Fast Forward to 2014 — Gartner Predicts the Future of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

Neil Chandler, research director at Gartner, says that BI will be different in 2014 — and the transformation is already underway.

Neil Chandler, research director at Gartner, says that BI will be different in 2014 — and the transformation is already underway. Chandler says that the way we use information to make decisions is changing as BI and analytics become less an IT report-based capability and more of an information decision tool for end users. The Gartner announcement makes four predictions for business intelligence and data analytics in 2014.

Mobile: many more users and more specialized applications
Gartner reminds us that end users simply want to access enterprise BI data so they can more effectively work with customers and suppliers, regardless of the device used. They believe that about a third of BI functionality in 2014 will be consumed by users with mobile devices. They also predict that mobile applications will evolve from being ports of existing applications to true mobile applications that allow users to perform specific analyses and accomplish specialized tasks. Gartner advises current BI professionals to have the same external focus on customers and suppliers as end users, and to partner with the marketing and supply chain functions to develop mobile applications that will help end users as they work with customers and suppliers.
Mainstream predictive analytics drives a need for faster processing
According to Gartner analysts, almost a third of packaged BI applications in 2014 will integrate text and data analysis and modeling , complex business rules and predictive analytics into more standard, mainstream functionality. This additional capability will increase both the amount of data and complexity of calculations, driving a demand for more processing power to keep response times acceptable. As a result, in-memory processing and column-oriented databases will become much more prevalent to help meet the need for speed.
Spending shifts toward solution providers and integrators
Gartner predicts BI spending will migrate toward solution providers, with about 40 percent of spending in 2014 going to service providers who integrate enterprise BI data with other external data sources and incorporate industry best practices and domain expertise. They advise BI professionals to look beyond functionality and architecture and to partner with end users when selecting a solution. The end users can help evaluate the solution as a whole by providing input on the expertise that the solution provider contributes to the solution.
Collaborative, social decision-making environments emerge
Gartner believes that social software and the move to more collaborative decision-making is a cultural change, and should be treated as such. They predict that decision–making environments, which combine social networking, collaboration , BI and analytical tools (see Social BI), are beginning to emerge and will be adopted by some organizations in 2014. Gartner recommends finding a senior executive to champion the cultural evolution and help demonstrate the business impact of this new way of making decisions.

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