How to Modernize Your Qlik Environment for Better Analytics (and More)

Here’s the good news: If you have a traditional business intelligence (BI) solution in place—such as QlikView, SSIS, or Cognos—but need to modernize it, you can migrate to Qlik Sense.

Why Migrate to Qlik Sense?

To put it simply, by migrating to a modern platform like Qlik Sense you will get better analytics based on more data that will be used by more people throughout your organization. Our clients who have completed a Qlik migration are experiencing these benefits:

• Self-Service Analytics: Users need an easy-to-use analytics platform that doesn’t require technical expertise or manual intervention. With traditional tools, employees are often required to have a certain level of technical knowledge to complete a data migration out of a query-based reporting tool or they need to use spreadsheets to analyze their data. And then they have to spend time manually creating reports. With a modern tool like Qlik Sense, users have an enterprise analytics environment that provides a central, intuitive interface to access and search for data.
• Modern Visualizations: Qlik Sense has smart visualizations that allow business users to easily identify hot spots and outliers and summarize the overall shape of data.
• Open Platform with APIs To Enable Embedded Analytics: Companies need the ability to incorporate analytics into their existing platforms and provide analytics to individuals outside their organization. Instead of creating separate environments for internal and external analytics, Qlik Sense allows you to incorporate visualizations into your existing platforms.
• Visual Data Prep: Instead of relying on IT to create visualizations or ad-hoc reports, business users can create their own visualizations with drag and drop functionality and natural language queries.
• Improved Performance and Maintenance: With Qlik Sense, applications update much faster when a calculation is changed. Staying up to date with new releases and maintaining the existing environment is also easier because of updates that were made with the engine behind Qlik Sense.

What’s the Difference between QlikView and Qlik Sense?

Qlik Sense is not a new version of QlikView. While both are built on the Qlik Associative Engine and have similar core capabilities, there are differences in design and product strategy that reflect both modernized technology and the evolution of customer needs in the market.

Qlik Sense delivers a modern, self-service oriented experience through a responsive user interface. It supports seamless deployment across on-premise and cloud sites, as well as online and offline mobility. And open APIs allow web developers to build custom applications and embed analytics. In contrast, QlikView is a development environment for those with QlikView skills to create and deploy interactive analytics applications and dashboards.

With this information at hand, it’s no longer a question of why to migrate to Qlik Sense, but rather how.

An Overview of the Migration Process from QlikView to Qlik Sense

Qlik migrations can be intimidating, but they don’t have to be if you have a strategy in place. Based on experience, Analytics8 has a tried-and-true Qlik migration process and strategy that ensures a smooth data migration with minimal disruption to your business. Here are the steps we recommend you take to get started with a Qlik migration:

1). Establish a Foundation: This will allow for a scalable environment that takes advantage of the strengths of the Qlik Sense environment. You can do this by:

• Completing an analysis of your existing environment to identify redundant data elements and code;
• Creating a three-tiered data architecture, utilizing automated procedures to pull data from your data warehouse; and
• Using Master Items, variables, and script procedures to enable rapid development and reduce maintenance overhead.

2). Examine Existing Reports: The goal of any data migration project is to arrive at a solution that is better than what it is replacing. Take the time to examine your existing reporting to ensure that it is providing value to the business. This includes:

• Validation of the business rules and logic to ensure the quality of the data;
• Review of the existing reporting with users prior to replication in the new environment to ensure that reporting is accurate and relevant; and
• Improvement of the existing reporting to take advantage of the strengths of the new platform.

3). Training and Mentoring: Once the new environment is up and running, it is imperative that your organization is able to take the reins. Training and mentoring need to be incorporated into the data migration process to ensure you see the return on your investment. This includes:

• Mentoring developers on the structure of the environment and coaching on best practices;
• Development of templates and guides to ensure consistency; and
• Training users on the new functionality of the environment and introducing them to the self-service features.