Sunday, 17 January 2016

WEEK 7 [18.-24.01.2015] 10 Business Intelligence Trends for 2016

Hello everyone,

This week we will talk about Business Intelligence systems and the predictions for BI for this year.
I would like you to go through this short article:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496370,00.asp
and try to answear the following questions:
Have any experience connected with the BI? Do you recognize any BI vendors?
Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising? What are the advantages of this direction? Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?

29 comments:

  1. Well, I have some experience with BI, but as a developer, not as an analyst. The services which I work on delivers a huge amount, and the company focuses on presentation them to the cients. The BI vendors which I am aware of are IHS Corporation and Thomson Reuters. I stands for all the prediction described in the article, but I think the first two are the most significant. I do not have opinion that any of this directiona are useless. BI processes and visualization can develop in every, discribed in the article, way.

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  2. My adventure with BI begun during my studies as an analyst. For anyone who would like to develop analysis skills I would recommend kaggle.com, especially competitions where customer insights are under investigation.
    I like the second idea of ' More Advanced, Customizable Visualizations' too because of the browser-based applications. These which I have seen by now are not as customizable as the stand-alone software.

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  3. I don't have experience with designing/developing out of the box BI systems. In company I worked couple of years ago there was a plan to buy some kind of BI software, but for me as an integration analyst it was just another system to integrate with the rest of the environment. I think API and data mining are most influential among the predictions listed in the article. Surely we have too much data for manual processing, so processing data in parallel on Hadoop is a good trend. In my current job we use Apache Spark for Data Mining, but not for BI analytsis. Can you tell if any of the top BI solution make use of MapReduce on Hadoop or Spark?

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    1. I think that SAS software has module to use MapReduce on Hadoop. Unfortunately, I have no experience with Hadoop on SAS but there is an access for hadoop: http://thomaswdinsmore.com/2013/10/21/sas-and-hadoop/
      https://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/68954/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p0pxnmn7ufoi1vn11sqywfltd9u7.htm

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  4. 1. I don't have any experience with BI and I don't want to.
    2. Nowadays almost every big company is BI vendor (Microsoft, IBM, HP etc.).
    Rest:
    I think that the biggest useless direction is Tech Giant War on BI field. Where it comes to this kind of movement made by big companies customers will always lose.
    The most promising prediction will be (in my opinion of course) IoT and Real-Time Data Science. There is a lot a data in IoT field and from one sensor you can gather couple GigaBytes in couple of days so you have to have some proper tools to deal with this kind of problem. The R programming language is not the best choice (of course if you want to do some modeling why not).

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  5. 1. Have any experience connected with the BI?

    Apart from the PJATK's "Date warehouses" subject, I have no real-life experience regarding Business Intelligence.

    2. Do you recognize any BI vendors?

    Well, the article mentioned Microsoft and Amazon entering the scene, so I guess the answer is yes.

    3. Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?

    The one that could interest me is the public API trend. I am not sure what it has to do with BI, though.

    4. What are the advantages of this direction?

    The advantages of public API's for developers are obvious. For non-developers, I can say that the main advantage is to be able to quickly (should API design allow for it) hack an application that could use those API's.

    5. Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?

    I don't think that word "useless" would be right here, but what actually make me nervous a bit is giant companies entering the scene. This trend is dangerous for many reasons. First and foremost, they want to know everything about you. And that's dangerous. I fear that the only reason for them to enter in this area is to find a way to put more ads on your screen. Not, that I would ever by something that is advertised, but I really hate ads.

    6. Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?

    I don't think I have any insights in this area. It makes me wonder though... What's the reason for large companies trying to sell us to the idea of IoT? Is it to make our lives better, more entertaining? Is it for humanity to prosper?
    Or is it just to better spy on people to treat them as a product (and sell their data)?
    Where are you going, mankind?

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    Replies
    1. For me, one of the useless directions is 'More Advanced, Customizable Visualizations' because the users will never be able to get the desired effect without developer's help.

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  6. 1. Have any experience connected with the BI?

    I don't have experienceswith BI except school experiences

    2. Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    Every big company have a BI for example vendors is Microsoft, IB,HP and etc.

    3. Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    I agree with Pawel Dyda about public API

    4.What are the advantages of this direction?
    I agree with Pawel Dyda about this question

    5. Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    In my opinion dangerous is when company get information from us about pages and etc. Company knows everything about us in the web.
    6. Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    I don't know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems

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  7. thank you for this article,
    I started my first experience connected with the BI in my master thesis "design Data Warehous"
    Business intelligence software helps companies gain perspective on their business operations. The term business intelligence encompasses the process of transforming unstructured business data from any internal source into reportable datasets and visualizing that data into graphs and tables that expose valuable insights. This software often creates automated reports and dashboards that can be deployed to end users, as well as non-technical user interfaces for business users to slice and dice data on their own and preform ad hoc reporting.
    the top business intelligence software:
    -1010data
    -Actuate’s
    -Alteryx’s
    -Arcplan
    -Astera Software’s
    -Bitam
    -Cambridge Semantics’ Anzo

    The Internet of Things is the concept of everyday objects – from industrial machines to wearable devices – using built-in sensors to gather data and take action on that data across a network. So it’s a building that uses sensors to automatically adjust heating and lighting. Or production equipment alerting maintenance personnel to an impending failure. Simply put, the Internet of Things is the future of technology that can make our lives more efficient
    You might be surprised to learn how many things are connected to the Internet, and how much economic benefit we can derive from analyzing the resulting data streams. Here are some examples of the impact the IoT has on industries:
    -Intelligent transport solutions speed up traffic flows, reduce fuel consumption, prioritize vehicle repair schedules and save lives.
    -Smart electric grids more efficiently connect renewable resources, improve system reliability and charge customers based on smaller usage increments.
    -Machine monitoring sensors diagnose – and predict – pending maintenance issues, near-term part stockouts, and even prioritize maintenance crew schedules for repair equipment and regional needs.
    -Data-driven systems are being built into the infrastructure of "smart cities," making it easier for municipalities to run waste management, law enforcement and other programs more efficiently.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your response. Regarding the IoT issue I was waiting for a response like this. Processing of IoT data may benefit in enhancement of safety especially machine monitoring systems with a time-series analysis component able to make further predictions.

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  8. Have any experience connected with the BI?
    No, unfortunately my only experience is using sometimes apps to monitor current exchange rate.
    Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    I suppose Amazon is one of BI vendors.

    Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    “More advanced, customizable visualization”. This is in my opinion future of BI. More powerful tools for customers will allow them to manage the content in more intuited way.
    What are the advantages of this direction?
    People will save time during communication with others. Meetings and presentation would be more efficient.
    Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    “A screen in the hand is worth two on the desk”. People should not share only that same information, if that situation have place, this is proof that these people are not necessary and could be replaced by one person with that same information. People need to talk to exchange information and that interchange will be impossible if people will share that same information.

    Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    Very interesting way is as I mention above is expand the possibilities of presentation in applications.

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  9. It is a very interesting article. I think that all of the following predictions are very interesting, but my attention was driven to the first option, ie. The Evolution of Self-Service BI. I think the evolution of BI has a lot to do with future development of AI. I am not an expert on BI, so I can’t really judge which direction of evolution is more useful than the other. However, I am convinced that the more powerful AI methods being currently developed, like deep learning, will have a great impact on BI. Most of BI research is based on data mining and machine learning, and these methodologies are the fastest growing are of algorithmic knowledge development now.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. Business Intelligence transforms raw data set to the understoodable information. BI is very important part of software. I know solutions like webmaster tools and analytics or software from banking area. BI has to improve decision making process. Operation management depends on BI output data. It is very important to ensure proper indicators quality. Mistake in BI software can lead to disaster.

    Microstrategy is a software vendor from banking area. I suppose that the google, amazon, SAP have a lot of solutions from BI area. To be honest in my opinion every company, which develops software have some solutions from BI area.

    The most promising is real-time analysis (point with IoT and Real-Time Data Science).
    Nowadays business requires real-time decision making. I think it is more need than wish. If you want to have advantage over the competition you need to work on real time data and know changes in the market in real time. Let’s have a look on exchange rates. If you do not track current situation you can lose your business very fast. I am not familiar with IoT BI solutions, but I think that the devices can analyze cost of their usage, maintenance or etc. That can end users to decrease usage costs - but I am not sure is it a common target for end user and device vendor :). Spare parts or device exchange makes a profit for seller but cost for consumer.

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    1. I completely agree with you and this is why I asked about processing IoT data. Honestly, I am not very close to the IoT topic but I believe that some of BI components can be applied to IoT systems. As a result we can optimize many processes. However, privacy issues should be as well discussed.

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  12. I have relevant experience with BI, of course, recognize the best-known providers of such as Microsoft, Amazon, etc. The question which directions are the most promising and which are least useful is very relative depends for whom. So, overall in my opinion the most promising projects which have the largest budgets, nobody is investing in useless things. Examples of data processing are many, but sadly among the many examples that can make our lives simpler and easier and there are many threats outflow of information that can be used against us or our loss - Here is a big danger.

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  13. Have any experience connected with the BI?
    I am a BI developer for four years, so I have a little experience with Business Intelligence.
    The first connection with this field I had of course in PJATK on Data Warehouses classes. I really liked them, read a bit more about it and decided to develop in this direction.

    Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    I work mostly with Microsoft technology, but I also had some experience with SAS, Microstrategy, Pentaho, Qlikview and Tableau.
    If you are interested which are the most promising or popular, take a look at Gartner Magic Quadrant. I do not always agree with this diagram, but it is an interesting way of presentation the trend.

    Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    It is difficult to say which one is the most promising, but I agree that BI is evolving into more flexible for users (including self-service BI, complex visualisations and usability on different devices) and capable of processing a lot of data on-line.

    What are the advantages of this direction?
    For sure it enables to gather broader knowledge about analyzed subject.

    Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    I don't see useless direction in presented article.

    Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    I didn't work with IoT data, so don't have much knowledge about it.

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    1. I used to be up to date with Gartner sheets and, yes, I had similar feelings about them, too. I asked this question because I was just curious about what are the popular directions now.

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  14. Have any experience connected with the BI?
    Enough to build simple olap cubes :)
    Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    I had opportunity to work with Pentaho, I've seen a piece of software from MS, but i forgot which one.
    Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    It's hard to predict anything, my crystal ball isn't working. Despite the fact, I think that Analytics on Hadoop Will Become Reality.
    What are the advantages of this direction?
    Faster processing of big amounts of data, especially in medical science.
    Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    A Screen In the Hand Is Worth Two On the Desk. Why? Is it possible to compare amount of screen space between two screens on the desk with tablet? Pointless, in my opinion. It's easier to use even 4 or more monitors to visual data than using small tablet screens.
    Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    I never had a chance to work with IoT data worth to process.

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    1. You're right, the overall effect of visualized data on a tablet is never enough. It is said that this solution is dedicated for management. In my opinion this is not sufficient and may lead to unreliable analysis.

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  15. My experience with Business Intelligence is limited to subjects I realized on our university and during Erasmus exchange. One was about data warehouses, second was more about "pure" BI but only in theory.
    I recognize a few BI vendors (all I know have been already listed by colleagues above), but my knowledge doesn't exceed the single fact that they do something in that area.
    Evolution of Self-Service BI seems to be the most promising but to be sure I would have to study that topic more deeply. Because of the same reason I won't choose the useless direction.
    Unfortunately, I don't know any interesting (or even not interesting ways).

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  16. Hey, thanks for the article recommendation. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with BI. I know some of the BI vendor's (Microsoft, IBM, etc.) since they are also very popular in other IT related areas. The prediction about IoT becoming a thing in BI is my favourite since its the closest to my areas of interest. This will undoubtedly create new opportunities for data visualization and real-time analysis. Also another one I like was the prediction of solutions increasing support for hand-held devices. I wouldn't say any direction is useless, they all have their strengths and maybe they will reveal something that we can't currently envision.

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  17. 1. Have any experience connected with the BI?

    No.

    2. Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    Microsoft, IBM,HP,…

    3. Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    Public API

    4.What are the advantages of this direction?
    I agree with Pawel Dyda.

    5. Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    No one

    6. Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    No

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  18. I don't have experience with BI. I think all mentioned directions can be important. Special evolution BI to self-service information for the masses delivered through purpose-built interfaces and apps its interesting. The new ways of data visualization can help achieve this goal, for example presentation in the form of dashboards. Permanent war between the giants is nothing new and probably will be so in this case.

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  19. 1. Have any experience connected with the BI?
    I participated in Data Warehouses course on PJATK.

    2. Do you recognize any BI vendors?
    Microsoft, IBM, etc.

    3. Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?
    Real-time analysis and Internet of Things

    4.What are the advantages of this direction?
    Quick access to data analysis results.

    5. Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?
    It is worth to explore all the directions.

    6. Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?
    No

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  20. Have any experience connected with the BI?

    I’m not a BI expert, however i did designed few solutions around BI/DWH domain.

    Do you recognize any BI vendors?

    Plenty. Oracle, MS, IBM, Teradata, SAS etc..

    Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising?

    IoT and Real-time data science unarguably.

    What are the advantages of this direction?

    Plenty, as it opens entirely new set of business opportunities.

    Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?

    I’d not say useless. One could easily find a use case for each of them. However i’d say the least appealing.. evolution of self-service BI, as majority of people is not even interested in any form of BI.

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  21. Business Intelligence has been hot topic for last few years. There are more and more use cases, data sources and visualization methods, that's why it's getting event hotter. As a software vendor I have some experience in BI. I think the most promising prediction is IoT and visualizations. Managements love dashboards! ;-) IoT will provide huge amount of data which BI solutions can process. The Macy's case where Beacons provide information about customers' behavior is a great example of processing the IoT in BI systems.

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  22. Well, we should become more careful in joining data across sources and putting it into open analysis and data mining. It should be matter of public concern of how companies can use data delivered from such source. If any adverse effect can be predicted it should be standardised by additional regulations that will protect the interest of the societies.

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  23. > Have any experience connected with the BI? Do you recognize any BI vendors?

    I had worked on a BI tooling project for small-mid size businesses. Yes I do recognize many of the BI vendors.

    > Which prediction, in your opinion, is most promising? What are the advantages of this direction? Which direction, in your opinion, is useless?

    I wouldn't call any opinion as this is the most useless as I'm not capable of calling any one of them as that is the most promising.

    In my opinion, enterprise is no longer afraid of cloud (as deadly as it was before) and keen on the latest developments with deep learning. Any tool around these two might shine.

    > Do you know any interesting ways of processing the IoT data in BI systems?

    I didn't get the question. What do you mean by `IoT` data ? How it is different than any other form of the data ?

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