What Will 2017 Bring in Business Intelligence?

by | Dec 6, 2016 | General BI

Reading Time: 5 minutes

business intelligence predictionsWhat a year 2016 has been! Here at Dimensional Insight, we have been busy upgrading many of our customers to Diver Platform 7.0, as well as working on some exciting new product developments. Already, 2017 is shaping up to be a busy one here at our company.

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It will also be a busy year for those in the business intelligence (BI) industry. What does the New Year hold? I spoke with several Dimensional Insight leaders to gather their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities that emerged in 2016 and their business intelligence predictions for 2017.

Information when and where users need it

There has been an existing pain point within the BI industry – a constant need of tools that give clarity to detailed information when a customer needs it at the speed they expect the information to come. Nancy Berkowitz, Dimensional Insight’s Vice President of Goods & Services Sales, comments on the issue: “People need to be able to access information when/where/how they need it at a fast speed and with great accuracy.”

Along with the need for fast information delivery, there is also a need for information delivery across multiple devices so that customers on the field can perform just as successfully. Our Vice President of Customer Services Susan Mays explains: “There is a need to continue to expand on current BI products so that the technology can be more supportive of mobile BI. It’s so important that information can be delivered as visualized across multiple devices.”

In 2016, we have sought to tackle these pain points through new developments to our DiveTab mobile BI platform. DiveTab provides efficient information delivery across multiple devices; it focuses on information proliferation and collaboration. With DiveTab, our users can better understand information when and where they need it.

Need to better identify areas of improvement

Organizations that don’t engage with BI tools lack a strong understanding of their businesses. Without this understanding, they are unable to identify areas of improvement to provide them with the best outcomes. Organizations in the healthcare industry, for example, often face this challenge. In order for healthcare to fully embrace BI, all hospital personnel need to better understand and become involved with BI tools. Nora Lissy, Dimensional Insight’s Director of Healthcare Information (who has an RN background), shares some advice: “Embrace it, understand it, and get involved in the organization’s strategic planning in regards to data and how it is used. Nurses should be able to provide feedback and input on how data and analytics can help them in their daily workflow and processes.”

Additionally, within the healthcare industry there is a stronger need to understand data as more information is becoming available, because of increased health information exchange and EHRs. George Dealy, Dimensional Insight’s Vice President of Healthcare Applications, comments: “As more information and data becomes available, the next step for hospitals is to understand the data, curate it, and ensure that people who are using the data will actually understand what is being measured.” He also highlights the importance of data governance, which he believes will help make self-service analytics more practical. George says, “Data governance is becoming increasingly important in analytics, and hospitals need to keep up with this trend.”

Fast processing AND a superior user experience

Spectre developer Jamie Clark adds his insights about the BI industry. There are many BI tools in the market for organizations to use. Such tools are either have fast processing speed or have a strong user experience; some lack the ability to have both components, as one is typically sacrificed. Jamie says about this pain point: “Business intelligence in 2017 will focus more on providing a powerful end user experience. A tool should be able to give a user quick information at a fast speed but also allow the customer to have a positive work experience. Ideally, there should be improvements towards creating quick, easy dashboards to display information.”

Understanding complex data is critical

As we move into 2017, it will be important for organizations to invest in technology that will continue to help them understand complex data. Dimensional Insight President and CEO Fred Powers comments on this trend: “We know that machines are getting faster and smarter and that data will only increase in volume and complexity. It’s so important that organizations use technology that will help them understand complex data in order for them to perform more efficiently and more productively. To perform better, organizations need to pinpoint what measures they want to focus on and use a BI tool that will help them dive in and understand the data.”

Fred also focuses on the increasing importance of data governance in 2017. He explains: “As businesses become more complex, the rules in how they operate will become more complex. So it will be important for them to generalize and centralize rules and measures, as data integrity will be more beneficial. Organizations will need to focus on a centralized set of measures so that KPIs, rules, and measures can be consistent across their organizations. If they focus on this, it will lead to increased productivity and efficiency.”

Let’s see what 2017 will bring.

Do you have predictions of your own for the New Year? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Natalie Cantave

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