Self-Service Visualization with QlikSense on QlikCloud - Is it a threat to Developers?

[#1]

The launch of QlikSense, threatens the developer's future with QlikTech's upcoming stack of products, including QlikCloud.

Of course, QlikSense amazed everyone, no second thought about it. No need to have a technical savvy to develop a application, with little guidance, business users they themselves discover a lot using QlikSense. May be Data Modeling experts needed but not really Visual Interface developers.

It would be great, if QlilTech clarifies on, how QlikView and QlikSense are different line of products? If possible, please compare with segment of customers for the product as well.

By

-Vijay

[Miguel_Angel_Baeyens]

Hi Vijay,

I recommend you to read the last part of the press release Qlik Introduces Next-Generation Data Visualization and Discovery Application – Qlik Sense | Qlik. For example, and quote:

"In addition to offering Qlik Sense for interactive visualization, Qlik will continue to offer its market-proven platform, QlikView, to provide application development that enables analysts with minimal development expertise to build and publish powerful analytical applications."

In the site www.qlik.com you have additional information, and expect more to come when the complete offering of Qlik Sense becomes available later on this year.

Miguel

[#3]

Hi Miguel,

Can't we develop those powerful QlikView analytical applications using QlikSense?

Apart from interactive visualization features(one way, it simplifies visualization difficulties for developers) , what made to say both QlikView and QlikSense are different line of products? different line of product for different customer segments like small, medium and large business? different line of products on what sense? please, advice.

Why QlikTech underlines, three years time period of support for QlikView 11? Will QlikTech withdrawn support for QlikView series of products after three years? and start focusing on QlikSense products?

Hope you can understand the reason behind my questions.

-Vijay

[Miguel_Angel_Baeyens]

Vijay,

If you think of yourself as a customer or partner, or in your own customers as a consultant, then you should talk to your contact or sales rep in Qlik, so he can help you understand what is best for your customer scenarios (e.g.: do the user need self service visualization or do they need guided analytic applications?).

Qlik Sense Desktop is intended for personal and business use, either big or small.

Again, I encourage you to play with Qlik Sense Desktop for what it is, and to wait until September when the complete offering of Sense is launched to the market so you have all the information to decide what is best for who, along with your Qlik contact.

Miguel

[Michael_Tarallo]

Hi Vinay - here is my take on this.

Qlik offers two products. Each with a set of capabilities that addresses various individuals and organizations of all sizes and requirements. Overall capabilities between both products may be similar, how they are implemented, managed and delivered can be different - and greatly depend on the available skill-sets of the users and the complexity of the implementation and/or application needed.

IMHO - the developer's future is still secure, and moves beyond just data modeling. He/she just has to continue to develop his/her education and skill sets to learn the the product. (Just like with anything else that advances in this world) - note in Sense there is a modern API that can extend its capabilities - enough to keep a developer busy.

Qlik Sense Desktop (freely available) has a more intuitive self-service data visualization approach combing ease-of-use with the proven data indexing, search, association and visualization capabilities that QlikView users have already come to enjoy. This enables those with little experience - the ability to quickly and easily create visualizations on their local workstations (from multiple data sources), without the traditional IT/BI pitfalls that can slow down a knowledge-workers progress. (rigid pre-defined data layers, infrastructure bottlenecks, inflexible or cumbersome spreadsheet and database tools, etc.). The capability to access multiple data sources, as well as using the optional and very powerful Qlik script syntax for data transformation is available if needed.

However, Sense goes beyond exploring data and answering questions by introducing new methods to share, communicate and collaborate with others. As we know by now. decisions are made by more than just the highest paid person's opinion. Sense allows those to capture their discovered insights at a point-in-time and assemble them with additional context in a form that is fit for sharing in order to facilitate discussion - we call this Data Storytelling - you can learn more here: Qlik Sense Desktop - Data Storytelling | Qlik

More information here on other new capabilities: www.qlik.com/us/explore/products/sense?ga-link=hero

All of this can be shared with others, freely, that are using Qlik Sense Desktop and can be imported into the complete Qlik Sense (licensed) environment to be secured and governed.

That being said, when the complete Qlik Sense environment is released (licensed), take what I mentioned above and add that to a completely managed, governed, secured, extensible and enterprise ready platform.

• The ability to create content and access information anywhere, with support for mobile devices. Without the need for creating separate content specifically for mobile.
  
  
• Enable users to share each others work seamlessly without the need to transport files back and forth. The ability to work in secure "streams" available from the on-line environment, on any device.
  
  
• Robust security and rules engine - enabling custom security parameters to control data, users, groups, resources, documents and more down to the most granular level.
  
  
• Scalability and resilience - with load-balancing, multiple servers and fail-over capabilities.
  
  
• Custom authentication and configurable parameters for authorization - connect to AD, LDAP, sources through ODBC to support users, roles etc.
  
  
• Governance, management, auditing  and monitoring of the environment
  
  
• Modern APIs to embed Qlik Sense visualizations into your own applications, while maintaining the chart object interactions and data association capabilities.

Sorry for the length of the response. I appreciate your questions and am happy to continue the conversation. I encourage you to download the product, play with it and keep the discussion going on the the community.

Qlik Sense Get Started | Qlik

If you need clarification on anything please feel free to reach out to me.

Regards,

Michael Tarallo

Qlik

[#6]

Hi Michael,

This is where all the confusions. QlikSense appears as a super-set of QlikView. So, it gives me the understanding that i can do whatever i can do with QlikView, and even more as features listed in data sheet, like compulsive collaboration, mobility with agility and so on.

The reason to have two line of products with respect to Guided Analytics and Self-Service Discovery, may give more insights. Why QlikTech, separated both features instead of combing and providing it in a single product, may help to understand the reason behind to have two line of products.

Say for example, J2ME intended for mobile java application development where as J2EE for enterprise java application development. It gives the clear understanding why we need to have two different edition of java?

I think, the key insight is hiding behind Self-Service Discovery and Guided Analytics, it could be the differences in data modeling to allow self-service discovery, or something else. If that comes out, then it's not an issue to understand and accept to look QlikSense and QlikView as different line of products.

Please advice.

[Michael_Tarallo · Accepted solution]

Hi Vijay - I appreciate your questions.

Your observations are valid. Marketing interpretation is always subjective, so I can understand where you are comin from. At the moment, it has to do with providing choices for different needs in the market. There are different market segments in many industries, including Business Intelligence. These segments comprise of individuals (and organizations) with varying needs and skill sets. Some want quick and easy visualizations they can develop themselves with little help or dependency on others. They also want an easy way to share them or have the ability to work on them together without traditional drawbacks of other desktop and data visualization tools. Some want full custom purpose-built applications. Some want to embed analytics into their own software applications, etc.(APIs)  QlikView and/or Sense - fills these needs. All, eventually, may want secure, controlled and managed environments to serve the masses.

Here is a quick example and a true story - just to give you an idea.

My daughter (14) is attending summer classes for her health academy. She had a project where she needed to present "time-trial" data over a 4 week period as well as plot other data points for comparison, etc. Her data was collected in Excel, so she started to use Excel to create charts, and was asking me many questions, that I could not really answer without some research and effort. I stopped her in her tracks ... and said "let's try this" ... and opened up Sense Desktop. I allowed here to start "playing with it" - with very little guidance from me, she was able to quickly create what she needed to answer her questions and have something useful to present to her class.

Why? - Because it was easy for her skill level to understand. It was fun for her to explore the interface and create what she needed. The visualizations allowed her to interact with the data, and see patterns that would otherwise be missed. The time it took her was minimal. She served herself. Overall she had a good experience - that she will now repeat again for another project, with little help from me - if any.

I know this is on a small scale, but the point here is that my daughter had little experience with spreadsheet and BI tools - she knew her requirements and was able to apply what she needed using Sense with little training - because of the layout, interface, design etc. Previously she used QlikView for a project in a prior year, thought it was cool - but it was not intuitive for her skill level and did require some hand-holding. Take this experience and apply many times over to groups of individuals and companies whom have similar needs and skill sets and you can see what I mean. Their initial experiences with Sense Desktop will allow them to explore new data, response to new requirements etc. - which then has the potential to evolve into an enterprise, secure and governed deployment of Sense, supporting all the needs of the organization.

Note as I stated earlier, yes there may be similarities between them - but the approaches people take and the people using them may be different. It's important to remember that this is just the beginning of our next-generation data discovery platform that will continue to evolve and improve over future releases. For example. the way something is done in QlikView today - may be done a better or a different way in Sense. The goals is not  to directly replicate what is in QlikView and put it into Sense. It is to improve and find better and new ways to do the things people need. Smart visualizations, responsive design, data storytelling, data perception - build once deploy anywhere etc. (mobility)

Also, most importantly (in order to address your question of - providing a single product)- we have over 35,000 QlikView customers - we need to be cognizant of their existing investment and still provide features, support, etc. for the existing product and their applications. As well as allow them them the opportunity to see if Sense could also fit their needs, which they can consider migrating to at the pace they desire, without forcing them to move over  - (unlike I have seen many times with other BI platforms that have released "next-generation" software.)  - Could Sense replace QlikView - and become a single product offering in the future? I do not know the answer to that - that is up for the BI market to decide. Will Sense be able to support the growing needs of organizations just like QlikView has done. In a nutshell .. yes. I have full confidence that it can.

Regards,

Mike T

[#8]

Thanks Mike.

Yes. I got it. It was bit hard to digest and see Self-Service Discovery is a different line of product, instead of a feature on top of Guided Analytics. As you mentioned, since it is beginning of the journey, it may uncover new dimensions of  Self-Service Discovery later. Thanks, you really helped me to accept QlikSense is a different line of product than Qlik's marketing team. .

-Vijay

[juleshartley]

Another factor for developers IMHO is that Sense still relies on a solid and easily understandable data model.

9 times out of 10, in my expereience, the data extraction and transformation / conformation is not a simple process and can take up over half of the effort on a project if done correctly. This will still need to be performed by a knowledgable developer who understands the best way to supply the Qlik product of choice...