results very quickly and easily, and at the same time there is depth and breadth to the product that enables it to be able to solve complex business problems.

At the Bardess Group, we specialize in providing expertise on the cutting edge of what's possible in QlikView. We encourage our clients to go as far as they can in developing solutions to meet their needs, and then calling us in, if required, to incorporate the advanced functionality they require.

Contact us now for a free demo.   

Download a Personal Edition of QlikView. 

Bardess Group to be a Solution Provider Partner Sponsor at QlikView's North America Business Discovery Tour  

QlikView, a leader in Business Discovery -- user-driven Business Intelligence (BI), is hosting a Business Discovery tour in key cities in the U.S. and Canada to demonstrate how Business Discovery is transforming BI initiatives, from small and medium-sized businesses to the enterprise.

Bardess Group, winner of QlikView's "Move Fast Award" for Mobile Apps, will be a Solution Provider Partner Sponsor sharing how their organization can deliver value to companies by taking advantage of the QlikView Business Discovery platform.

Bardess Group will appear at the following locations:

• Raleigh - October 11
• Phoenix - October 13

Click here for more information and to register at no cost for any of these half-day events.   

Asset Management is a Business Process Every Business Can Use to Save Money and Improve Productivity

Part 1 of 4

For most businesses, the efficient tracking of their installed base or in-service equipment, and the management of their spare parts inventories are key factors in determining the prospects for internal productivity and customer service profitability. However, many organizations do not yet utilize a comprehensive asset tracking and management process to ensure the availability of quality data that can be used to generate the business intelligence that can ultimately save them money and improve efficiency. This is unfortunate, because the tools are readily available - it is simply a matter of making it a priority.  

What is Asset Management?

There are many definitions of "asset management", although most deal primarily with financial considerations. Some are based on evolving maintenance management systems, some on the management of factory floor equipment configurations, and some for the purposes of monitoring network equipment or even railway car and container locations. However, regardless of what situation or application your business deals with, the core definition remains constant - asset management is "a systematic process for identifying, cataloging, monitoring, maintaining, operating, upgrading and replacing the physical assets of the business on a cost-effective basis".

To be truly effective, the asset management process must be built upon a foundation of widely accepted accounting principles, and supported by the proper mix of sound business practices and financial acumen. It can provide management with an effective tool that can be used to derive better short- and long-term planning decisions. As such, it is something that every business should consider adopting - and embracing.

After years of studying and supporting the Information Technology (IT) needs and requirements of clients in all major fields of business, we prefer to define asset management in a more dynamic way, encompassing each of the following four key components:

1. An enabler to generate and maintain critical management data for use internally by the company, as well as with its respective customers and suppliers (such as installed base or maintenance entitlement data).
2.  A comprehensive process to acquire, validate and assimilate data into corporate information systems.
3.  A flexible system allowing for either the manual acquisition and/or electronic capture and reconciliation of data.
4.  A program with accurate and intelligent reporting of critical business and operational information.

Asset management is not merely the identification and inventorying of IT and related equipment; it is the process of making the assets you own work most productively - and profitably - for the business. Furthermore, it is not a system you can buy, but is, instead, a business discipline enabled by people, process, data and technology.

Next Month - Part 2 of 4 - Signs, Symptoms and Effects of Poor Asset Management 

September 2011
August 2011  

July 2011 

June 2011