A Visual Analytics Platform to Analyze, Reveal, Collaborate and Act On the Data: Qlik

‘See the whole story that lives within your data.’

The success of Qlik is undeniable. The company is a leader in user-driven Business Intelligence (BI) and has a global partner network that supports more than 40,000 customers in over 100 countries. The company’s core focus is to make business software easy to use for the user. Under CEO Lars Björk’s leadership, the company’s success placed it in the top three of Forbes’ list of America’s 25 fastest-growing tech companies, alongside Apple and LinkedIn. Today, the company has made its mark all around the world. Qlik offers an intuitive analytics platform for all visual analytics needs, addressing all possible BI use cases across the enterprise: centrally deployed guided analytics, self-service data visualization, embedded and custom built analytics, collaboration, and reporting. 

Rise of Qlik

“We believe that data is nothing more than a source, and that BI, analytics tools and technologies are only as effective as those that use them.”

The inspiration behind Qlik was to deliver the power of analytics to everyone. Traditional BI limited data analytics to IT, creating a bottleneck whenever business users sought out new answers, but Qlik’s in-memory reporting changed that by enabling users to ask any and all questions they may have and explore the data on their own.

“We knew that the true value of data would only be realized if it was embraced by the entire organization and so we decided to bring it to them,” says Björk.

Front and Center with Lars Björk, CEO 

Why did you select this particular arena to establish your company?

Our company first disrupted the business intelligence category by pioneering the fast, user-driven approach to analyzing data. From the onset of Qlik we focused on making our product offering an intuitive experience from the users’ perspective. We decided back in 2000 to emphasize on the business of BI because that was the space that was widely known. We didn’t try to enter all the market segments or geographies in the beginning. We stayed solely in a few and did well in those so we could get some traction. This was a pivotal decision. 

One of the most common challenges people faced back then – and still today – is knowing there is information in a legacy system but there’s not an intuitive way to pull it out the of the system to digest and analyze it. People spend way too much time searching for data rather than doing something with it. We recognized that people shouldn’t have to do that – a tool can do it better. But at the time, there was nobody in the market that addressed this from the user’s perspective. We made few very brilliant decisions early on which led to our success.

How do you market your products?

We have a unique strategy to sell our software. At Qlik, we don’t believe in going out and selling software and we don’t show up at a corporation’s doorstep and sell them everything they need from now until eternity. We don’t even encourage our customers to buy everything they want up front.  What we do first is understand how a customer wants to buy software; then we accommodate that buying process. Then we let them buy a piece and make that successful; then they will continue to buy when they need more.

What are the biggest attributes of your organization and why?

• Be honest; Openness is paramount and sometimes you have to be personal too.
• Surround yourself with the utmost talented people. People with different skill set make a successful company. Hiring the best talented, brightest people is crucial to success.
• Conduct discussions with those talented people. Explain them the company’s goals and their roles in it. Get across where and how they can contribute. Successful CEOs are role models and evangelists. It isn’t their job to make every decision.
• Understand what target customers wants, tap into their needs.

Qlik Holds All Aces

Qlik’s stunning achievements include:

• Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms for Seventh Consecutive Year
• Qlik Sense received the Ventana Research 2016 Technology Innovation Award in the Business Intelligence category
• Named to Fast Company’s list of Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Social Good

Testament of Qlik’s Success: Client Testimonies

“After exploring several BI platforms, it was clear QlikView best fit our needs, we were impressed by the user-friendly nature of the product and the intuitive ability to perform ‘wild card’ searches against large amounts of data in real time.”- Demian Barshay, Manager, Operations, Cisco

“With Qlik, we spend much less time on data gathering and processing. QlikView receives information from any data source and can integrate and differentiate data. That was what we wanted.”- Mehmet Bodur, Merchandise Director, Tommy Hilfiger Europe

“Qlik was the obvious choice – its vast network of consultants and specialists, the simplicity of its initial deployment and its adaptability made it ideally suited to our needs. For one technology to provide so many disparate benefits is truly amazing — we’re excited about where our investment in Qlik will pay off next.” - César Pérez, Head of Business Process Office, Sony Europe

Qlik’s Fearless Leader

Lars Björk, CEO: Lars is recognized as an authority on driving company culture through an accessible management style.  He was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the technology category and was named Technology CEO of the Year at the 2015 PACT Annual Enterprise Awards. Before Qlik, Lars held several positions as CFO at companies such as ScandStick and Resurs Finance. He has an MBA from the University of Lund, Sweden and a Degree in Engineering from the Technical College in Helsingborg.

“We have thrived by creating a distinct point of differentiation from our competitors – we make BI and analytics as easy as a consumer app someone uses on their iPhone.”