GFT Shine Bright at the Qlik Visualise Your World Conference 2014
From 20-22 October, Qlik hosted its Visualise Your World (VYW) conference at Kings Place, King’s Cross St. Pancras, London. GFT attended the annual event once again as one of the main sponsors.
In previous years the format was a single day event only. However, this year’s event was held over 3 days. Day 1 of the event was just for partners; Qlik updated partners on the Qlik roadmap and its dual product strategy of QlikView and Qlik’s new product, Qlik® Sense. Days 2 and 3 of the event were for registered attendees and invited clients. As well the Qlik update, attendees were able to listen to presentations by both industry experts, as well as Qlik customers sharing their experiences of Qlik analytics. Companies presenting included HSBC, British Gas, Premier Oil, NHS and Wilco.
GFT was represented at the event by Ana Jimenez, Markel Sagasta, Steve Greaves and me. Ana and Markel were lucky enough to attend as part of one of our client’s contingents, while Steve and I were left to mind the stand.
A quick canvass of our clients and invitees at the event revealed that two of the most interesting talks were from the Qlik Product Track: ‘Visualisation for Humans’ and ‘Flexible Scalability Without Limits’. On the plus side this gave GFT more time to talk to potential technology partners, such as Alteryx, ParStream and Terradata, and understand in more depth the use cases for their products. Obviously we were also able to check out the competition!
(left to right: Ana Jimenez, Najeeb Rasul, Markel Sagasta)
(left to right: Marina Schmid, Najeeb Rasul, Steve Greaves)
Qlik’s products, QlikView and Qlik® Sense, are both great technologies but what is of real value to clients is when these applications are delivered as part of complete end-to-end solutions. GFT presented demos of two such solutions: (i) Volcker Rule application and (ii) TOM KPI Dashboard. The Volcker Rule application is for regulatory reporting and is designed to identify proprietary trading. The TOM KPI dashboard, specifically designed for the iPad, provides a way to monitor key metrics on a bank-wide operational excellence programme.
One of the big talking points at VYW was in relation to the future of QlikView. How much of Qlik Sense will be incorporated into the next version of QlikView v12? Will QlikView and Qlik Sense eventually become a single product?
We learned at VYW that QlikView v12 would not incorporate the new look and feel of Qlik Sense, but it would have the same new QIX engine. Given that both products will then share the same core, it is questionable whether it makes sense to continue to maintain two separate products. The overall opinion at VYW was that post-2015 QlikView and Qlik Sense would indeed both merge into a single product. Qlik are playing their cards close to their chest at this point, most likely awaiting feedback from customers before making a final decision – we shall just have to wait and see!
