Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Conference Recap

Last month, my brother and I attended Gartner's Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit in Las Vegas.  For those unfamiliar, Gartner is a large and well respected American information technology (IT) research and advisory firm, and they publish the Annual Gartner Magic Quadrant Reports. These reports rank each company in every product or sub-industry within the IT business community. Since many companies, especially enterprise companies, rely on these reports when selecting vendors and making technology decisions, the reports serve as a  "Who's Who" in the industry.

BrightGauge is a newcomer in the Business Intelligence (BI) vendor space and we felt there was no better time to attend a conference like this than in our early years as a BI platform.  The conference did not disappoint.  It was a tremendous learning experience about what enterprise customers are looking for in BI solutions and what vendors who focus on enterprise customers are building into their platforms and solutions.

Here were my three takeaways from the conference:

• Everyone wants to make data driven decisions. I mean everyone. From enterprises, to small business, to consumers, all our customers want to understand and interpret their data in order  to determine the most meaningful answers to their challenges. Although getting a Google or Siri in front of everyone's business data is still years away, that is the ultimate goal.
• Investments are being made so this becomes easier for everyone. Traditionally, enterprise companies depend upon their IT departments to help define what type and what volume of data is needed to make good business decisions. The new model begins to eliminate the IT or BI department from the equation of decision making. Investments are being made in order to equip business users with the tools they need to visualize their data and create the metrics they need to monitor their business activities. Today's businesses are not really large enough to support true BI departments, but they are sophisticated enough to manage their own data with a little direction.
• Data is Everywhere. Spreadsheets, sale numbers, in house customer service information and social media sites all contribute to the volume of data companies create every day. Each of these systems have their own reporting and dashboard functionality, but when not viewed together, this information creates an incomplete picture and profile. The BI industry helps companies consolidate, visualize, and take action on ALL their data.

Fortunately we also learned that at BrightGauge, we have and are currently building all the main pieces needed for an Enterprise Business Intelligence solution.  This provides us great confidence that our market, the Fortune 1,000,000, will be able to leverage the Enterprise class features and functionality we are building.  Which will help make our customers as competitive as they need to be in order to compete in their markets.

A true win, win for everyone!