Top 10 Business Intelligence Posts of 2011 from Spotfire’s Blog

On the Trends and Outliers blog, we’re into recaps of all the latest news, trends and research around BI and

On the Trends and Outliers blog, we’re into recaps of all the latest news, trends and research around BI and data analytics. We even bring you a recap of what’s happened in this space on Twitter each month. Today, we’re bringing you a recap of the top 10 posts from the Spotfire blog in 2011. Let’s rewind as this year winds down.

Number 10 – In-Memory Analytics and the Future of Business From Booz & Co.

In this post, we discussed several resources that support the importance of in-memory analytics. The key takeaway is “better business intelligence, at a lower cost, delivered in real-time to in-office and remote site workers is a powerful change in doing our daily work.”

Number 9 – Spotfire Leads Primary BI Objective – Ease of Use in Gartner Report

Ease-of-use is a major factor in the adoption of a BI or analytics solution. As Gartner said in this report, Spotfire’s “true sweet spot is in providing a flexible, easy-to-use environment.” Our take (from another post) is that if a less tech savvy user cannot navigate and understand a dashboard with ease, there’s going to be a user adoption problem. How will a company be able to make informed, insightful decisions if not everyone can use the solution?

Number 8 – Four Hot Trends in Business Intelligence

If there’s one thing Spotfire blog readers like, it’s trends. number eight on our list is the beginning of a thread of posts related to trends in BI and data analytics that were the most popular of 2011. This post showcases four trends that can be summarized in five words big data, mobile, cloud and talent. Reread this post for a very good look at the focus of BI in 2011.

Number 7 – 7 Hot Trends in Business Intelligence (An Update)

This guest post from Marcus Borba (@marcusborba), a consultant and author of the Business Intelligence News blog, showcases a vocabulary lesson for trends in BI in 2011. Collaborative BI, mobile BI, agile BI and BI in the cloud were among Borba’s updated trends list. Well worth a read to recap this past year.

Number 6 – The Data Analytics of Harry Potter

We often run blog posts around the “data analytics” of a holiday or pop culture reference such as this post that focused on the end of the biggest movie franchise in history. What’s more fun to relive than the magical moments of the world’s most beloved wizard? And be sure to check out the Tweet of the year – “Maybe TIBCO Spotfire could have been to JK Rowling what the Marauder’s Map was to Harry Potter.”

Number 5 – “Data Geeks” in Demand as Salaries Climb in 2011

“Data geeks” became a very hot topic in 2011 and we did an entire series on the growing need for analytics talent and we learned that there’s a new haute title in the data world – “data scientist.” Check out these other posts related to the data science trend here and here.

Number 4 – Six Essential Soft Skills for Data Analytics and BI Professionals

Part of our focus on data analytics talent this year, this article gives data geeks or scientists (if you prefer) an overview of the essential “soft” skills they need to grow in their field. It provides a comparison with IBM’s Watson (the super computer that beat humans on Jeopardy! this year) and his lack of these skills. An underlying truth is that analytics is based on the human element.

Number 3 – 7 Business Intelligence Predictions for 2011

In this post, Borba (mentioned above) discussed predictions on mobile BI growth, cloud growth and focus on in-memory processing for speed. This post is a good refresher on where we saw the industry go in 2011. We’ll be sure to bring you more like this in the New Year.

Number 2 – Deloitte’s Top Technology Trends for 2011: Data Visualization and Real Analytics

If there’s anything Spotfire blog readers like more than trends, it’s trends and data visualization. Visual proof of the data we’re examining is a favorite of this blog audience. The real takeaway from this post is how “real analytics” is a convergence of information management, performance improvement and advanced analytics and how this convergence is changing the way decisions are made and how companies view their customers.

Number 1 – Predict 2011 Red Sox Season and Win $300 in Fan Gear

The number one post of the year centers on our fans’ favorite topic – sports and analytics. This post received more views and even resulted in our top-Tweeted post of the year – Moneyball and the Analytics of a Redsox Playoff Panic. We announced the winner of the analytical contest and showcased how important analytics is to America’s favorite sport.

Next steps: Subscribe to our blog, revisit these top blog posts and Tweet us your top BI prediction for 2012 while sipping a cup of egg nog, of course.