Qlik does more than just enable data-driven decision-making when adding capabilities to your analytics and data management platform. Longtime analytics vendors want to enable actions that have tangible results.
Qlik gained traction based on its ability to help customers analyze their data. 5 years ago, Beginning with the Podium Data acquisition in 2018 Shortly thereafter, in 2019, it acquired Attunity and began actively building a data integration platform.
Since then, we have also acquired vendors such as Blendr.io to add data integration capabilities. Most recently, we agreed to acquire Talend in January 2023. In a move to add data fabric capabilities.
Meanwhile, Qlik continues to invest in its analytics platform. 2020 Vendors Introduces the concept of active intelligence — the ability to deliver real-time data and analytics to customers no matter what application they’re using at any given moment — and that continues to guide the company’s roadmap.
But according to Qlik CEO Mike Capone, neither data analytics nor data integration is Qlik’s end goal.
Rather, Qlik wants customers to use data integration and analytics to arrive at insights that trigger actions that produce results. These results may be as simple as profit growth. There is also the possibility of fraud detection and preventive maintenance.
Recently, at Qlik’s annual user conference April 17-20 in Las Vegas, Capone spoke about Qlik’s current state and future plans.
He talked about why Qlik added data integration and the vendor’s roadmap for data integration and analytics platforms.Additionally, he spoke about whether Qlik plans to go public after that. Submission of documents for initial public offering in January 2021 and his opinion Generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
Editor’s Note: This Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Five years ago, Qlik had yet to expand into data integration. But last year, his pending acquisition of Talend and Getting started with cloud data integration, which was related to data integration. What made Qlik decide to extend beyond analytics?
Mike Capone
Mike Capone: One of the things we do at conferences is make sure people understand that we haven’t moved away from our analytics efforts. More than half of our R&D is analytics.
But Qlik is not trying to sell data analytics or data integration. We are trying to sell results. I want to solve business problems.customer [like] our analysis. Increasingly, however, their problem is getting massive amounts of data from disparate sources across operating systems, organizing and cataloging it, and ingesting it into analytics-enabled platforms. We purchased Attunity for data integration and now add Talend for data transformation and data preparation. We also invested heavily in data catalog tools.
The other part is they have the data and they’ve analyzed it, but now what? They have insights but is it just on the dashboard? must be able to do So we’ve also invested heavily in what we call automation and actions. This is the ability to take that insight and do something automatically. We love solving problems that drive business results.
As for Talend, why was it an acquisition target?
Capone: We’ve had our eye on them for quite some time, and it was two things.
One, the technology was complementary. We considered their data transformation (data quality and data preparation) to be best in class. Customers also said the same thing, and many customers overlapped. We loved their tech. Culturally, they are a company founded in France and headquartered in the US, and we are a company founded in Sweden and headquartered in the US. It has a great fit that helps speed time to value. As far as putting companies together.
What is the future roadmap for Qlik’s data integration platform?
Capone: We will move quickly to integrate our data integration platform [following the acquisition of Talend]Subject to regulatory approval, there are plans to enter into a contract to integrate Talend’s inherited tools with the existing Qlik platform. We will continue to support his Talend use cases standalone as well as the previous Attunity technology that Qlik built.We will be completely open so our customers don’t have to be all or nothing with us. [from whatever cloud] they want to work with us.
That said, we believe that by the end of the year we will have an amazing value proposition for a fully integrated change data capture and data transformation platform.
In terms of analytics, Qlik introduced the concept of Active Intelligence several years ago. Will it continue to drive product development?
Capone: Yes. It’s about unlocking value.
Qlik does not sell data analytics or data integration. We are trying to sell results. I want to solve business problems.
Mike CaponeCEO, Qlik
There are use cases where credit card companies manage fraud. Once companies find a pattern, they lock the cards. Don’t wait for someone to tell you to do so. We continue to invest heavily in automation capabilities and have invested in building a connector factory to move data. It’s part of Data Integration, but it also supports the vision of Active Intelligence by allowing you to communicate with various platforms both on-premises and in the cloud to support automation. It will continue to be so.
Then you can layer automated machine learning and augmented intelligence – all on our platform. Algorithms can be trained to gain new insights that can be fed into automation pipelines.
What is Qlik’s analytics tools roadmap?
Capone: The future rests on AutoML [automated machine learning] AI capabilities and automation. But we will continue to enhance our regular analytics platform with more visualizations and more use cases.
You mentioned AI. Does Qlik have plans to integrate with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT?
Capone: We are already there. Many customers are linking generative AI to their platforms and building applications. We have open technology and that is what we are for. QlikWorld has partners to showcase cool stuff.we think [generative AI] We see it as a natural evolution, complementary to what we do, not competing with what we do.
Also, many people have asked for help in understanding [generative AI]A little intimidating. Some financial services companies forbid it. My daughter’s high school banned it. We are ready to advise our customers on how to deploy this technology in a safe and controlled manner and not let it run wild.
Several vendors have already integrated with OpenAI to embed generative AI into various tools. But what is Qlik’s approach to AI?
Capone: AI is interesting. But let me emphasize that it is part of a larger picture. AI is useless if it can’t be trained on data and put in a format that AI can use. ChatGPT is scraping the web [for data]From my point of view, I want to make sure people are cautious. It will take time for this to be sorted out and become part of the larger picture. It’s not this little thing that takes over the world.
One of the big things Qlik did at the beginning of 2022 was Submit initial public offering documentsSoon after, the public market appetite for technology IPOs dried up. So, do you still have plans to go public?
Capone: Right now we are watching the market very closely, but our big goal is to integrate Talend.we know how [get Talend integrated]but like any big acquisition, it’s going to be a lot of work.
We will keep an eye on IPO developments and when the time is right, that is the way to go. But it’s not the only way. Previously, we had an opportunity in the market as a standalone provider of analytics and data integration. Now that Talend is here, we’re really excited about the opportunity. We believe that no matter how you go about it, you will get great results.
What do I need to change on the open market to go IPO?
Capone: The IPO market should ease. We want a more conducive and friendly environment for investors in technology IPOs. But more importantly, you have to believe that going public will make you more successful than keeping it private. We believed it when we submitted it 16 months ago.
We have a balanced business. Our company is growing steadily and profitability is good. The good news is that Wall Street appears to be back on the side of evaluating profitable companies. Whole growing, growing, growing, spending, spending, spending was never the way we were. We will go public if we believe we can get the value of that balance and operate in the best way for us.
Finally, with QlikWorld just days away, what can Qlik customers expect to hear from you during the conference?
Capone: My commentary is about optimism. The world is an uncertain place right now, but war, inflation, [COVID-19] Pandemic — I’m optimistic. Because data and analytics are proving to show the way and help us navigate these turbulent times. We are well positioned to help you do just that with our end-to-end platform that includes data integration, analytics, alerts, and actions.
I will elaborate on that. 70% of his presentations are from customers and partners and he talks about the built ecosystem. When he first turned to Qlik five years ago, our ecosystem was around smaller partners building purpose-built analytics applications. They were great and we loved them. But our ecosystem now includes customers who have embedded our technology within themselves to enable their own customers to leverage their data and analytics.
Eric Avidon is a Senior News Writer at TechTarget Editorial and a journalist with over 25 years of experience. He is responsible for analytics and data management.
Mike Capone
