At QlikTech we often describe ourselves as "an American company with a Swedish soul". We celebrate our roots in the delightful and urbane university town of Lund in southern Sweden; indeed, the development teams who built QlikView are still mostly based there. We power our business from our headquarters and major offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Mateo.
Nevertheless, we have more than a Swedish soul and a US business; in fact the QlikView community of customers, partners, and consultants is truly international. To understand that scope, you need only look at the authors of this excellent new book. Barry Harmsen is well known in the Netherlands as an independent Business Intelligence consultant. He is undoubtedly a star of the QlikTech community. Miguel García, from Mexico, has worked globally consulting on QlikView.
The sheer range of experience that Barry and Miguel bring to this book is one of its most valuable qualities. Their examples are carefully thought out, and very thorough; but they also take time to explain the business background to their thinking.
At QlikTech we often say that QlikView is not so much a tool for Business Intelligence as it is a platform for Business Discovery. This is not just a marketing term: we do not want only something different to say. In fact, every day we see customers making discoveries—finding new information and insights—with QlikView.
A traditional BI report simply tells you what you already know and is packaged and formatted to keep that knowledge up-to-date and share it easily. A typical dashboard enables you to track key indicators and, with some good design, also "drill down" to understand the details or trends underlying those indicators. But Business Discovery does this and more. Business Discovery enables users to formulate new questions and explore the answers and implications with very few restrictions.
From the very first chapter, Barry and Miguel show you exactly how this happens. Here, they introduce the associative model that makes QlikView so powerful, along with the clues in the user interface (look for the green, white, and grey) that make this model easy to use.
As they progress along a thoroughly practical path, the authors introduce you to the mechanics of collecting data from sources. They guide you through numerous techniques for transforming, modeling, and exploring this data. They provide practical advice on best practices for security, visualization, and more complex analyses.
In short, for new developers, this is an excellent guide to get them started. For more experienced users, the thoughtful examples and careful notes make this an excellent companion in your work.
Donald Farmer,
VP Product Management, QlikTech.
