Qlik Doubles Down on Data Literacy

(Roman Motizov/Shutterstock)

In parallel with its acquisition this week of an AI startup, data integrator Qlik launched a data literacy service as a means of expanding analytics capabilities across organizations drowning in data.

Separately this week, Qlik announced a deal to acquire RoxAI, developers of software that pushes alerts to analysts. The alerting software also integrates with Qlik’s AI platform, Sense.

Meanwhile, Qlik is pitching its new service as a way to boost data literacy across business operations as a way to wring more value of out of business intelligence and other data.

“Organizations consistently tell us they believe data literacy is essential to their ability to scale data-driven decision making and increase value from data,” said James Fisher, Qlik’s chief product officer. “What they are struggling with is how to best blend the people, process and technology elements necessary for a culture to become truly data-informed.”

The data literacy campaign responds to growing enterprise unease about a shortage of data literacy skills as companies are swamped with ever-larger data volumes. Boosting data know-how is seen as one way of expanding use of costly analytics tools.

According to Qlik, those worries have added a new dimension to the problem, namely, employee resistance that has slowed adoption of when new data and analytics tools are deployed across organizations.

Those roadblocks to adoption require nothing short of a cultural shift, the data integrator argues, prompting it to offer a data literacy service with the goal of “closing this gap and helping organizations address the people, process and technology challenges that can limit success and company-wide confidence in the use of data,” Qlik said this week.

The new service includes guidance on how to expand data literacy across organizations and a subscription service that includes consulting and education tailored to individual customers. Qlik said both are available now.

The new service follows the release by Qlik last fall of a data literacy study that found employers are increasingly seeking job candidates with proven data skills along with data science degrees. The survey published in September found that 64 percent of companies surveyed are looking for prospects with demonstrable data skills.

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