When it comes to Data Visualization, there is no bigger or more significant gathering than the TIBCO NOW annual event. Whether you are a partner, user, or just a data scientist, this was the place to be for the latest TIBCO Spotfire product developments and usage best practices. As a new TIBCO silver partner, Entrance was extremely excited to be attending for the first time.
Day one did not disappoint with an outstanding line-up of keynote speakers.
The theme of the event for 2015 is Your World is Being Disrupted. They delivered against this theme with a number of great presentations with tips for winning in the age of technology and staying ahead of the competition.
TIBCO CEO Vivek Ranadivé kicked off the first day with morning keynote and brief address by San Francisco’s mayor, Ed Lee about how San Francisco is embracing technology. After the mayor left, he later addressed his belief that we are in the era he calls Civilization 3.0. Civilization 1.0 was the pre-industrial revolution era, the agrarian revolution. It was the age of the artisan. People were individual contributors, farmers, shopkeepers, carpenters, painters, and artisans. The industrial revolution brought us Civilization 2.0, which ushered in the age of the corporation, beginning with Ford’s assembly line in 1913 with the main focusing being to organize people and systems for efficiency.
Vivek says we are now entering Civilization 3.0 and the availability of platforms where individuals can reach large audiences, The emphasis shifts back to the value creators. Civilization 3.0 is about offering a service that delivers extreme value to its constituents.
In Civilization 3.0 there are five forces powering the movement including:
- The explosion of data
- The rise of mobility
- The emergence of platforms that allow you to reach a bigger audience for example Twitter
- The rise of Asian economies
- The understanding of how math is trumping science
These forces drive us toward the age of service and thinking of it constituting as a social network and all information being perishable. However with the age of Civilization 3.0 Ranadivé predicts that in 15 years computer programming will be the solution to curing diseases and perhaps predicting certain diseases or heart attack.
Data visualization tools such as TIBCO Spotfire allow companies better collaborate internally and externally, as well as drive greater shareholder and investor value. When we implement such tools, we are empowering our clients with Civilization 3.0 capabilities – which including being able to analyze data for signals, compare new data against past data, visualize data and finally instrumenting the insights gleaned into competitive advantage.
As a company committed to delivering software that enriches people’s lives, we loved Marc Andreesen’s keynote which really more of a conversation about innovation and how every business is “becoming” a software company. As the inventor of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, co-founder of Netscape and as a venture capitalist backing an array of web companies including Twitter, Skype, and Instagram to name a few, Marc makes that point that we need to assume that customers are connected 24×7 with mobile devices. This provides a great opportunity for allowing people to order products, services, software through the internet at any time. This also presents companies with a great opportunity for advancement and innovation if they stay ahead of the curve. With this shift of every business, marc see every company becoming a software company. Marc foresees that in the next 10 to 20 years the healthcare and education industry are going to change the most, as they are vital to people, which will require the need for new software. In closing similar to Vivek Ranadivé, Marc believes strongly in teamwork and that only when people work together and in an environment that encourages risk will companies see exceptional progress.
After a few more speakers, they played a pre-recorded interview that Ranadivé did with PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi keeping with the theme of people and technology stating the importance of change. Named CEO in 2006 and included five years in a row on Fortune magazine’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, Indra Nooyi’s believes that you should put your whole self into the job, which helps businesses change and evolve. The world is getting smaller with technology and the growth of the world beyond Western Europe and United States making it a requirement for companies to transform and increase the transparency even at a loss to privacy to engage with their customers. Sometimes to get the message across to their customers a company must tell their story repeatedly to win over their prospects. Companies need to create return and value to their customer to succeed. It is vital for a company to not only improve but breakaway from the status quo and the leader’s role should envision the future as well as making the vision attainable.
Overall, a great line-up of very inspiring speakers and a great way to kick of the event. We look forward to posting more insights from our experiences on day 2 and 3.