QlikTech Refreshes Its Memory

QlikTech launched the next generation of its QlikView software yesterday with new features and performance enhancements for users. QlikTech says the memory-based architecture of its new QlikView 8 is 30 to 90 percent faster than the previous versions and includes significant advancements in collaboration, wide-scale user deployment, and actionable analytics. To make analysis more actionable, QlikView 8 introduces new features like placeholder fields for memory-resident data that can be distributed across aggregations. This capability is particularly useful for performing forward-looking analysis and "what-if" scenario comparisons, says Rick Pitts, CEO of North America for QlikTech. QlikView 8 also bumps up collaboration considerably with the inclusion of shared document objects and reports from a centralized QlikView server. "If you're in supply chain management and you identify a trend that manufacturing should know about, you can send the report as a hyperlink so another line of business can view the report via the server," Pitts says. The latest version of QlikTech's flagship product has the ability to embed the QlikView BI client into applications like Microsoft Office and Excel via "a one-button click to generate reports," Pitts says. QlikView 8's support of Microsoft Office and Windows Vista highlights an emerging trend among BI vendors to support Excel rather than fight it. "Lots of end-users still like to use Excel, but it does have its limitations. We're simply making it easier to jump between the two." With QlikView 8, QlikTech continues to push its in-memory design that runs contrary to the traditional grain of pre-defined multidimensional online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes and aggregates. The software uses a patented analytics engine that allows for unlimited drill-down. A compelling proposition for SMBs, this OLAP-free approach is now seeing increased traction from enterprises, says Madan Sheina, principal analyst of BI technologies at Datamonitor. "While small and medium-sized companies make up the bulk of [QlikTech's] customer base, large enterprises are also starting to see the value of its memory-based architecture," she says. "It removes the need to build pre-configured OLAP cubes that slow analysis and expensive-to-maintain enterprise data warehouses." Overall, Sheina says "QlikTech is part of a growing band of BI vendors that are trying to make BI pervasive across the organization through scalable architectures, technical simplicity, and on-demand delivery models." Related articles: SAS Tops Gartner's BI Magic Quadrant QlikTech Opens New Doors to Analytics

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