Qlik Acquires Podium Data to Simplify Analytics Process

The acquisition by Qlik may show they have analytics ambitions that now go way beyond simple data visualization. Qlik, a provider of data visualization tools used widely within analytics applications, plans to streamline the processes required to feed data into those applications following the acquisition this week of Podium Data, a provider of a data management software. The goal is to eliminate the data preparation friction that organizations encounter as they move data from multiple raw services into the Qlik platform, says Qlik CEO Mike Capone. That complexity winds up limiting usage of analytics applications because analysts are still dependent on IT departments to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data into an analytics application, adds Capone.