Our View on the Results
While the two most important trends remained the same as last year with master data and data quality management in first position and data discovery in second, third spot is now occupied by establishing a data-driven culture. This trend, which was newly introduced last year and went straight into fifth place in the rankings, is seen as even more important this year. Self-service BI, on the other hand, went down to fifth place this year whereas data governance remains in fourth.
All in all, these five top trends represent the foundation for organizations to manage their own data and make use of it. Furthermore, it demonstrates that organizations are aware of the relevance of high quality data and its effective use. These trends stand for underlying structures being changed: Organizations want to go beyond the collection of as much data as possible and actively use data to improve their business decisions. This is also supported by data warehouse modernization, which is once again in seventh place this year.
Some trends have slightly increased in importance since last year (e.g., real-time analytics and integrated platforms for BI and PM). However, they all climbed just one rank with the exception of establishing a data-driven culture, which jumped two places. Therefore, no huge shift can be observed in terms of upward trends.
The opposite is the case for downward trends: Mobile BI fell from twelfth to fifteenth place this year, continuing its downward trend that started in 2017. It seems as if the mobile application of BI functions is not seen as important anymore, either because it is available now or because requirements have shifted. Advanced analytics/machine learning/AI is ranked one place lower than last year (down from 9 to 10).
More important than the difference of one rank however is the tendency behind this slight downward trend: In 2018, many hopes were based on new tools using machine learning and artificial intelligence so this topic might have been expected to rise. However, even if we refer to it as a stagnation in perceived importance rather than a “real” downward trend, this result is surprising.
In the next few weeks and months, we will post and update a series of articles looking at each BI trend in more detail. You will learn how different regions, industries, user types, company sizes and best-in-class companies rate the various trends and how their views have changed since last year. Sign up for our newsletter below and we’ll keep you informed about the latest articles.
