Organising your data and making effective use of it should result in positive business outcomes. However, while it has become significantly easier to collect data, organising it so your company can translate it into results still remains a challenge. Overcoming this difficulty was the central theme of the recent Johannesburg leg of the QlikWorld Tour, held in November 2022.

Keynote speaker Nick Loumakis, regional director for Middle East and Africa at Qlik, explained: “The aim is to drive action with certainty in your business operations. Today, taking decisions fast is a must-have, and not a nice-to-have. However, most organisations struggle to make actionable data available, let alone turn it into business value. Recent studies have highlighted this challenge, whereby the results of using available business data are not meeting expectations[1] [2].”

Unpacking data integration challenges

Loumakis clarified that the Qlik approach involves a convergence between different elements of the business, namely the IT teams and those within the organisation who need access to the information. He continued: “There is a gap that traditionally separates data integration - driven by IT teams - from business intelligence. Business users feel they have access to less information than what is actually available, while IT departments would possibly disagree. In other words, there is a misalignment between the different teams.

At Qlik, we believe the required business value comes from the intersection between the two teams, and that the convergence drives business value. To close this gap between IT departments and business users, Qlik facilitates the creation of the end-to-end analytics data pipeline within your business, thereby solving the complex challenges of transforming data into business value.

The analytics data pipeline

“Data, insights and actions within an enterprise operate along a spectrum,” clarified Loumakis. “Organisations stitch together disparate offerings for business value. Issues in accessing information across the enterprise include the use of different tools in various areas of the business, the existence of data siloes, compliance, a lack of observability, and the quality of the data itself.

“The analytics data pipeline turns raw data into informed action, frees data from its siloes so users can easily find it, and makes data more understandable, thus allowing businesses to take action from it.”

“Our data solutions create a powerful data integration fabric to help data engineers deliver, transform and unify data in real time via automated solutions. The end result is business value facilitated by data that you can trust,” Loumakis said

[1] IDC Data Culture Web Survey (2021) - 44% of organisations believe they have enough data available for making decisions

[2] NewVanyage Partners Big Data and AI Executive Survey (2021) - 29% of executives believe they are able to achieve transformational business outcomes