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Why QlikView is different
QlikView makes business intelligence faster, simpler and more valuable. Its unique ability to show you a new third dimension of your data immediately uncovers information traditional business intelligence solutions can't provide. QlikView can therefore demonstrate valuable and compelling advantages over other alternatives either by replacing them or being deployed alongside them. QlikView could actually augment the value you already derive from your business intelligence investments. If you want to embark on seeing for yourself how QlikView creates value, read more about seeing and believing.
| What do you have? | Issues | Benefits of adopting QlikView | ||
| Nothing | No visibility of any performance whatsoever | Single company view improves decision making | ||
| Excel | Anarchy: everybody has their own version of the truth No ability to see associated information |
Unified and objective information that speeds up decision making and creates trust | ||
| Crystal Reports | IT overloaded by requests for new or changed reports Requires specialist skills Mapping to data sources is time consuming and restrictive |
Simplicity: user driven analysis reduces IT burden and improves knowledge sharing | ||
| SAP Business Objects / IBM Cognos | Restrictive and services intensive Requires extensive up front development Difficult to make ad hoc changes High data volumes impact system efficiency |
Rapid deployment saves money Limitless capacity for data volumes Delivers information from existing data warehouse Users in charge of what they want to see |
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| SQL Server Reporting Services | No ability to manage non SQL Server data sources Requires specific skills to develop |
Integration of all company data Presentation of previously unknown associated information Rapid deployment saves money Simple skills requirement |
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| Application specific reports |
Unable to source other application data |
Integration of all company data |
If you want to know a little more technical detail, scroll down the page but you can see from these simple comparisons that QlikView is something you need to see because it can unquestionably enhance the value you derive from monitoring your business performance, operationally, strategically or in terms of how you manage your skills base.
How does QlikView do this?
QlikView is the most rapidly deployable, customisable and comprehensive business analysis package available and it is the fastest growing solution in the world. Traditionally, rapid deployment has been attempted through detailed planning of specific deliverables. This can work for vanilla deployments, but fails whenever the client has specific needs, or when users start asking for information which wasn't planned in advance. This always happens. A customised QlikView application can be deployed within weeks, often just days and sometimes hours. This means specific customer needs can now be met quickly resulting in an unmatched ROI.
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What: QlikView was created with a simple premise: analysis should work the way your mind does. We enable this with patented and powerful associative technology that shows you information traditional business intelligence solutions cannot match. Association more closely mirrors the way the human mind works – people think in a non-linear path driven by building associations. |
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How: To achieve the goal of associative analysis, QlikView loads all data into memory and calculates metrics as the user clicks. We call this In-Memory Analysis. Operating in memory provides the speed, flexibility, ease-of-use, and visually interactive user interface that users get in seconds. You can also now also push live feeds into QlikView to track information like stocks, sports results and fast moving goods. |
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The Power of Simplicity: We operate on the right side of the law -- Moore's Law. With each generation of processor platform, QlikView can handle more and more data. Today, with general availability of 64-bit multi-core systems, there is no limit to what you can do with QlikView. |
Technical background
QlikView is game changing disruptive technology which has transformed business intelligence and can transform decision making and information access in your company.
Cubes: QlikView doesn't use cubes. It lets users access all the data they'll ever need and ask the questions they want answered. Cubes are pockets of data defined at the start of your business intelligence project. They gather in advance the data that you decide you want to look at. They are a 1980s solution to a very current problem, and it's only getting worse. When memory was expensive and data relatively scarce, cubes made sense. But cubes require pre-definition so they provide information only within the criteria they've been set up with. If users want to know more, they have to go back to IT and they won't get an instant response to their question. Even worse, as data volumes grew so the cubes became less efficient. Users who wanted to ask multiple questions of their data needed to wait for IT to rebuild cubes and there was a limit to the number of queries they could submit. So while they waited people went back to Excel and built their own version of the information they wanted. The result? Anarchy and a complete subversion of the purpose of the business intelligence project. It's worthing noting that QlikView can use an existing cubes-based architecture and deliver more value from it and therefore helps you protect existing investments.
Memory: Back in the day it was decided that QlikView would put the data it was going to interrogate in memory. It would be extracted from your data sources in the same way that a cube is loaded but it would have none of the pre-defined restrictions of a cube. Moreover, QlikView extracted data using its own in-built process, rather than forcing you to buy a separate solution to achieve this fundamental first part of your business intelligence project. This was a compelling proposition with 32 bit hardware. Now with 64 bit hardware pervasive, QlikView has no limits. On affordable hardware - rather than the complex infrastructures required for traditional BI solutions - you could look at a limitless amount of data and get instant responses to your queries. On top of that, QlikView's data load and compression means you can add as many dimensions and queries as you like, giving you complete power to ask anything you like, any time. Many traditional BI solutions require considerable additional processing power and plenty of time to return even simple queries against large data volumes.
Users: QlikView users don't need to call IT every time they want a new report. Once a QlikView solution is deployed, users are in complete control of the information they want and how they want it presented. This means IT can focus on strategic priorities and investments and do more to support the business. In Aberdeen Group's 2009 BI user survey, QlikView emerged as the only champion tool, and Aberdeen had to turn away more than 500 QlikView customers who wanted to publicy declare their love for QlikView. No other BI solution - perhaps no other business software - has ever engendered such a compelling and overwhelming positive emotional response.
Skills: QlikView is a single application platform for all your business intelligence needs. QlikView includes its own data extraction, transformation and load tools. It has its own graphical user interface design tool so you can create compelling ways for people to conduct analysis. The user training takes seconds. Compared with the myriad tools and services you'd need to deploy a comparable business intelligence solution from Cognos or Business Objects, you just need some common scripting skills. Simple!
More information
- Seeing is Believing - making QlikView work for you
- Business intelligence consultancy - thrive in the downturn