4 Trends Shaping Business Intelligence in 2015 and Beyond

by | Jun 25, 2015 | Product News

Reading Time: 3 minutes

When it comes to business intelligence, it’s clear that the current modus operandi won’t cut it for organizations moving forward. Too much is changing: the amount of data within organizations, the way users are accessing and analyzing it, and much more.

With that in mind, here are 4 business intelligence trends that are shaping where the industry is heading in the near future. They are also impacting how we at Dimensional Insight are developing products and applications.

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Trend #1: Proliferation of data

Data is growing at an exponential rate, and doesn’t show any signs of letting up. In fact, statistics show that 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last two years. However, less than 1% of it has been analyzed. (Source: Baseline Magazine)

What does this mean for business intelligence users? Lots.

  • Business intelligence applications will require larger data sources and faster runtimes to get the job done
  • Traditional relational DB approaches will be limited as data grows
  • Organizations must take steps now to handle more complex (“big”) data sets

Trend #2: Move to multi-screen

It seems like just about everyone these days uses multiple “screens” – cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc. And use will only grow. In fact, statistics show that by 2016, more than half of executives will be using mobile devices as their primary business platform. (Source: Forbes Insight, The Connected Executive)

The implications for BI users will be huge. What are they?

  • Executives expect a seamless transition from monitor to laptop to tablet
  • The requirement for multiscreen mobility will profoundly impact dashboard and business intelligence application design and development
  • Developers should think “mobile-first” and multi-screen when developing new BI/operational applications

Trend #3: The rise of business rules

Here’s an alarming statistic from Gartner: Less than 10% of self-service BI initiatives will be governed sufficiently to prevent inconsistencies that adversely affect the business. Put another way, more than 90% of self-service BI initiatives are insufficiently governed.

As a result, when implementing BI, it’s important to focus on:

  • Data: Users must find a way to combine, clean, and manage data from disparate sources
  • Business rules: Must be applied to transform raw data into objective, measureable information and apply logic to support data governance
  • Displays: Users should take advantage of powerful visualization options for dashboards and scorecards combined with ad-hoc and deep analytics capabilities

Trend #4: The war for analytics talent

According to IDC, in 2018, there will be 181,000 deep analytics roles in the U.S. alone and 5x that many positions requiring related skills. This means a huge shortage is looming in data-savvy talent. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about!

How can organizations best prepare?

  • Ensure access to developer tools to support “Mode 2” initiatives (Here’s a definition of Mode 1 and Mode 2 by Gartner)
  • Make sure you have a more powerful BI engine to handle the proliferation of data
  • Ensure your BI tool has flexibility in information delivery by supporting multiple interfaces so users can interact with data in the way they are most comfortable
  • Look for a tool with powerful business management capabilities

What these trends mean for Divers

At Dimensional Insight, these trends have been shaping our product development, from our new developer tools to our lightning-fast big data BI engine to our multiple-interface approach. Check out our SlideShares on our new technology below.

Kathy Sucich
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