Yesterday I got invited by Qliktech for their semi-annual New England QlikView Boston User Group meeting. It was so many participants, so Qliktech was forced to hold the Keynote (of course the presentation and the demo of Qlikview.Next) and 4 cool presentations by Customers and Partners (Ocean State Job Lot, Analog Devices, Cybex and Attivio) outside of its own office but in the same building on the 1st floor @Riverside Offices in Newton, MA @Rebecca’s Cafe.
It was plenty of very excited people in a very large room and very promising demo and presentation of Qlikview.Next, which actually will not be generally available until 2014. Entire presentation was done using new and capable HTML5 client, based on functionality Qliktech got when it bought NComVA 6 months ago.
I was alarmed when presenter never mentioned my beloved Qlikview Desktop and I when I asked directly about it, the answer shocked and surprised me. One of the most useful piece of software I ever used will not be part of Qlikview.Next anymore. As part of Qlikview 11.2, it will be supported for 3 years and then it will be out of the picture! I did not believe it and asked one more time during demo and 2 more times after presentation in-person during Networking and Cocktail Hour inside Qliktech offices. While food and drink were excellent, the answer on my question was the same – NO!
I have the utmost respect for very smart software developers, architects and product managers of Qlikview, but in this particular case I have to invoke 20+ years of my own advanced and very extensive experience as the Software Architect, Coder and Software Director and nothing in my past can support such a decision. I do not see why Qlikview.Next can not have both (and we as Qlikview users need and love both) Qlikview Desktop Client and Qlikview HTML5 client?
I personally urge Qliktech (and I am sure the majority of 100000+ (according to Qliktech) Qlikview community will agree with me) to keep Qlikview Desktop client as long as Qlikview exist. And not just keep it but 1st, keep it as the best Data Visualization Desktop Client on market and 2nd, keep it in sync (or better ahead) with HTML5 client.
In case if Qlikview Desktop will disappear from Qlikview.Next, it will be a huge gift to Tableau and Datawatch (Spotfire Cloud Personal will no longer have access to the Spotfire Analyst desktop product and therefor Spotfire Cloud Personal is making a similar (partial) mistake as Qlikview.Next)
.
Tableau recently invested heavily into progress of all variations of Tableau Desktop (Professional, Personal, Public, Online, Free Reader) including (finally) migration to 64-bit and even porting Desktop to MAC, so it will instantly get the huge advantage over Qlikview in desktop, workstation, development, design, debugging, testing, QA and offline environments.
It will also almost immediately propel the Datawatch as a very attractive contender in Data Visualization market, because Datawatch got (when they bought Panopticon this year) the extremely capable Panopticon Desktop Designer
in addition to its own very relevant line of products.
Again, I hope I misunderstood answer I got 4 times during 4-hour meeting and during follow-up networking/cocktail hour or if understood it correctly, Qliktech will reconsider, but I will respect their decision if they don’t…
So I have to disagree with Cindi Howson (as usual): even if “QlikTech Aims To Disrupt BI, Again“, it actually will disrupt itself first, unless it will listen me begging them to keep Qlikview Desktop alive, well and ahead of competition.
Data Visualization 
October 27, 2013 at 10:36 am
Couldn´t agree more… Qlikview Desktop version is “the” version
October 27, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Really? This would be a massive change and an admission that they’ve lost the user and are focus on server deployments only.
October 27, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Excellent post Andrei. I fully agree with your observations. I did see the demo of QlikView.Next and it was thoroughly impressive development effort by QlikTech team except removing the Developer Client. I strongly think Qlikview Desktop/Developer Client is the best to sell to new customers. I just hope QlikTech will change the strategy. Thanks again for great article.
Cheers, DV, http://www.QlikShare.com
October 27, 2013 at 6:06 pm
What I took from the demo of .next that I saw is that Desktop functionality will be there in the form of a web server installed on the client machine. This gives a consistent interface whether you are accessing your server or developing locally. Whilst not the same as having a full Desktop client it isn’t that there will be no off line development capability.
Whilst I was skeptical about the new version I now believe the dynamic and fluid UI that .next is sporting will win over new fans. The fact the tried and tested associative engine is still intact under the bonnet should keep us old timers happy too. I hope to have some more .next thoughts on my blog soon, starting with this: http://www.quickintelligence.co.uk/further-qlikview-next-thoughts/
Steve
October 27, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Dear Steve:
I understand your arguments but completely disagree.
Adding 1 or 2 extra layers will reduce the famous Qlikview’s Ease of Use and therefore it is wrong architectural approach, which will create the advantage to Tableau, therefore giving to Tableau (and to Panopticon) an extra chance to win the sale in competitive situation (and I predict it will happen more the Qliktech wish!). In addition, HTML5 UI is not as good and not as Mature as True-And-Tried Windows UI. Again, it is wrong architecturally and it is wrong marketing-wise.
The Correct approach is to have the both HTML5 and traditional (still the best) Windows Desktop Client plus (as I insisted for many years) Qlikview needs ASAP to have Free Desktop Qlikview Reader (similar to Free Tableau Reader) to allow server-less distribution of Qlikview applications. Plus Qlikview.Next has to have free Qlikview Public (similar to Tableau Public) and Qlikview Online (yes, similar to Tableau Online with competitive pricing and storage) and during demo of Qlikview.Next I did not hear anything about those or similar Qlikview in the Cloud and SaaS offering. This is not well-thought approach or some other news and details will come later – I really hope so, because availability of Tableau 8 in Cloud and Spotfire 6 in Cloud making the creation of Qlikview in Cloud product a MUST to have.
Andrei
October 28, 2013 at 3:49 am
I completely agree that the Desktop edition is presently the best way to develop and (for small apps) consume QlikView documents. I do think that the ability to have a consistent interface across platforms is worth making a few sacrifices for though.
What is critical, in my opinion, is that all of the existing functionality is either retained or improved upon. Stories being an example of an improvement on Reports. My biggest concern was around building more custom interfaces utilising text boxes and careful placing of objects. Hopefully these concerns will turn out to be unfounded though.
When it comes to licencing and pricing options for QlikView, I am not a fan of the current model – and just hope QlikTech are aware of what their competitors are doing and are ready to move ensure they stay ahead of the curve.
QlikView in the cloud is being offered as a service by QlikTech partners (Rosslyn Analytics being a good example) which seems like a good move, allowing QlikTech to focus on product rather than infrastructure..
Steve
October 30, 2013 at 2:57 pm
Just found your blog and it is a treasure chest for anyone interested in data visualization. I am getting more and more impressed by the interfaces that can be created in HTML5 but it is something about it that does not feel like a native application. It will be interesting to see how betting the farm on HTML5 and not keeping the desktop client around will play out for QlikView.
October 30, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Stefan: agreed: the usage of HTML5 and toolkits like D3 requires more development, creates longer SDLC cycle, uses inferior UI and instead of replacing dead BI approach with modern easy-to-use Data Visualization, trying to reinvent BI, which is waste of time. So far I saw D3 shines only in hands of geniuses like Mike Bostock..
HTML5 client is a must, but not as replacement of proven Windows-based UI but as the additional option…
January 9, 2014 at 10:20 am
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January 25, 2014 at 9:36 am
Hi Andrei
I get your point as from the demo’s we have seen we will loose quite a bit of the flexibility of the client in terms of dashboard design so we have already started planning our design standards around this in order to make it easier for our customers to migrate.
We hope/expect that this will drive some business towards QVScriptor (www.qvscriptor.com) which is a client for QlikView Application Development, Change and Deployment Management. QVScriptor does not cover the front end views so the App would still need to be picked up by QV to develop the views.
Regards, JP
April 29, 2014 at 9:42 am
Free Desktop Edition is not dead! In QConnect, CTO of Qlik announced QlikView.Next Free Desktop Edition to be avail by third quarter. Here is a press release:
Qlik Announces Free QlikView.Next Personal Edition Download Will Be Available to the public early third quarter
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