Business Intelligence

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Which Industries and Fields can benefit from QlikView and Qlik Sense

QlikView is a tool which provides the user with insights into complicated data. It creates a platform for clear understanding of data so that it is easier to access and organise. Data management just got a facelift, and it’s looking good.

Qlik Sense goes a step further by organising data into a comprehensive, user-friendly platform. QlikSense is geared for self-service data visualization. It does this by comparing and analysing data automatically in a series of graphs, tables and charts that are easy to understand and easy to share with colleagues.

What industry or field would benefit from such innovation?

Field’s that have integrated the QlikView and QlikSense are moving up in the market and growing their businesses.

These platforms provide huge business growth for booming industries:

Manufacturing

Pharmaceutical

Insurance

E-Commerce

Marketing

Digital Marketing

Construction

IT

Finance

Customer Service

Betting and Gambling

Mining

Energy Companies

Travel- Airports, Train stations, Busses etc.

Aviation

Couriers

Agriculture

Medical and Healthcare

Education

Telecoms

Retail

Non-profit Organisations

Product Management

Business Analysis

Media

Entertainment- Television, Radio etc.

Real Estate

Music

Hospitality

Gaming

Technology

For the sake of saving time; QlikView and QlikSense are essential tools to have in your arsenal if your business works with large amounts of data.

It is changing the face of most industries as we speak! The easily accessible and understandable data compilation means you are on top of things at all times. You can search and gather relevant information with QlikView and share comprehensive visualised data with QlikSense. This makes those who use it true masters of their industry because they don’t miss a thing.

Don’t fall behind; staying in the game of big

industry data analysis

is key. With easy to use options your successful data business solutions are one click away. Business is a dog-eat-dog world, stay ahead of the pack with

QlikView and QlikSense.

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Did You Know That Business Intelligence is All About Presentation?

What makes Business Intelligence (BI) an invaluable resource of concise, accurate and relevant information is hard to define. The process of consolidating vast amounts of data into discernible chunks that can help stakeholders draw from a much larger pool of data when making key decisions; however, is that where BI begins and ends?

BI aims to consolidate data into relevant sets, but does that mean a cookie cutter model, which can be applied to varying situations, clients and data, should be used to extract information from your data? If it were that easy, you wouldn’t need a trusted BI consultancy to streamline your internal processes!

BI caters to the needs of unique clients. Hospitals often require, firstly, the consolidation of more types of data than a car manufacturing company might. Secondly, and here’s where BI truly becomes a creative process, every client requires a different approach to the representation of the data in question.

This final step of presenting data sets in an accessible manner to clients, which is the frontend of every BI project, can be done in different ways. Interactive charts open up an array of possibilities in which unique data sets could be made accessible to the target user.

Through the creation of custom dashboards, BI presents varying and complex data in an effective way. Let’s say, for example, that a private hospital requires a report of the patient count or traffic they experienced over fixed period of time (a month or a year). They also require a detailed report showing how long each patient spent in the institution, as well as their financial and personal information for administrative purposes.

BI specialists tackle this mammoth task by feeding data into systems; the systems categorise the data and then displayed on a single visual report – a picture is worth a 1000 words, after all.

Below is one representation of what such a dashboard looks like:

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Is Your Smaller Business Safe From Online Fraud? Probably not

Nothing has taught us more about the dangers of cyber warfare than Hollywood action-thrillers. We’ve all seen it: mastermind hackers hatch evil ploys to siphon off millions of dollars from titanic corporations, overthrowing capitalism in the process. But that’s Hollywood, right?

False, they don’t just make these things up. Since around 2005, cyber-attacks have been responsible for company losses of literally hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2009, for example, Albert Gonzalez installed spyware on Heartland Payment Systems’ software, allowing him and his team to expose 134 million credit cards. After being caught, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

So, fortifying your business against cyber-attacks isn’t really that taboo, but why does it still sounds a little airy-fairy to most of us? That’s because small business owners believe that hackers who can pull of heists like this have bigger fish to fry - but that’s where we’re wrong.

Hackers are after financial information that is left unguarded. If you leave your customer banking details and other financial information saved on a low-security cloud, they become a prime target for a cyber-attack that’ll leave either you or them hemorrhaging cash. If you deal with valuable financial information, then, make sure that you employ an air-tight data warehousing system that can shrug off any attempts at online fraud.

What’s more, smaller businesses are actually becoming a focus for cyber-attacks. Larger companies invest in high-level cyber security that generally force hackers to seek other targets. They don’t just target smaller companies, however – they target them all at once. Malware written to gain access to companies’ financial information are constantly circulating world-wide and, according to Trend Micro’s research findings, 3.5 new threats are detected every second.

Look into online security for your business, you never know when you may be a victim of online fraud.

Photo source

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Using Colour in Data Visualisations Effectively

Patrik Lundblad explained a few practical rules about data visualisations that I found very useful. As colour is one of the fundamental elements in data visualisations, adding powerful capabilities for encoding additional information or practically sorting all information, we need to use it to enhance information rather than accidentally overwhelm our audience.

Below are some important rules you need to keep in mind when using colour in data visualisations:

Do not use more than 20 colours in a visualisation. The fewer - the better.

Before using every possible colour to represent different data points, stop and consider human limitations. When it comes to data and associations of colour to specific data points, we need to remember that if we use too many colours, the purpose of colour associations will be dulled. To ensure the viewer can logically understand data, it is safer to stick to fewer than 10 colours.

Use colour to create a sense of belonging within data points.

One of the most effective ways to make use of colour in data visualisations is to show belonging between data points. Splitting up data with colour to show product categories makes it very easy for the viewer to navigate and understand the visualisation.

Image Source

In the graph above, we see how each colour represents a specific year. This category separation ensures that the graph is easy to read and understand

Use consistent colours across various visualisations to indicate relationships between data in different visualisations clearly.

The last practice ensures that all charts that share the same data values are effectively persistent. See the example from Patrik Lundblad’s article below:

In the second graph, we see the relationship between the tree map and the graph is consistent.

Article adapted from http://global.qlik.com/us/blog/posts/patrik-lundblad/data-visualization-foundations-color-by

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Implementing predictive analytics in medicine

Hearing the term ‘analytics’ in the Philosophy department usually refers to the application of logical techniques to attain conceptual clarity, while coming across it in Mathematics or Informatics departments generally refers to mining through data in order to create a logical consensus. 

At the end of the day, however, all disciplines implementing an analytic process do so from the same point of departure: creating precise conclusive information.

Humanity, then, is no stranger to streamlining multiple disciplines by using the analytic process, so why not extend its reach to make accurate medical predictions, as well? Predictive analytics (PA) uses technology and statistical methods to search through massive amounts of information, analysing it to predict outcomes for individual patients ("Seven Ways Predictive Analytics Can Improve Healthcare").

The evolution of medicine has largely been catalysed by its investment in technology and digitalised systems, but will, arguably, always require a human element to adapt medical methodologies to unique situations. Doctors are skilled practitioners that utilise past experience and knowledge to make situation-appropriate decisions when dealing with unique medical cases, but can this process be digitalised?

Applying a tried-and-tested predictive analytic solution to handling vast amounts of medical data in order to make correct diagnoses can be a seamless solution to handling the increasing amount of medical information that practitioners must acquire. However, this process can cause practitioners the discomfort of abandoning the instincts they’ve relied on in making crucial decisions. This should not be the case, as such processes should never dictate practitioners’ judgements, but rather facilitate their diagnoses and make sure that they have a wellspring of accurate information to draw from.  

Using predictive analytics can improve all fields of the medical industry, according to Linda A. Winters-Miner, PhD

·         It can aid in increasing the accuracy of diagnoses,

·         It can help develop preventive medicine and public health through its ability to produce individually-tailored health predictions and solutions,

·         It can provide stakeholders within the medical industry with predictions concerning insurance cost and other expenses, as well as increase the effectiveness of the medicine production industry.

Although streamlining the medical industry would be the main focus of predictive analytics, perhaps the largest benefit of its implementation would be its aiding in the creation of a global health conscious culture, where individuals can be aware of what specific health issues they are prone to and what lifestyle changes could best prevent such health issues.

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Do You Need A Qlik Specialist?

The biggest business intelligence mistake companies can possibly make is believing that they can predict what data they will need ion advance.

Yes, it is easy to say you need data that tracks your sales – but once you know that sales have dropped in a certain region you will want to know why. You will need more information than predicted. Thus, receiving reports of the information you asked for is simple – but needing to go back to IT and ask for more insights and more reports every time you want to dig deeper can be a hassle.

This is why you need a business intelligence programme that can “answer any questions”. The correct data platform will allow the business user to pull information at any time when they need answers – instead of only getting answers to questions asked previously.

B2IT in South Africa offers a range of business intelligence tools.

NPrinting is used by organisations to create and deliver automated reports based on Qlikview data and analytics. NPrinting can be filtered to create reports that are relevant to various individuals, it enables you to schedule and initiate tasks, and populate your reporting templates.

QlikView is an amazing analytics tool - QlikView developers create details applications that play close attention to charts and formula and data models. QlikView applications are used by the end user to view and navigate through data with ease.

Qlik Sense is a more modern version of QlikView – but it differs slightly. With Qlik Sense the end user is able to create their own layout and visualisations that they were not able to do with QlikView. With this the user in actively engaged and able to find exactly what they want without having to ask a developer.

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How BI Can Help Small Businesses

Small businesses have the opportunity to receive the following benefits:

Growth in revenues

Enhanced customer service

Increase in competitive advantage

Better efficiency

Better decision making

Access to analytics and data

Better inventory control

Business intelligence and big data were originally reserved for large companies with bigger budgets; however, small businesses are also using business intelligence, thanks to new, affordable technology and software.

Although these systems are affordable, they can definitely not be classified as cheap. Many companies invest in business intelligence solutions and waste money as a result of inadequate management and implementation.

Professionals in the industry offer advice to companies about business intelligence and how they can use it to help their decision making process. If the system is used correctly, small companies can reap the benefits of such as solution.

Through correct data interpretation, information can be very helpful when it comes to making informed decisions. Many companies have realised that making decisions that are not based on information and statistics, but rather on theory or a hunch, is too risky.

“Business intelligence allows executives to make informed decisions to avoid any setbacks.”

Business intelligence enables you to look at various factors that influence your business. If relevant data suited to your specific business is managed properly, it is able to boost most aspects of your business.

Business intelligence solutions are available to analyse your data for you. This means that you no longer have to take time to analyse your own data on different spreadsheets and instead get other work done.

Click here to learn more about business intelligence for small businesses.

Source: https://qlikviewblogsa.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/what-implementing-business-intelligence-can-mean-for-your-company/

Picture: Designed by Freepik

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How Can NPrinting Help Your Business

NPrinting is an application used to create, distribute and schedule reports using the data and analytics from QlikView. If your aim is to affordably send reports to the correct individuals in a timely manner, then NPrinting is the perfect application for your business.

The advantages of NPrinting are as follows:

Use the QlikView platform for both analysing and reporting.

Send the correct reports to the correct people. Create reports that send out if they meet certain data conditions.

Send out attractive reports to your clients. You are able to create attractive reports in various Microsoft Office formats or HTML reports using the data and analytics from Qlikview. The drag-and-drop function allows you to insert charts, tables, functions, etc. from Qlikview to create reports.

Create customised reports directly from a QlikView application when needed; such reports are customised for users using a pre-established set of filters.

For more information about NPrinting, visit http://www.b2it.co.za/.

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How Much Impact Do Your Pretty Pictures Have?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but is it? Your colourful graphs and tables have as much meaning as a speech full of beautiful words, but if not one trusts your graphs or believes your words they have no meaning.

It is easy for any guy to walk into a meeting, show a bunch of colourful graphs and charts and claim that his theory is correct because the data supports it. However any opponent can show a bunch of different colourful graphs and charts that claim their theory is correct too. Thus leading those watching to question that data used to form these supporting documents and charts.

In the end, no decisions can be made if no one trusts the data and information given, no matter how pretty the pictures were. This wastes time. Data should all be correct and trustworthy in order for a meeting to be worthwhile and for members to make data based decisions confidently.

However, the guy presenting these graphs and charts may well believe that he is correct – but how does he know that his data is correct if he was just using information given to him.

B2IT uses Qlikview to provide companies with correct data, and guided analytics, that they can trust. QlikView’s Business Discovery platform will not only help you to organise all your data in an efficient manner, but will also extract the information you need and present it in an easy-to-use, effective way. This helps businesses make informed decisions with the correct information and not solely based on colourful charts. It will also help in creating reports for clients or for business meetings.

While charts and graphs often help portray a message or information, they are not always necessary. A graph has no place in any business meeting if the supporting data is not sufficient.

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Leverage Business Intelligence and Advanced Infographics With QlikView

QlikView is a powerful tool aimed at helping businesses make informed decision based on advanced data analysis.

Working across almost all industries, and involving data points from within and outside the organisation, the QlikView system has been created to be easy-to-use and powerful.

As long as the data exists, QlikView can help you time your business decisions correctly and find the best opportunities to realise your fundamental business goals.

If the user becomes overwhelmed at any time, then the QlikView training courses - available in any country where the software is sold - have been created to help users get to grips with specific functionality.

Visit B2IT to see how QlikView can help you and your organisation. We do not only provide Qlickview solutions, we also show you how to use and manage your data to achieve your aim.

The software is customisable through an app creation process that allows widgets to be added, such as:

- menus & buttons

- maps & other images

- interactive & dynamic charts

- infographics

Once a small app has been built, it can be easily expanded to take advantage of new data points, until all the relevant information for corporate decision making has been included.

Everything is geared to gathering data, making associations, and then using patented business information analysis to present crucial decision support data in a logical way through visualisation.

It is the visual aspect of QlikView that makes it easy to adapt throughout the organisation, and come to decisions in a collaborative and unified way.

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RightQlik is The Right Utility to Download

RightQlik, a small utility that helps make developers’ work a lot easier! Although not many people have heard about RightQlik, it has been out for quite awhile and I believe it’s essential for people, especially developers, to know more about it.

RightQlik Convenience

RightQlik menu can be found by right-clicking on a QVW file and it allows assess to frequently used functions that are performed on a QlikView document, such as:

Opening a document without loading its data. This is mostly useful when you need something from a large document, or if document’s data has been corrupted.

Reloading a document. This enable you to run several QlikView document reloads by selecting them all.

Reloading the QlikView script and keeping the document open. Switching between QlikView documents or displaying them next to each other for convenience.

So, basically, RightQlik is another convenient, time saving tools for developers or anyone else that would like to become a QlikView Pro.

Picture Source<a href='http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/programmer-working-on-the-computer_765894.htm'>Designed by Freepik</a>

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The Characteristics Of An Excellent QlikView Developer

QlikView developers need to present a whole host of skills to be able to do their jobs well. These skills include coding, understanding the rules and principles of data, understanding the business, and company experiences with a variety of companies, a commitment to developing best practices and being willing to ask questions.

Coding: - A QlikView developer needs to be a competent coder in about four to five coding/programming languages simultaneously. These languages include QlikView Expressions, load script syntax, SQL statements (in various flavours), Set Analysis and VBA.

Understanding Data: - A QlikView developer will need to have a clear understanding how data works. Understanding the rules of data, and be able to respectfully apply them.

Understanding the Business: - For documents created by QlikView developers to be useful to any business, they will need to be tailored for the same. Therefore, the developer will need to clearly understand the needs of the business and then use his/her skills to provide the necessary solutions.

Best Practices: - As is the case with most industries and/or working environments, it helps when workers develop best practices. For the QlikView developer this includes adhering to coding standards, data model design principles, and interface design rules. Adhering to these industry best practices will ensure that QlikView documents are usable at the highest level.

People Skills and Asking Questions: - In addition to the more technical skills listed above, there are other interpersonal behaviors and attitudes that the QlikView developer must possess and practice. These include the ability to ask questions for the purposes of gathering information regarding the needs that the QlikView Document will be required to meet. Finally, QlikView developers ought to be able to get along with those they work with. It helps for a much better working environment and makes getting requisite information to do their work a smoother process.

<a href='http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/teamwork-on-a-meeting_766616.htm'>Designed by Freepik</a>

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Why We Need To Make Data-Informed Decisions.

We all make decisions based on the information, or data, that we have and our experience. The way that people make decisions varies however form person to person, or company to company, while taking the situation into consideration.

Finding the right decision making process that takes all knowledge – from data to experience into consideration can be tricky. No one wants to make the mistake of blindly following data without applying it to the situation, nor do you want to rely purely on past experiences without taking new information or trends into consideration.

People often tend to over-value their own skill and knowledge as well as their ability to make decisions. However the way we see things, based on our own experiences, is bias towards our own preferences and point of view. The biggest mistake one can make is to believe that we can do everything, or that we know everything.

This being said, computer-generated data is not golden either, as it lacks human thought.  Blindly following data, against your better judgement, is the thing that causes people to follow their GPS far off track. Although computers and their abilities are constantly improving, no data set is perfect. This is why using data to make decisions requires a data-literate person to interpret the information. It is important to have someone, or hire a company, that can collect and analyse the data for you if you do not have the time or skills to do so.

Data-informed decision making is a process whereby you use data to inform your decision making process. However, in order to do this, one needs to understand the data, or get someone to interpret the data for them, before combining it with their own experiences. In the end, you make the final call – not a computer or data. The benefit is that your decision will be based on facts, figures, and trends that will help you to make the right decision.

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Adapt Or Die

It is difficult for companies to keep up with the on-going technology changes and this is causing a growing trend known as BOYD strategies for many IT departments. This strategy allows employees to bring their own devices to work. The problem with this is that employees do not have uniform devices; therefore, an array of different screen sizes and resolutions are being used.

This, along with the increasing number of mobile and other various devices, has led to the need for responsive websites. It is almost impossible to carry on without making your website responsive without experiencing negative effects on online marketing, website user friendliness and the aesthetics of your website when accessed from various devices.

Research suggests that 74% of people are more likely to return to your website if it is responsive as opposed to one that isn’t. This means that you could be losing a lot of website visits.

A responsive website is also important for the development of Qlik Sense as it is important that users that are using Qlik Sense technology are not limited to use only certain devices.

With a responsive website, developers can design experiences that can be seen in the right screen size and resolution on any device screen, ranging from a small smartphone to a large computer screen.

Developers can now develop for the capabilities of devices as opposed to certain devices. This means that turning websites responsive will benefit any company, especially companies whose employees have a variety of devices and develop software for clients with various devices.

Sources: http://www.qlik.com/us/blog/posts/patrik-lundblad/adapt-to-survive < ahref='http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/workplace-in-top-view_788440.htm'>Designed by Freepik</a>

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QlikView Aims to Identify With Its Users

QlikView Business Discovery Platform is has been growing rapidly over the past 10 years and many users who rely on BI will not doubt its significance. This platform is useful in observing insights that other Business Intelligence (BI) tools easily overlook and it makes use of visualisations thus it is easy for people to understand and explain to others.

QlikView’s newer generation’s vast design can do this even more naturally enabling users to understand, assess and visualise their data more efficiently. 

 OlikView aims to help its customers understand the complex processes. It strives to learn just how its clients and customers work and identify with what they know so that it can effectively help them. One of QlikView’s biggest missions is to design and create platforms that can be used by anyone, even those with limited knowledge of this field. This would mean that as Qlikview updates, it becomes even more user friendly and easier for people to understand. Finding and analysing data as well as the creation of visualisations are all very helpful for the users.

If you want a system that will help you analyse facts and statistics to help you make important decisions, QlikView will help you. Make sure you get the latest version the Qlikview platform to help you analyse and keep your data secure. 

Picture Source: <a href='http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/business-meeting-vector-silhouettes_723252.htm'>Designed by Freepik</a>

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QlikView Business Discovery Platform

An extremely useful application, QlikView Business Discovery Platform is considered royalty of the BI platform.  Because of its user friendliness, this platform has become quite popular.  It can be easily understood because emphasis is placed on using visuals and not just text.  Additionally, it supplies information that is often overlooked by other platforms.  QlikView.Next is essentially the next generation in the development of this platform.  It ups the ante and provides businesses with an even more intuitive platform. 

Look More Closely At QlikView.Next

QlikView.Next has been simplified and expanded even further than its forerunners.  It was designed for use with a touch screen interface found on tablets.  As such, users have the ability to interact with this platform very easily.  Individuals who use this platform literally have information right within their reach.  QlikView has taken steps that build on the existing determination of analysis.  It is fact-driven and can be confidently used in the decision-making process in which businesses and individuals already engage on a day-to-day basis.

  QlikView.Next eliminates the need for users to dig for data for themselves in order to make it functional in the operation of their business.  The platform actually mines the data and it is visually presented via charts or diagrams in formats that are easily understood.  One of its great features allows users to navigate their way around different sets of data to receive much needed perspective. The data that is stored in this QlikView version is the most secure ever and it safeguards users against detrimental happenings like hacking and data loss.

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Three Nifty QlikView Tools

In order to get the most out of your QlikView experience, it may be a good idea to add some of the program's newest tools and features to your arsenal of development knowledge. While many developers are more than happy to plod along with the pure basics, it is generally worth it to look into the add-ons. Frankly, the more tools you have available, the easier and more successful your projects will be.

1. AutoHotkey: The Automation Library that Makes Coding Quicker

Typing out long strings of repetitive coding tends to become frustrating after a while. Using AutoHotkey enables QlikView developers to insert frequently used coding snippets by creating a personal automation library. This makes it fairly quick and painless to insert those bits of coding that you would use on a daily basis.

2. RightQlik

Having context menu items ready and waiting for you certainly makes mundane development tasks much easier. When using Explorer it can be frustrating to have to click through a dozen times to find the single item you need, and this tool helps to eliminate that very problem. If you need to adjust something on a QlikView document file, simply right-clicking on it provides you with a view quick options.

3. EasyQlik QViewer

This little gem allows you to view the important contents of a QVD file or to open it in a simple resident table. This tool is best used during the reload of a document and allows developers quick access to information that might take longer to acquire under different circumstances.