In 2015, software purchase decisions will be further decentralized within organizations, customer patience for long implementation cycles will wane, and every employee in the organization will have access to the data they need. This is all according to Fred Shilmover, CEO at InsightSquared, a provider of business analytics software.

Shilmover’s predictions about Big Data are all part of our second annual Technology Predictions series in which industry experts share their predictions with us about the hot tech trends that they think will take center stage in 2015. We’ll be sharing all of their predictions with you over the next couple of weeks. Read on for more from Shilmover.

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Prediction No. 1: Software purchase decisions will be further decentralized

In 2015, software purchasing decisions will be further decentralized. We will continue to see this in business intelligence (BI) where line-of-business leaders are purchasing their own solutions rather than central IT or an analytics group being the sole owner and clearinghouse of insight.

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Prediction No. 2: Customer patience for long implementation cycles and heavy professional services will wane

At the same time, demands for customized solutions will increase in 2015. This will leave a lot of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors on their heels as more nimble, consumer, Internet-grade startups disrupt the incumbents (who rely on 30 to 50 percent of their revenue coming from professional services or have a large ecosystem of system integrators). The incumbents won’t be able to adapt as meeting customer demands for speed and customization will cannibalize the profits from their reseller ecosystem.

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Prediction No. 3: Every employee will have access to data in 2015

Data will become a necessity for day-to-day operations at every level of an organization. From c-level to individual contributors, every employee will use data to improve efficiency and measure both individual and team contributions. Because of this, there will be an increase in company transparency. Businesses will shift to a data-driven culture where organizational transparency is the norm, further driving business success and increasing the level of trust and commitment from employees.

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Prediction No. 4: Executives will need constant insight into the state of their business

To keep up with the growing pace of business and the competition, leaders will need real-time answers to things such as real-time spend, revenue, efficiency and bookings analysis, and campaign return-on-investment (ROI). They will also need to be able to access this information from anywhere and at any time, including on-the-go from their mobile devices. In fact, employees are increasingly using their mobile devices to do work-related projects; this is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate. Reporting itself will continue to change, becoming more predictive than reflective. Executives will be expected to accurately predict the future of their company and spend money accordingly based on forecasting. They will be required to make data-driven predictions on a much more frequent basis than in previous years, especially in fast-growing companies and venture-backed companies.

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Prediction No. 5: 2015 will be the year that every business finally owns their data

Businesspeople won’t shrink in fear from the amount of data available (or not available) to them or its complexity. They’ll use BI and analytics tools to understand and utilize all the data available to them. These tools are developed for the line-of-business user, not an IT or analytics specialist. Data will also change the bigger picture, too, as it will ultimately level the playing field for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) against their enterprise competitors. SMBs will become savvier and will be real threats to big companies out there. BI and analytics will be another way SMBs will compete against the enterprises, by making smart data-driven decisions and running their companies efficiently.

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Prediction No. 6: The winners in cloud-based software will enable users to combine and analyze data from their various systems under one view

Businesses currently run their organizations in data silos. With these separations, it’s impossible to understand the client journey—from their first interaction with the company through their one-time (or continued) purchase. But with this information, it will be easy to see where the bottlenecks are in the buying process and where the strengths are. BI and analytics tools will give the user visibility into their business data from every perspective, whether in marketing, sales, client service or finance. In 2015, businesses that use these tools will win out over the competition.

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2015 Technology Predictions graphic courtesy of SiliconANGLE