by Angela Guess
TechFinancials reports, “IT industry veteran Dan Sommer, the senior director: market intelligence lead at Qlik, says that companies need to move beyond traditional BI and embrace the endless possibilities that connecting people with data and ideas will bring. Sommer was in South Africa to discuss business analytics market trends with particular reference to innovation and industrialisation. ‘Market dynamics and the competitive landscape are undergoing tectonic changes now, as tipping points cause a change in centricity around data, analytics, buying and selling. Love it or hate it, we are experiencing a shift from power to empowerment,’ he said.”
The article continues, “In his view, the emergence of ‘data junkies’ is requiring businesses to embrace a new approach. Sommer likens this to moving from being a gatekeeper to becoming ‘more of a shopkeeper’. ‘What used to be the systems era that saw IT pushing out reports is gone. Over the past decade, that has evolved into the personal analytics era. Today, individuals are bringing their own analytical tools to organisations that serve them to become more efficient employees,’ he said. Moreover, many enterprises are moving from on-premise data structures to cloud-based information. ‘Half of organisations are accessing external data sources. Increasingly, data is born in the cloud especially for the mid-market and down. With no clear leader emerging yet in the cloud BI segment, we expect data connectivity from both on and off-premise components to become the key to capturing market share. Ecosystems of analytics are starting to emerge around where the data is’.”
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