Mobile BI On IPad .....It Is No Longer Hype

I have been working with QlikView a long time.  Longer than many in the community.  Those that know me know that I am also an early adopter.  So yes, I had QlikView on my iPhone within an hour of it being available in the App Store.  I quickly followed suit on the iPad, even tested QlikView on the Android while giving the EVO4G a test run from Sprint.

With all of that testing and playing around (I use those terms purposefully) I was still really waiting for Mobile BI to take hold and start to gain traction in the business.  For a long time is was filled with ideas of what could be but the interface was not quite there yet.  

It has become clear to me that within the past 6 months (maybe 4 months is more accurate) the hype of Mobile BI could be has passed and reality of what it has become is upon us!  Real mobile BI solutions are being sought out by industry leaders more than ever and now there is a platform for delivery of those solutions.

Next week QlikView will release the Universal Touch Client as part of the latest service release in version 10 (SR2).  I have been using the beta for about a month and I am so impressed with the stability, usability, and ease of deploying useful Mobile BI apps.  Of course there has to be a down side.... here it is...

As a QlikView partner my company makes a living on implementation services.  As an evangelist for QlikView I enjoy the countless conversations I have had over the past several weeks with my customers explaining how they leverage their existing investments in QlikView and deploy compelling applications in a truly mobile , touch based interface, quickly, easily, and ....for the most part free.   It is very exciting.  Customers are excited to know they have made an investment in a company that is bringing value to their organization in ways they never event considered when they first purchased QlikView.

So, will I retire on the revenue from building mobile BI apps in QlikView for existing customer's?  Maybe not, but there a whole lot prospective clients that will find the allure of the QlikView on Mobile solutions we build for Life Sciences and Financial Services that we are happy welcome to the B&D and QlikView community.  This is the hook that will finally land the big fish!

Check out the latest on QlikView on Mobile!

3rd Party App - Adds Flexibility For QlikView Report Distribution

Recently I started to review NPrinting 10 for QlikView.  This 3rd party application allows you to distribute not only PDF QlikView Reports but also Excel Reports from your QlikView environment (from server or desktop editions).

I spent about 30 minutes with the product and I was also able to get a good overview from the creators and I was impressed with its potential.  Especially the ability to dynamically filter data and distribute 'templated' Excel reports from visualizations in QlikView.

As you may know QlikTech offers a PDF Report Distribution add-on to Publisher Enterprise that simply allows Publisher tasks to distribute QlikView Reports in PDF format.  There is no way to automate (short of macro development) the distribution of reports in Excel.  Also, the cost of this add-on makes it cost prohibitive unless you are distributing to a very large group of people.  NPrinting has the potential to give users a more cost effective entry point into PDF distribution with the added benefit of doing Excel distribution as well.


See for yourself.... http://www.nprinting.com/

I will post a more detailed review once I spend a bit more time with the product.

/emb