Essential Business Intelligence And Analytics Trends In 2020

Few years ago, analyzing data in the petabyte range required a lot of work in the command line. R, Python, Gnuplot and SQL were vital in achieving the desired analysis. Then Tableau came and analysis were carried out without writing scripts. From then on, analyzes were interactive and the data strategy has changed fundamentally.

 

A lot has happened since then, not only in research. Business intelligence has also undergone profound changes in recent years. In 2015, cloud analytics, data science and the connection of big data were still in the foreground, so in 2016 self-service analyzes clearly came into focus. More companies are giving their employees access to their data. More people understand data as an important tool for performing their tasks. Here, we will discuss the BI & Analytics trends shouldn't be missing in any data strategy in 2020.

 

1. Everyone can use the “modern BI”

 

Modern BI is a model of business intelligence that makes data accessible to more employees in various roles. This aspect is also mentioned in the BI Magic Quadrant from Gartner. It says that "we have passed the decisive turning point of a more than 10 to 11-year transition from IT-centric reporting platforms to modern BI and analysis platforms". This is particularly important for companies that may have terabytes or more of data and need to ensure that users perform their analysis with clean and IT-approved data.

 

2. Analyzes are becoming more collaborative

 

 

We will see a change in collaboration in 2020. Instead of forwarding static reports, users will share interactive workbooks and data sources that serve as the basis for their business decisions. For example, imagine that during a weekly business meeting, you call up an interactive dashboard to check KPIs. It will also be quite common to carry out analyzes in these dashboards directly from the browser or the iPad.

 

3. All data are given equal rights

 

In 2020, the value of the data will no longer be tied to rank or size. Loading a database with billions of rows should work just like loading an Excel spreadsheet with 150 rows from your desktop. It will be important that employees can access data quickly and easily and can examine it together with other data types.

 

4. Self-service is extended to data preparation

 

The trend towards usability and agility that has revolutionized the BI and analytics markets is now reaching data preparation. This means that common tasks such as syntactical analysis, JSON and HTML imports and data processing are no longer delegated to specialists. Instead, non-analysts will be able to perform these tasks as part of their analysis flow.

 

5. Working with data without knowing it

 

Not surprisingly, analytics work best when it's a natural part of the workflow. In 2020, analyzes will be omnipresent and enrich all business processes. Embedded BI will increase the scope of the analyzes to such an extent that this development may not be perceived consciously. It's similar with predictive analysis that recommends a movie on Netflix. These are the results of analyzes. Most people are not even aware of this.

 

6. IT becomes a data hero

 

For decades, IT departments have struggled to create endless reports to answer business requests. This cycle is now interrupted. IT departments no longer produce, but support and ensure governance, data security and compliance. IT enables the company to make data-oriented decisions with the speed required by the market. In a way, IT becomes a data hero.

 

7. Employees work with data in a more natural way

 

Writing SQL is not a very natural way to work with data. In 2020, the user interface for working with data will become even more natural, through natural language. Natural language analysis means that data questions are formulated with common words. This makes data, graphics and dashboards even more accessible by giving employees the opportunity to interact with data in new ways.

 

8. The transition to the cloud is accelerating

 

Data gravity is the idea that we want to do the analysis where the data is. So if your data is stored in the cloud, we also want to carry out the analyzes there. In 2020, data in the cloud will develop enough "gravity" to persuade companies to provide their analysis where the data is. Cloud data warehouses like Amazon Redshift will remain very popular data locations and as a result, cloud analytics will be ubiquitous.

 

9. Advanced Analytics becomes more accessible

 

 

Not every user can program R or Python. Business users in particular will not want to acquire this knowledge and avoid analysis functions that require such scripting languages. In 2020, advanced dat analytics(sophisticated, powerful analytics) will be more accessible and available to business users for everyday use.

 

10. Data and analysis competence is the focus

 

There is no profession that can do without data today. This means that data and analysis skills will become increasingly important - regardless of the role and position in the company. For two consecutive years, this skill has been listed as the main recruitment requirement for LinkedIn. Intuitive analytics platforms are introduced at the workplace, providing decision-making bases at all levels. But the skills of the employees form the foundation for using them.