Qlik requires deeper understanding of strategy from its partners

If artificial intelligence (AI) is to go beyond automation and deliver real-world value, there needs to be trust between the end-user customer, service provider and ultimately the vendor. 

While the noise of surrounding AI can be overwhelming and confusing, vendors like Qlik are deliberate in how it chooses its IT service partners to deliver its AI solutions in a way that solves a customer’s problem. 

The business intelligence vendor’s partner ecosystem is divided into solution providers, technology alliance partners and system integrated partners, emphasising a bi-directional partnership model, treating partners as extensions of its team.  

In an interview with ARN, Qlik field chief technology officer of analytics and AI Charles Farah said partners like Notitia contribute significantly to its business.  

Qlik’s partners specialise in various industries – notably healthcare, retail and mining – and are praised for their strategic advisory and data literacy, said Farah.  

The company invests heavily in partner support, including workshops and summits, to ensure mutual success and customer trust. 

“Some of the larger, more prominent partners, like the system integrators, come with a certain level of credibility because of their brand. But their fees can be a deterrent for some organisations,” Farah explained. “Those organisations then look at our partners and see that their customers, when they engage with them, are focused on outcomes.  

“They want to make sure they’re getting a return on investment.” 

Qlik makes sure that the partners it engages with, and the vendor is always looking to recruit new ones who “are the right fit”.  

“Some might have specific skill sets or work in certain industries, but what’s important is that they’re invested in our approach,” said Farah. “That methodology we have around building trust, building rapport and helping develop a strategy.

“It has to be outcome-based and not just about making a software sale and then walking away — we hate that kind of mentality.” 

Having this deeper understanding, according to Farah, is because when customers engage with Qlik partners, they want to know there are runs on the board and that partners have experience in this space.  

They need assurance that these partners have delivered outcomes and have reference ability, which “really helps move things forward”, he noted 

The biggest challenge Farah sees is that many of these customers are now coming to partners with a clear priority on needing to move to the cloud.  

“That’s their biggest initiative at the moment,” Farah said. “Figuring out how to get off their legacy platforms and become a more modern, data-centric organisation. 

“In the past, partners might have just been engaged to do application development, to build an app or a report.”  

However, these partners are now involved in strategic advisory work, helping to shape data architectures, data strategies, and understanding what that means for the business, Farah pointed out. 

“That’s where I think [Notitia] have done a great job,” he said. “They’ve built that business know-how, so they can have deeper conversations with customers about their experiences and what they should be thinking about.  

“It’s no longer just, ‘Engage us to build something’. It’s also, ‘Let us help shape what you should build’.” 

From Notitia’s point of view 

Australian-owned consultancy Notitia, founded in 2019, said the days of people just pushing product are going away. 

For Notitia managing director and founder Alex Avery, “that’s a really good thing”.  

“Hopefully, we’re now in a world where the product itself is the easy part,” he told ARN. “The real challenge is being able to articulate the solution, explaining what needs to happen to get the organisation to where it needs to be.  

“That’s the more human challenge and that’s actually really exciting.” 

A few years ago, Notitia was seeing decisions being very product-led and the mindset of customers was centred around buying products that would help them to do certain things. The technology strategy was led by what the product does, explained Avery. 

 “Most of our customers aren’t tech companies, they’re real organisations doing real things,” he said. “This idea that technology is an enabler, that took a bit of a back seat for a while. 

“But now it feels like it’s really coming back and people understand what that means now.” 

According to Avery, in the past, it felt like people were just buying “shiny new toys” and then trying to figure out afterwards how to make them fit. 

“Now, we’re seeing a shift and people are slowing things down,” he said. “In a lot of cases, what they end up with might not be the flashiest or most technically impressive solution, but it delivers real ROI [return on investment].  

“It solves a problem and it’s something they can own and manage themselves. I’m really hoping that this trend we’re seeing continues.” 

The deeper understanding of what the possibilities of what AI is and can do needs to be understood by IT service partners, said Avery. 

He noted about 10 per cent of the hype around what AI promises actually holds true, and organisations are making broad-brush decisions based on that hype, which may come back to bite them. 

“That probably stems from a lack of understanding at the senior level, a lack of clarity around what’s actually possible with the technology,” he explained.  

For example, a senior executive goes to a corporate luncheon, sees a presentation from an AI company, and next thing you know, there’s a pilot being launched.  

“I think that’s the level of understanding we’re dealing with in a lot of cases,” he said. “There’s just a real lack of senior leaders in most organisations who have any deep understanding of technology.  

“So, when they’re presented with high-level numbers, of course they go for it. But unless you’re close to the details and really understand how it all works, these kinds of decisions are inevitable.” 

That’s why managed service providers need to take the time to understand their customers, and their pain points.  

“Really take the time to understand the business problem that’s in front of you and don’t approach it immediately from a technology perspective,” he said. “Actually empathise with the problem, look at it from a pure business point of view. 

“Forget about the technology for a moment … only once you fully understand the problem should you start thinking about a solution and that solution might happen to involve technology.”