Qlik World 2021 ended today. Started on Monday, this year the event took place virtually for three days due to the pandemic. Numerous attendees besides myself took the opportunity to attend again this year. Even though I personally usually prefer to exchange ideas with all participants on site, it was a successful event. Just unfortunately without much networking.
It is almost a tradition that Josh Good (VP Product Marketing Qlik Data Analytics) presents his “5 Favorite Things” to the audience in the General Session right at the beginning on the first day of the conference. But not so this year – according to Josh, this year’s digital conference attendees should find out about the innovations for themselves.
So here’s a look at my “5 Favorite Things” from Qlik World 2021.
1. “Active Intelligence”
Qlik has integrated blendr.io’s purchased technology into the SaaS product and has already shipped it for selected customers in a preview phase. Workflows can be designed that can be launched directly from the Qlik Sense SaaS interface to update a customer status in cloud CRM Salesforce, for example.
blendr.io brings a variety of connectors, especially for APIs of cloud-based systems, which can then be triggered accordingly. The very purpose of business intelligence – gaining information to influence action – becomes even simpler and centralized in one place with this technology. Previously, the action had to take place in a third-party system outside of the business intelligence system. In the future, subsequent tasks, processes, and actions can be controlled remotely. General availability has been announced for fall 2021. The new “Active Intelligence” feature has the potential to become a game changer. I am excited to see the first productive use cases.
2. Qlik Forts
Qlik offers local (virtual machine) installations to go with the SaaS edition of Qlik Sense: Qlik Forts. Users can use a single point of access for business intelligence, in this case the hub of the SaaS edition, and leave sensitive data on-premises in the Qlik Fort installation. Users are directed to the Fort in the cloud. The user experience is unbroken, but the data does not move to the cloud. The approach of a fully hybrid cloud is very promising, especially regarding very critical data that then does not need to be transferred to the cloud. Qlik Forts are expected to be available towards the end of this year.
3. Reporting and collaboration in Qlik SaaS
In Qlik Sense Saas, users will soon be able to “subscribe” to entire sheets and have them sent to them as an email on a set cycle. Also released immediately is a mobile app that makes it even easier to access relevant information (even offline).
In the Qlik Cloud SaaS Edition, comments can now be stored together within an app, and “notes” can also be stored directly in the hub. If users are mentioned in a note, this is displayed in the Cloud interface. Notes can contain diagrams and additionally previous versions (e.g., of the last days).
4. Real-time replicate in QVDs
Data can be tapped directly from a Qlik Replicate (change data capture / real-time) ETL task in the cloud e.g., in the Qlik Data Catalog and stored in QVDs. This is an immense advantage for further use in Qlik Sense when the QVD files are “live” and permanently updated.
5. Alerting
The Qlik Cloud now enables sophisticated alerting so that, for example, push notifications are sent should certain KPIs exceed or fall below a threshold. Not only can fixed thresholds be reacted to, but also precise alerting can be triggered based on e.g., standard deviation. In combination with the improved chat bot and Insights Advisor, further ad-hoc analyses can be created even faster.
Qlik World this year also demonstrated the great strides with which data analytics capabilities are evolving. Partner products are expanding what the cloud offers, and new features are enhancing the user experience and real-time capability. I am looking forward to applying the new possibilities in upcoming projects.
