Insights

As a learning organisation, element61 stimulates its consultants to further build on their already vast experiences through investments in a personal development plan and a company-wide content development initiative. Through formal training, presence at industry events, networking, recommended reading and internet based information exchange, our consultants further dive into specialized topics of their own interest.

These result in what we call "Insights", own produced research content, often complemented by personal experiences and opinions. Below you can find our currently published list of Insights.

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Databricks Genie ZeroOps & Ralph 24/7: Your Data Platform's Guardians

Databricks Genie ZeroOps introduces autonomous monitoring, root cause analysis and safe remediation for Databricks workloads, helping data teams spend less time firefighting. Discover how element61's Ralph 24/7 extends this vision across the entire Azure data ecosystem for end-to-end operational peace of mind.

Pieter Van Daele

Pieter Van Daele

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Here’s why Capacity-Based Licensing might be right for you

Qlik Cloud offers two licensing models: user-based licensing for organizations with stable, predictable user access, and capacity-based licensing, Qlik’s strategic model for all new subscriptions since March 2025. This article explains the key differences, benefits, and migration considerations, while sharing practical capacity optimization strategies to help organizations control costs, scale analytics efficiently, and maximize the value of their Qlik Cloud investment.

Gregory Petit

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Databricks is building the Enterprise App & Agent Platform

Opinion insight on the new announcements on the Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026, written as we attend the event in San Francisco, with an honest and open view as experienced and reflected by our element61 consultants present.

Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Introducing User-Aware Calculated Columns in Power BI

This article explores how the new Expression Context property transforms calculated columns into dynamic, personalized, and memory-efficient building blocks in Power BI semantic models.

Philippine Misson

Philippine Misson

Friday, 12 June 2026

Fabric just became an application platform: what Fabric Apps mean for you

Fabric is evolving into a full application platform, enabling you to build apps directly on top of your data. With Fabric Apps, you can combine analytics and operational workflows, including real-time write-back. Use Power BI for standard reporting, and Fabric Apps for more advanced, flexible or operational use cases.

David Kaminski

Thursday, 11 June 2026

Fivetran + dbt Labs: Why this merger matters for your modern data platform

The merger of Fivetran and dbt Labs brings together automated data ingestion and governed data transformation into one stronger foundation for modern data platforms. For customers, this means a smoother path from raw data to trusted, reusable data products. Ultimately, it helps reduce manual effort while improving data quality, governance, and readiness for analytics and AI.

Vladyslav Ishchenko

Vladyslav Ishchenko

Monday, 8 June 2026

Qlik Cloud and MS Teams, Bringing your data where your team works

Most organisations use Microsoft Teams and Qlik Cloud separately, which leads to delays, manual reporting, and missed updates. This article explains how to bridge that gap by integrating the two platforms. It highlights four practical use cases that bring data directly into Teams conversations to enable faster, data-driven decisions.

Gregory Petit

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Are you still using the Azure Data Factory CDC connector: time to act NOW

In this article, we briefly revisit how the SAP CDC connector in Azure Data Factory works, explain what exactly is changing from SAP’s side, and outline the practical implications for your existing architecture. More importantly, we explore why this moment can also be seen as an opportunity: a chance to rethink legacy extraction patterns and move toward a more modern, scalable, and future-proof SAP data integration strategy.

Ysaline de Wouters

Ysaline de Wouters

Monday, 18 May 2026

Claude in Excel powered by Vena

Claude in Excel, powered by Vena, brings AI-assisted analysis directly into familiar spreadsheets, helping finance teams work faster and more intuitively. While Claude accelerates modelling and insights, Vena adds the governance, structure and single source of truth needed for enterprise‑ready FP&A. Together, they combine speed with control, enabling smarter, scalable financial planning.

Ruben Govers

Tuesday, 12 May 2026

How Qlik Gold Client solves the SAP Testing Bottleneck

Qlik Gold Client eliminates SAP testing bottlenecks by enabling intelligent data subsetting with full business context, reducing test data volumes to just 2–5% of production. It ensures faster, more accurate testing with built‑in data masking and cross-system consistency. Ideal for complex SAP landscapes and S/4HANA migrations where speed, control, and compliance are critical.

Stan Decoene

Monday, 11 May 2026