by Angela Guess
Rick Whiting recently wrote in CRN, “Business intelligence has typically been an IT-led function, with the IT department using legacy software to prepare static reports for managers and employees. There has been a significant shift in recent years, however, with increasing emphasis on providing business users with self-service data preparation and discovery capabilities. That’s reduced the dependence on IT and shifted the BI buying decisions — and the balance of power — to the business side. By 2018, Gartner forecasts that ‘smart, governed, Hadoop-based, search-based and visual-based data discovery will converge in a single form of next-generation data discovery that will include self-service data preparation and natural-language generation.’ This shift has reordered the BI vendor landscape. Here’s a look at where 24 major business analytics software vendors stand.”
Whiting goes on, “Microsoft, one of three vendors in the Leader quadrant, was furthest of any company along the ‘Completeness of Vision’ axis. The vendor markets a broad range of on-premise and cloud-based BI and analytics products including the Power BI and the new Power BI Desktop. Power BI provides data preparation, data discovery and interactive dashboard tools… Tableau joins Microsoft and Qlik in the Leader quadrant, but scored highest on the ‘Ability to Execute’ axis. The company offers ‘highly interactive and intuitive data discovery products that enable business users to easily access, prepare and analyze their data without the need for coding.’ Gartner says Tableau has maintained its growth rate ‘despite increased pressure in 2015 from a growing number of competitors’.”
He continues, “Alteryx markets a workflow-based platform with both data blending capabilities and statistical, predictive and spatial analytical tools for business users. Gartner put Irvine, Calif.-based Alteryx at the top of the visionaries quadrant because of its sales execution, strong customer experience scores and ability to meet the demand for ‘robust self-service data preparation capabilities.’ The vendor also has a ‘partner-centric sales strategy’.”
Photo credit: Alteryx