A View from the Q

Mobile BI

Anthony Deighton — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:50:00 GMT

Mobile BI Early this month, I had the opportunity to contribute a blog post to DashboardInsight.com, titled “Mobile BI Gets Interactive,” in which I discuss the increased interactivity of mobile devices and the role BI is increasingly playing in this space. The mobile BI landscape has dramatically changed over the past few months, providing us with increased opportunities and flexibility in terms of user experience.

As I say in the article, “Two things have happened since BI applications were first introduced to mobile devices. First, the always-on connectivity of 3G wireless networks has improved to the point that a mobile device has become a reliable business tool. Second, the iPhone has set a new standard for multi-touch interactivity with mobile devices that consumers, who are also business users, have become quickly accustomed to.

As the worlds of serious business applications and personal mobile devices merge, people want and expect their BI to always be within arm’s reach. So, when thinking about BI for mobile users, one needs to consider what people really want from the application in this environment and what the mobile platform enables you to do.”

Since my post on July 1, there have been a number of related articles on Dashboard Insight. One in particular by William Laurent takes a great look at the overall BI progression towards mobile. Also, Lyndsay Wise takes a look at the roots of mobile while making some interesting predictions about the future of mobile BI: “As the role of mobile has increased in general and as BI becomes more broadly applied and valued, the two converge to enable organizations to access the information they require when they need it (and to share that information through collaboration). Consequently, the role of mobile BI is becoming more important within the overall function of BI as a whole.”

I agree and am very interested in the innovative ways our customers are using BI applications. If you have an interesting app you are using, shoot me a note and let me know how you are using it. And, of course, download and try our iPhone app.

The Consumerization of Enterprise Software

Anthony Deighton — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:52:00 GMT

I’m just back from sunny, but horribly cold, Half Moon Bay California. I was lucky to be asked to speak at the Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) Conference on Customer Acquisition. I was the first speaker of the day, and the title of my talk was “The Consumerization of Enterprise Software”. The balance of the day was presentations from a fantastic group of speakers from companies like Doubletake, Omniture, Solarwinds, Zillow, and Splunk.

First let me say how great it was that this conference exists at all --it’s a testament to the foresight of a venture capital firm like TCV. When a company is moving as fast as QlikTech, it’s a welcome moment to pause and reflect on one’s business strategy. And, it disciplines you even more when you are asked to present and discuss these reflections to an audience. My lament is that the Boston high-tech community doesn’t do more of this – I’d really love to partake in these discussions more often.

I’ve attached the presentation I used at the event to this blog post, and offer it to any readers – if you use ideas from it, please just make note of the fact that it came from QlikTech (i.e., put in a plug for us).

Broadly, the idea that I was discussing was that marketing in enterprise software lags consumer software, and that many of the concepts of consumer software are impacting enterprise software. The reason for this is the rise in importance of business manager and end users, often at the expense of IT, in the purchase of enterprise software. Ten years ago, IT was paramount in enterprise software purchase decisions because business managers and end users lacked knowledge and experience with software. IT acted as a Sherpa up Mount Software.

In the presentation I layout five key features of consumer software, that buyers have come to expect in their enterprise software:

Easy to try: buyers should expect to try software before they buy it. They shouldn’t just expect a “demo”, but a full, hands-on, no one watching, live, in my environment, with-my-data experience.
Easy to buy: It’s not just about lowering the cost (although that’s a start), but getting rid of ridiculous discounting techniques, and making the buying process simpler. Solarwinds described a wonderful idea they have put into practice of eliminating software contracts (eliminating, not just standardizing).
Simple software: One of the attendees at the conference recalled her long ago experience with Oracle’s manufacturing software. To quote her, “it just didn’t work, and shut down our assembly line”. I’m sure those bugs have been fixed, and features added, but the underlying idea remains – enterprise software needs to shield complexity from the end user and “just work” like consumer software does.
Scales up: This is similar to Guy Kawasaki‘s adage that great has “depth” (DICEE). While enterprise software must be simple, it must not be simplistic. Consumer software is feature rich AND simple, and enterprise software must also resolve this tension.
Not to say that enterprise software should eliminate support, but rather augment it with mechanisms for experts and evangelists to help developers and users help themselves and each other.

Now, of course, I’m biased and believe that QlikTech is the model representative of this next generation of enterprise software companies. But, what was heartening and fascinating about this conference was the degree of unity and convergence of thinking on this topic. Of course there were disagreements. For instance, there was a healthy debate from those who sell to IT, that IT’s power in software purchasing has not diminished. My response was to suggest that when selling to IT there are really two “personalities” in the IT department. One is the “no” department that argues about standards and technologies (i.e. the religious fundamentalists). The other is “business of IT” department who is concerned with solving IT management challenges. In this model, the first group is traditional IT, and the second acts as the business manager.

The second healthy debate was about the scaleability of these ideas. Is it possible to build a billon dollar company on the back of small deals, sold from the bottom up? Solarwinds represents one extreme with their $5,000 deals sold over the phone. QlikTech and Spluk represent another anchor point with $50,000 to million dollar deals sold by partners and a direct sales force. Only time will tell. One perspective, shared by someone at the conference (I don’t recall who) was that the answer “had better be yes.” Meaning, that as an industry we need to find a way to put these ideas into practice, and get away from the old, top down, million-dollar-deal, mentality of enterprise 1.0.

Swedish Simplicity

Anthony Deighton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:31:00 GMT

I’m writing this on the flight back from Sweden where I spent a week for two purposes: one, to participate in our planning process for the next version of QlikView; two, to see my first Swedish Midsommer festival.

Sweden is a remarkable place, and for those who know it, it’s no shock that QlikView originated there. Swedish design and invention is centered on the idea of bringing great functionality to the masses, but in a simple way. Look at how IKEA changed the furniture industry by offering great design at an accessible price. Or how Skype made phone calls affordable. Both are simple…furniture in a box you can drag into the back of your car, and phone calls by double clicking.

Over the course of the years that I’ve spent in Sweden I’m constantly struck by this combination of utility, simplicity and democracy (or, “everyoneness”, but that’s not a word) that is its hallmark. Yet, there is always a pull to add complexity, functionality, and address the needs of the “premium” buyer. Why doesn’t IKEA offer a high end showroom? Or, home delivery (yes, I know they do in the US, but have you ever tried to USE it)? Why doesn’t Skype offer a premium calling package (for calls that don’t randomly hang up on you?) Because this feature bloat would destroy the original value proposition.

I like to think that simple, streamlined Swedish ideals are at the core of all the decisions we make. We don’t add to the product because we can or (just) because someone asked for it. Adding can create clutter. We remind ourselves we are building something for everyone by putting the user in control. Business users need to gain information to solve a problem or answer a query without waiting around for an analyst or tech support. In true democratic Swedish form, front line workers are in control of the QlikView experience.

So, although our corporate headquarters is in the US, it’s times like the past week that I am reminded that the soul of the company is Swedish. As I work with the team on future product versions, you can be assured that we take this design discipline with us into our jobs every day, not being tempted by feature bloat. Simple utility should be the end, not the beginning.

Who is Keeping Score? QlikView 9, Traditional BI Players 1

Anthony Deighton — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Today we announced immediate availability of Version 9.0 of our QlikView product. To our customers that means advances in areas of enterprise functionality, mobile BI, real time functionality and the option to deploy in the cloud. We've also spent significant time listening to our customer's feedback and researching how they use QlikView to solve analytic challenges. This has resulted in enhancements in simplicity and usability. It is my view that it's this last point which is what makes users of QlikView our most fervent supporters (Yes, I could just say this but it has been confirmed by Aberdeen, Gartner and BARC Research in 2009.)

What strikes me about this milestone is not the new bells and whistles of the version, but the number itself. The dinosaurs of our industry are starting to claim an "in memory" model, but I think they've missed the point. It's not about "in memory". What makes QlikView successful is the full system – from how the software works, to how we sell it, to how customers are able to implement it (themselves). It's not just a particular technology, but how that informs (or, really, disrupts) a business model.

But, focusing on the technology, even then they're behind. I know that the version they will offer will be equivalent to a Version 2.0 of QlikView – basically what we offered circa 1996. And for some of the mega vendors they are still talking plans and that 1.0 version may or may not come out next year. But still, I personally love that they have started to make an effort. It certainly endorses the space we built and, although we've always focused on the end user experience, finally now they are now starting to agree. They are even wielding terms like "Google-like simplicity". Crazy.


QlikView 2.0 (1996)	MSFT Gemini 1.0 (2010?)

At SAP's recent Sapphire event, they pitched the SAP Explorer product (the newly rebranded Polestar) as the new simple SAP BI. So, I was curious. And I went to get a demo of their new simple BI. And, I took the data they showed in their demo and I built a QlikView with it. I invite you to compare… which is functionality rich and yet simple, and which is just simplistic.

The first QlikView launch I was a part of was in 2005 for Version 7. At that time I remember a big part of the release being our first x64 64-bit version, which now seems like standard functionality. Yet still to this day no one else comes close here. People often ask me if I'm "worried" now that the "big" vendors are focusing on usability and simplicity. And, to that I say, not so much. In fact, quite the opposite. The best thing that's ever happened to us is to have SAP, on stage at Sapphire, suggesting they've built BI that is simple enough for their CEO to use. Because, when a prospect compares SAP BI to QlikView, we're confident we know which they'll pick.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.