In 2017, are we going to be able to rely on Cloud and mobile analytics, or is this merely a trend we want to see? Which 2016 trend predictions for Business Intelligence really had an impact on business development and efficiency? Let’s take a look at BI evolution in 2016 and BI trends for 2017 in order to further benefit and strengthen your business.

Business analysts say that Business Intelligence has already been embraced by many companies and 2017 will not be a matter of adoption but of finding the most suitable BI solutions for their needs. Customized will be an impact keyword for BI software users. To be prepared and proactive in 2017, we should first review which 2016 predictions really influenced the business landscape.

2016 Business Intelligence predictions review

Our specialists analyzed several trends predicted for 2016 by many tech industry news sources, like ITProPortal, and we made some inspirational discoveries.

Data integration

The capacity to integrate and analyze data coming from different sources and in different formats, both inside and outside companies, is a must for both large and medium companies. We saw this trend blossom in 2016 and it will continue in 2017.

Governance and self-service analytics

Data governance – explained as data accuracy or control over any data entry – was once seen by many as an alien for self-service analytics. Data accuracy has become the main focus of valid self-service analytics. Companies have started to realize this and one of the directions taken in 2016 was to clean up the source data.

Visual analytics and data discovery

Data discovery tools based on visualization and visual analytics that empower you to find surprising relationships between data elements and to quickly discover unexpected data insights were predicted to become a common theme in 2016. This trend is still in an early stage, and it may continue in that direction for 2017, as we are still in the self-service phase at the analytical data level.

BI Center of Excellence

The role of a BI center of excellence is to encourage the adoption of self-service analytics in order to maximize BI solution benefits within organizations and we saw many companies implement this.

Increasingly, users were trained to develop and explore both simple and complex self-service analytics. A reminder that from time to time even beginner users have the power to create complex self-service analytics is one of the recurring tasks for 2016 and 2017. This should be the key for helping users embrace self-service analytics in order to take solutions to the next level.

Data democratization

Soon we will reach a point when self-service analytics and self-service data preparation tools will be accessible to any team eager to juggle data and respond quickly to any market change. This is a nice feature, but we won’t see it happen in 2017.

Next level of data discovery

Looking at the raw data is sometimes the only way to find the right answers and make the correct decisions. Offering the possibility of accessing more raw data and going back through historical data sometimes makes the user’s experience less pleasant because some technical limitations make the tools less responsive. In order to minimize the impact, teaching users how to work with the tools when raw data needs to be analyzed was one of the main tasks for support in 2016.

Rise of mobile analytics

Many teams think that mobile analytics is a great answer for any time, anywhere data and fast decisions, but they are also concerned about data security. Cloud analytics might be the right solution in the future for these two requirements. For now, however, mobile analytics is available with some limitations.

Some of those trends will continue to grow through 2017 and enhance BI solutions that will benefit any organization. We must also keep an eye on any new technologies and trends that have great potential for disruption.

Business Intelligence trends for 2017

Innovation on the rise

Innovation is something we all expect considering the last few years of tech evolution. But will the new technologies be able to fill in the gaps? It is true that many companies will be tied to their existing applications in 2017. But we are pretty sure that this year will also bring new steps in moving the BI solutions to the elastic cloud architecture and machine learning. New BI tools and new BI solutions based on new technologies will continue to develop in 2017, as the market is in constantly evolving. More than that, the trend to have a tool for any source of data that consumers wish to analyze will continue.

Cloud analytics

Although companies’ hype for the cloud is on the rise, cloud analytics are still in their early phases. Cloud-based tools and cloud applications have helped many business teams to easily and quickly consume and work with data. More and more cloud applications will appear in response and, based on their success, cloud analytics should be the next logical step. This year might be the start of a good cycle for cloud analytics.

Collaborative BI

As cloud technology empowers easy sharing, we will speak more about collaborative BI – a mix between BI software and collaboration tools. With this, people are able – without an IT team – to access data, understand it, create reports, and share them with others. You are even able to create scheduled automated reports, with alerts to stay in touch and take fast decisions when necessary. All this enables interactivity and flexibility as a team. Collaborative BI will progress beyond documents and reports and will influence meetings, calls, communication, and idea-sharing.

Adapt

Adaptation is an ongoing process required by fast tech development and market needs. In 2017 it is becoming clear that every company must adapt if it wants success and results. Providing the skills and tools to handle self-service data analytics is now a business requirement. Finding the right tools for the user’s needs, which are easy to learn, and with a low license price for the company, is still an ongoing process and it will continue for the coming years.

The tech industry and its market demands move quickly and this forces any kind of organization to stay in touch with and embrace tech development. It’s not simply a matter of being an early adopter and gaining a competitive advantage; in the medium and long term it is a matter of being profitable and surviving as a business