So I am trying out Qlik Sense as a possible BI option for work. I have some limited experience (through grad school) working with another one of their products Qlik View. I will say right from the get go, Qlik Sense is much more user friendly.

Opening it up, I get the following splash screen

Qlik then asks if I would like to Create a New App.

I click Create A New APP and I get a window to name it.

It says New app created, and asks if I want to open my app

Now I am brought to a page to add my data. I have two options, one a more GUI driven method, and the other that will allow me to create my data model using Qlik’s script (very similar to SQL).

I am going to go with the GUI method for now.

I choose Excel files

Next I select a file QlikTEst.xlsx that I put together for this test drive.

My file appears in preview mode. Notice I am able to select both sheets to load and unselect columns I don’t want.

I click Prepare Data at the bottom and I am brought to this screen. Notice the red triangle warning on the bottom of the screen. It says I have possible associations.

I click the warning and I now have a recommendation for an association to make between sheets. My Equipmentkey column matches up(53%) on both sheets.

Just double click the Recommendations box and your pages are now joined

Now hit Load data

Qlik now brings you to a work sheet.

I want to create a bar chart, so I drag one in from the menu column.

Now I pick my Month as my dimension

And I choose WorkOrderNo as my measure

Now I choose an Aggregate of Count()

And I have a bar chart.

Now, let’s add a filter – drag it in from the menu column

Select FacilityCode as my dimension

I can adjust the filter size by clicking on these points

Now hit done at the top of the screen

And I now have a live interactive bar chart.

My Thoughts on Qlik Sense

Qlik Sense is insanely easy to get up an running. You really don’t need to know much more than how to drag and drop. However, if you are like me and enjoy getting under the hood, Qlik does allow you custom code your data models and formulas.

My only complaint, and this could be because I am new and don’t know a work around, is having to hit Done to leave the edit screen before I can test the interactivity of my charts.