Friday, December 30, 2011

Living QlikView



When people ask me what I do for a living, I often say I am Living QlikView.  And of course, this is primarily because I make my living developing QlikView applications for companies.  But it is also because I love what I do.  QlikView has given me the opportunity to finally give business users what they always wanted:  Effective information that allows them to make better decisions quickly. 

Growing up in the world of distribution, I was constantly challenged to give people information they could use.  And it seemed like the old one-two combo of SQL and Crystal was just never good enough. 

But what if I want to see this by customer?

or

I really want this by week, not month.

or the challenging

I want to be able to toggle back and forth easily through different filters.

or the hardest of all to explain

Why do I always have to call you to get this done?


Then in January 2010 I was introduced to a revolutionary solution called QlikView.  Now I could give users what they always wanted.  I can’t tell people how relieved I am to change my “We can’t do that” to “What else do you want?”  So in the last few years QlikView has completely changed the conversation for my clients.  We used to talk about if we can get a workable report.  Now we talk about “what if” scenarios and what used to be pie-in-the-sky ideas.  We now talk about how to get to better decisions, which is what this should have been all along.  The users have gone from tired-eyed frustration to wide-eyed enthusiasm.  And I have found my place, finally bridging the gap between the technology and the business user.