Last week I attended TDWI in Las Vegas. Normally, by talking to people at conferences such as TDWI, I encounter general themes, trends, or points of interest that are becoming more pervasive in the market. For some reason, this time that didn’t happen. I am not sure whether this is because of the economic downturn, or because many vendors are waiting to announce new releases and general initiatives later in the year.
There were, however, a few interesting things to note – first is the refocus on business value as opposed to the IT side of BI. What I mean is that over the years there has been a recurring wish to help organizations identify how BI adds business value and solves business problems. Unfortunately, because of the industry jargon and focus on infrastructure, this has not always been the easiest thing to achieve. Now, many vendors are working to once again turn their focus on the business value of business intelligence.
Second, is the push towards mobile BI – but when I say mobile I mean having access to a full application that can be operated from anywhere as opposed to simply accessing reports or dashboards. This is definitely something to watch for later on this year with new and enhanced product releases coming from several vendors.
Third and final, is the focus on either targeting services to enhance current offerings, or moving away from services towards a more self-service model whereby customers do not need extra training or consulting to manage and develop their solutions. Either way, it will be interesting to see as the year goes on, whether focusing on increased service offerings will yield positive results in a difficult economy.
In addition, I am referencing some of the announcements made at TDWI in case you would like some further information:
