Qlik Connect 2025 | Olga Garagonich & Mike Gulvin, BT Group & Nicole Tumblin, Qlik

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Olga Garagonich

Lead Manager, Data Visualisation

BT Group

Mike Gulvin

Data Analytics and Data Visualisation Lead

BT Group

Nicole Tumblin

Head of Business Operations, Analytics

Qlik

play_circle_outline BT Group Panel Discusses Qlik Answers and AI Impact on Cloud Analytics and Transformation Projects

play_circle_outline BT Group Harnesses Qlik and Gen AI for User-Driven Analytics and Collaborative Transformation

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Olga Garagonich & Mike Gulvin, BT Group & Nicole Tumblin, Qlik

Olga Garagonich

Lead Manager, Data Visualisation BT Group

Mike Gulvin

Data Analytics and Data Visualisation Lead BT Group

Nicole Tumblin

Head of Business Operations, Analytics Qlik

Olga Garagonich, data visualization team lead at BT Group; Mike Gulvin, data analytics and data visualization lead for consumer marketing at BT Group; and Nicole Tumblin, head of the Business Operations, Analytics and AI Business Unit at QlikTech International AB, join theCUBE’s John Furrier at Qlik Connect 2025 to explore the impact of Qlik Answers on enterprise analytics. The conversation highlights how natural language tools are transforming how business users engage with data in real time.

Garagonich and Gulvin share how BT Group is applying conv... Read more

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What are the reactions and thoughts on the announcements made regarding Qlik's new features, especially the focus on structured data and the impact of Answers on unstructured data? add

What has been the impact of using Qlik in the organization and how has it changed the work environment for data analysts? add

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Olga Garagonich & Mike Gulvin, BT Group & Nicole Tumblin, Qlik

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>> Welcome back, everyone, to theCUBE's live coverage here in Orlando, Florida for Qlik Connect 2025. I'm John Furrier, your host of theCUBE, with Bob Laliberte here on site getting all the data to you. We got a great panel here. We got Nicole, Olga, and Mike. Olga and Mike from BT Group. Thanks for coming on. Great to see you.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Nice to see you as well.

>> All right. So let's get into it. You got a customer that's very active, did a transformation. They're doing a lot of work. They love Answers. We learned that before we came on camera. We do too. I think it's a great product. And love the cloud, open data lake with the open table format is managed. I think that's an awesome product for all technical reasons, but the cloud analytics with Answers just to me is just like a beautiful thing, I'm sure you agree, but talk about that news because I think this sets the table for where the performance of value is coming. Share your thoughts.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Yeah, absolutely. So I think that the announcements that were made today, there were so many of them really talking about the ease of use and being able to get better predictions and being able to collaborate with the write back. I know a lot of people were really excited about it, but then really that big announcement was the agentic framework. So putting together last year, Qlik Answers, was unstructured data. The number one request that we get from our customers is around that structured data. And so that was the big announcement, as well as being able to harness a discovery agent that will monitor our customer's data and really come back to them and say, "There's an issue. We see something." And then being able to take action and automation. And so I think everyone's really excited about it and it's been quite the buzz. And then we've also announced in the past week some move to cloud enhancements to make it a little bit easier for our customers as well.

>> Mike, you talked about you loved Answers, you were waiting for Answers. Last year, Answers, in my opinion, stole the show at Qlik 24, this year we're seeing more of it. What's your thoughts and reactions to Answers unstructured data? What's the impact?

Mike Gulvin

>> Yeah, we've been waiting for structure analytics on that AI side for quite a while and we're one of the people that have been quite vocal about wanting that next step. And I think I was quite nervous about what we'd see today and I think genuinely excited about what we see today. I think it's going to be an absolute game changer and it's absolutely what we've been waiting for. The future of conversational analytics I think is where it's at. We're being screamed at for it. So yeah, we-

>> Take us through a use case. What do you like about it? What jumped out off the page on the demo? What specifically and how are you guys using it as a game changer? How would you describe that?

Mike Gulvin

>> I think where we're trying to get to is that self-serve analytics and that's the next step for us. Our stakeholders want to be able to log on or use Teams to ask questions, they don't want to speak to an analyst to get that answer. And here they can actually speak in teams and have that contextual conversation with Qlik Answers, get graphs, charts and take them straight into those charts and answers that they need.

>> Olga, talk about the user impact and then kind of what it means to the structural change in the organization because a lot of wrangling in the old world. Get the dashboards up. Where's the database? Wait a minute, where is everything?

Olga Garagonich

>> Yeah, so BT group, we have around 3,200 users who do about 2,000 sessions each day, so quite a large audience and I think we... Qlik Answers is coming in. So I think that's going to be amazing, so we're going to free out time for our analysts so they can focus on why rather than what happened and actually have time to implement the remedies for the issues we have. So very exciting.

>> Either of you could take me through the use case of the work environment. What are your stakeholders, what's the job look like before Qlik and what's the job look like now?

Mike Gulvin

>> So I think certainly the use case in the last year has been how can we get our data analysts freed up to do other stuff rather than producing things manually, using Excel, PowerPoint, pulling those decks together. And certainly in the example that we've previously shared, that would take, typically it would progressively take a week and what we've done by using Qlik is we're able to do that in about 40 seconds, get that app out there and our stakeholders can then get those insights not on a Friday, but they're getting them on a Monday, they're getting them four days earlier so they can take those actions much faster, they can explore that data in Qlik as well. Self-serve those answers, not bother us.

>> Isn't that the holy grail? Ask a question, get an answer. I mean that's what we want Olga, right? I mean this is what we hope to do. How do you see the progress? Were you there or just scratching the surface?

Olga Garagonich

>> Well I think we just, yeah, we just probably opened the holy grail so I can see how next year, I think if you're going to be here, it's going to be absolutely a different story. So we're using Qlik Answers where we are going to enable even better conversational analytics within the company. So I think we've been lucky. We've worked very closely with our director this year and got buy-in from them on what Qlik can offer. And I think next year it's basically completing your story. So you can just talk to other teams that's in there, get all of your structured answers, get you charts, got your number.

>> You're popular.

Olga Garagonich

>> Yeah.

>> You're going to be walking around the campus, "Hey, there they are." "Hey. Hi." I mean you bring a lot of value, Nicole. This a great testimonial use case, they talk about being vocal. I mean, you guys like vocal customers because they tell you what they want and it's almost requirements, thank you very much. What is it about BT, they're a finalist, I know an award ceremony is coming up, but has it been announced yet or no?

Nicole Tumblin

>> It's tonight.

>> Tonight, okay. So they're a finalist. Why the finalists? Was it because they were instrumental in the product? Were they a good design partner or just a great use case? Take us through the-

Nicole Tumblin

>> Yeah, absolutely. So I think a lot of it's the use case. I know one of the big KPIs or metrics that they shared with me was around their users are in there on average of 47 minutes a day, or every session. So those are all kinds of answers and questions that they're getting without coming to one of your analysts.

Mike Gulvin

>> Absolutely.

Nicole Tumblin

>> And that was really telling to me on how everyone's using it. And so hearing that, but yeah, we are really excited. And then I know you guys are leading the way for BT around the move to cloud and that transformation piece and that's a big part of why we have you guys as a finalist.

>> Well congratulations as a finalist.

Mike Gulvin

>> Thank you.

>> The question I want to ask you guys is when people do transformation projects, it's usually a migration but then it turns into a modernization. That's a theme we're hearing here. How would you categorize this project from a modernization standpoint? Was there new things you had to do? Can you share anything?

Mike Gulvin

>> Yeah, I mean this isn't anything new, right? Taking Excel away from people and trying to get people to use Qlik and get people running meetings from a Qlik app, that's not new. I think the thing that changed in this case was that we've had some really good senior advocates. We've had very senior... And that was one, I think the learnings that I've shared previously with some of my peers is, you can have the best ideas in the world, but if you don't have senior people behind you willing to actually take that change and take Excel out of a meeting room and move to Qlik and push for that and say, "This is how I want things in future," that's how you affect change, get those senior stakeholders involved.

>> What did it take to get that leadership? What was the pitch with productivity, ease of use. What was the main value?

Mike Gulvin

>> Literally it was a case of showing the art of the possible. I think I had, top, five, 10 minutes with one of our senior advocates, this is what you could have, that was the inside advisor then and this is what potentially is coming tomorrow, and what we've been delivering in the meantime is a middle ground, pushing people towards Qlik first.

>> You brought up time being used on the app. That's a very interesting stat because what we're seeing with generative AI is the user behavior is a non-linear progression based upon what they do next. So what happens is we've all seen our ChatGPT or Anthropic or Perplexity moments where you're like, you're in there and you kind of go down a discovery path as a human. What have you guys seen in terms of new things around, not just productivity, but they're smarter because if they answer a question that might posit another question, so there's an opportunity to use the generative process.

Olga Garagonich

>> .

>> Is there any, because the numbers speak for itself, people are hanging out, doing stuff.

Olga Garagonich

>> Yeah, I think last year's success has been as well collaboration between different teams. So we work very closely with our senior analyst, director of analytics and our Qlik developers and I think that's great. There's amazing energy and we could do transformation quite quickly. And I think that's our director actually, to see how you can get all the answers, everything, the app, and so to rebuild the base now. So now what you see the tech analyst to pull the data put in Excel, so now it's all in app. So we sort of cover all the bases and I think we've sort of done this trial for probably future Gen AI years when you have to work was close with someone to predict what the next question's going to be. So hopefully with Gen AI it's going to be even easier.

>> Yeah, people love it. I was joking earlier about people waving to you and saying everyone's new best friend, but I'm serious. There is a vibe of goodness when you actually have value. Is it contagious inside BT? Are other people looking at this saying, "Hey, I want to be involved. Data's data, the more data the better, right?

Mike Gulvin

>> It's, yeah, but it's not just about that. I think what we are trying to do is the whole, I've mentioned self-serve first, but self-serve is really important. And having that confidence that our seniors can ask for those insights that they need and they don't get given them first in Excel. They're asking us and we're able to turn that request around really fast, get it into Qlik so they see it in Qlik first, not in Excel first or on a PowerPoint first. And I think that is starting to... There's a revolution there where people now expect that and that's going to put a lot of pressure on us to do that with everything. And so-

>> Well, with all that free time you now have, pressure, just more-

Mike Gulvin

>> The of our success now.

Olga Garagonich

>> I think we converted couple of people who used to, wasn't sure about Qlik, but now they love Qlik and they always go to Qlik Answers.

>> It's funny AI creates another job for everyone where getting paid more, "Hey, I got a fourth job." But also the job goes away when you're successful because AI has now been moved off your plate, so to speak to automation, I think agents come in. So it's a interesting case study in this world because success is addictive. When you have success with automation where old stuff kind of goes away, hassle, it's kind of magical in a way.

Mike Gulvin

>> The thing is though, we've got huge amounts of data. We are in a business where we've never had a shortage data. I think exploiting that data is increasingly challenging. With Qlik, with these sort of products. I think we just start to expose more and more stuff and add more value. So I don't see that-

>> Is the breakthrough unstructured data, is that the big breakthrough or is this-

Mike Gulvin

>> No structured data .

>> Structured data. .

Mike Gulvin

>> Absolutely.

Olga Garagonich

>> Structured, absolutely. Think about all the digital logs we have, what customers have done on the website. It takes ages for analysts to pull any insights for it. Now you can use Gen AI, you can know practically come up with interesting information for the end users, it's going to be amazing.

>> So what's the feedback from the analysts? They got to be pretty pumped.

Olga Garagonich

>> Yeah, well, as we said, so they can focus on why that thing's happened and what we can do next. And I think that's excited directors as well because now they have that time and they have a suggestion from the analysts.

Mike Gulvin

>> It's the what and why. We can deliver the what and they can start looking at why something is what it is. And I think that's what we're trying to do is release that time up for those analysts.

>> Nicole, we've been saying on theCUBE because we're real-time, we livestream, we're about getting the data out there to connect the dots, I called it high-frequency insights, but someone in New York said high-frequency trading in the old stock market days, moving the speed of light, the packets, getting an advantage on the trade. In business the competitive advantage is the insights that what you guys are doing is a tell sign to what senior people want to get an edge, the analysts. So this is a trend we're seeing. It actually can quantify, it could be quantified if understood. What's your reaction to that insights comment?

Mike Gulvin

>> Yeah, it's about getting stuff out there quicker, absolutely. But also being more efficient. That's what it's all about. We are trying to be as efficient as we can, bring in the new technology as well. And yeah.

Olga Garagonich

>> I think what excites as well, because when we move to SaaS, we can focus on not just what happened and come up with remedy, we can predict what might happen. And that's very exciting, isn't it? So you can apply remedies before something happens. So that's fantastic.

>> Okay, I have to ask the question since you're here and you're very vocal to Qlik, we have Nicole here. What do you want next?

Mike Gulvin

>> What do I want next?

>> Yeah, what do you want next? Olga, Mike, tell me.

Mike Gulvin

>> Okay, I want to see, I think there's more to go with Qlik Answers. I actually think that we're at the beginning of a journey, not at the end of one. And so what we've seen today, I've been waiting for this for 18 months or more, but we are finally starting to see it. But yeah, a hundred percent we're at the beginning of a journey, not the end. This is going to go places, I think.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Absolutely.

Olga Garagonich

>> Absolutely. Agentic AI, Gen AI, I think that's what we want next.

>> I want to get your thoughts on something, Nicole, you can weigh into. I've been kicking around the idea of people, and debating, is digital labor a good term or a digital workforce to describe agents? Because a digital worker can do half the job but not an assist. So I kind of don't like the word labor because it sounds very financial, like on a balance sheet, like the labor costs. Is a digital agent, is it a workforce?

Nicole Tumblin

>> I think we look at it as the assistant, and Mike spoke to this in the keynote around, AI is great, but you've got to do the work and that you've got to be able to work with it and stay ahead of it. And so it's really that intersection between AI and humans working together. And so I think that assistant is really where we .

>> And the humans does the job, they get the assistance.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> Well, thank you for coming on. I really appreciate you guys sharing your story. Good luck on the award.

Mike Gulvin

>> Thanks .

>> And I would vote for you guys. I love the enthusiasm.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Thank you.

>> I love Answers too. So shout out to the Answers team. We've been waiting for it. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

Nicole Tumblin

>> Yeah, thank you.

>> Okay, this is theCUBE. I'm John Furrier host of theCUBE. We'll be right back after this short break.