Advanced Visualization Is Top of Mind at TDWI

I'm back from last week's TDWI conference in sunny San Diego. That everyone stays in the classes all day, rather than exploring the tempting water front, always impresses (and surprises) me!I briefly visited the Executive Summit to hear about what trends CIOs and VPs of business intelligence think will have the biggest impact over the next three years. Predictive analytics once again topped the list, but now in the second-highest spot was advanced visualization and discovery. This is good news for vendors/products such as Tableau, Spotfire, SAS JMP, and Advizor Solutions. This week BI Scorecard published an in-depth evaluation of TIBCO Spotfire that highlights the product's strengths, challenges, and competitive differentiators.

Surprising to me, though, was that there was no mention of in-memory analysis, but I am chalking this up to an oversight in the list of voting items rather than any real indication of its importance. Mobile BI ranked near the bottom again, but as one retailer commented, that result will look very different in a year from now given how fast iPads are selling. Juicing up the competitiveness in this market, too, is new support for Flash on Droid smartphones.

The BI Bake Off was once again exciting and nerve wracking (for me as the facilitator!), with Information Builders, MicroStrategy, and Oracle demoing side-by-side. It was the first look for many Oracle prospects to see OBIEE 11g, which officially went production last week. I know -- everyone wants to know who won the bake off and where the vendors were on par with one another. But I have to save that result for attendees only!I'm back from last week's TDWI conference in sunny San Diego... I briefly visited the Executive Summit to hear about what trends CIOs and VPs of business intelligence think will have the biggest impact over the next three years.