Top BI Technology Trends in 2012

According to Information Week’s 2012 Business Int

According to Information Week’s 2012 Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Information Management Survey, if there’s one dominant trend in BI and information management, “it’s the meteoric rise of analytics, particularly advanced statistical and predictive analytics.” For the third consecutive year, “survey respondents rate advanced analytics as the most compelling among a dozen leading-edge technologies.”

The report speculates that the high-priority status of analytics is closely related to the rising interest in big data as a tool for mitigating risk, predicting customer behavior, and developing new product or service offerings. So it’s not surprising that “advanced data visualization capabilities” (e.g., sparklines and heat maps) and “embedded BI” closely followed “advanced analytics” in the survey ranking. After all – easy access and effective delivery are key factors for getting the most out of analytics.

Trends and Outliers follows these top topics regularly – so if you want to catch up quickly, get a recap, or spark some new ideas, try these recent posts:

Risk and Decision Making Put Predictive Analytics Front and Center

How Does Predictive Analytics Work?

Executive Analytics:  The Path to Success

The ABCs of Enterprise Analytics

How to Speak Like a Data Scientist

The Power of Data Visualization in Four Minutes

There’s also an informative webcast on predictive analytics with Spotfire. (And if you want to stay on top of these top topics, subscribe to our blog!)

Two other interesting trends from the Information Week report:

“This year’s survey shows that resistance is ebbing and IT professionals are giving cloud-based BI, analysis and information management serious consideration.”

A new category added to the Information Week survey this year made a solid entrance: “analysis of big data, particularly unstructured/nonrelational data” debuted in a number three slot, garnering the same level of respondent enthusiasm as “collaborative BI.”