TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Five Trends Changing the Face of BI

Ericka Chickowski | Date: 08-20-09 | Comments

• 53
• PrintPDF
• Filed Under: Technology For Change




• Predictive analytics, agile development, user-centric business intelligence and improvements in visualization are giving new life to this mature technology.
• 
  

  Table of Contents:

  Five Trends Changing the Face of BI Trend 1: Predictive Analytics Trend 2: Agile Development Trend 3: User-Centric BI Trend 4: Visualization Improvements Trend 5: Operationalization of IT

• Five Trends Changing the Face of BI - Trend 4: Visualization Improvements 

  Trend 4: Visualization Improvements

  Bugajski believes the only way organizations are going to extract the full value from their BI endeavors is if they redesign their visualization philosophies and designs. “Business intelligence as we know it is just about dead,” he says. “We need a new paradigm, and I think visualization is the key.”

  The visual ways in which users collaborate and analyze information through Web 2.0 tools are setting the bar high for BI deliverables, which Bugajski says are sometimes stuck in form factors from the 1990s and even the 1980s.

  Nagappan couldn’t agree more. He says Pershing is focusing on Web 2.0 technology in order to innovate better ways to pump up visualization and improve the way users interact with data.

  “If you look at the traditional ways, you just put out a spreadsheet of information, and people might pivot that spreadsheet, but that's about as far as they used to go,” he says. “Now, with Web 2.0, we can create geographic mapping using Google; we can do Flash-based animation. We have AJAX technology and sharing.”

  Nagappan says the cross-section of Web 2.0 and BI enables organizations such as Pershing to take the same information and make it consumable in a number of ways. This dovetails nicely into the user-centric model that his organization is striving for, he says.

  In fact, Nagappan and his organization are so passionate about how Web 2.0 can change the face of visualization BI that they recently used these technology philosophies in creating a new flagship software platform for the company’s financial planning customers. Launched in July, the Pershing NetX360 puts the power of customizable data dashboards in the hands of users, allowing them to visually see real-time financial numbers and data crunched on-demand from a smorgasbord of data sources.

  Next: Trend 5: Operationalization of IT >>