Whilst not officially confirmed yet, we have heard from a number of sources that when the July price list comes out QlikView Small Business Edition Server will not be on it. This will make the entry level QlikView Enterprise Server – at four times the cost.

The Current Situation

At present any company who requires twenty five or fewer Named CALs and one hundred or fewer Document CALs can opt for the Small Business Server. This makes the cost of entry for QlikView quite reasonable. Organisations wanting to cluster, use ticketing, have more users or use Session CALs would need to go for the Enterprise Server.

This lower cost entry point for the server fitted perfectly with the ‘land and expand’ mantra that Qlik had for when sending their sales teams and partners out selling. It is a solution that fits many of our clients very well – some of whom don’t have more than twenty five staff so will never need any more licences than will fit on a Small Business Server.

So, Why The Change?

The knee-jerk response to this news is that Qlik are getting greedy here, and hiking the price in order to extract more money from new customers. With the company being increasingly ‘large enterprise’ focused over the past few years there is going to be a little truth in this.

However, I believe that the move is more driven by the desire to get more customers, particularly smaller ones, using Sense. With there being no cost to Qlik Sense Server, and a relatively small minimum order quantity on Sense Tokens, there is a much lower cost of entry with Sense.

This is then better for everyone, as new users get to use the latest and best software, at a price point that is attractive. However…

The QlikView vs. Qlik Sense Dilemma

There is much being written at the moment, on this blog and elsewhere, about the relative merits of Qlik Sense vs QlikView. It is clear that Sense is the more modern tool, is getting the flashest new features and is where future direction lies. The problem is that there are some things that QlikView can do that Sense is just not quite there with yet (that is without having to plug gaps by using QlikMarket apps).

If you are not constrained, however, by preconceptions of what you should be able to build from what you have done previously in QlikView, then Qlik Sense is in many cases the better option.

Getting The Right Mix

The challenge is getting the right mix between Self Service for non technical users and the creation of complex analytics by those who are skilled enough to create them.

With QlikView Small Business Server not being an option for new clients from next month, a good mix for some companies may be to have QlikView Desktop licences for those analysts who need to build highly customisable apps to dig deep into data. These can then be used as the template to build similar apps in Sense (for distribution via the Server) which benefit from the fresh and responsive UI and design.

The way that the back end and script is shared between the two products makes this a potentially sensible move, and one that we will most likely promote to prospective clients.

Where To From Here?

QlikView Small Business Server

Obviously we will need to wait for the July price list to arrive to see if this change does materialise. There may be other changes also that affect what can be offered to new clients. I will update in the comments as things progress.

I would be very interested in hearing other peoples opinion on the subject, so please do comment below.