Fools are finally getting behind Qlik Technologies (Nasdaq: QLIK). On Thursday night, this rebellious provider of simple-to-use business intelligence (BI) easily beat Wall Street's sales projections for the second consecutive quarter.

We'll get into the details of Qlik's first-quarter results in a moment. First, here's a closer look at the business from a Foolish perspective.

Metric

Qlik Technologies

Operations Provider of a simple-to-use and customizable business-intelligence software tool called QlikView that processes data in memory rather than through a database.
CAPS stars (5 max) *****
Total ratings 396
Percent bulls 97.2%
Percent bears 2.8%
Bullish pitches 39 out of 43
Highest rated peers FactSet Research, Net 1 UEPS, Tyler Technologies

Data current as of April 29.

Analysts had been calling for Qlik to grow its top line by 27% rather than the 44% it reported. A $0.03-per-share adjusted net loss met expectations, while cash from operations fell slightly on account of a larger GAAP net loss and higher payables.

Call it a consequence of investing for growth. Thanks to the rise of smart devices such as the iPad, mobile BI -- i.e., accessing business and competitive data in real-time, anywhere -- is a huge opportunity that a number of Qlik's peers are chasing, including Actuate (Nasdaq: BIRT) and MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR).

BI heavyweights IBM (NYSE: IBM) and SAP (NYSE: SAP) are also positioning to take advantage of widening interest in BI as Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) bulks up its portfolio of products for the related practice of "performance management." That's what you do when you're fighting to control what Gartner estimates to be a $10 billion market.

Qlik is winning more than its share of deals. In a press release, the company said that its installed customer base rose to 19,000 from 14,000 in last year's Q1, a 36% increase. Credit people and technology investments for the gains. CEO Lars Bjork has long since made it clear that he sees his company at the beginning stages of a long-term opportunity.

I think he's right. What do you say? Tell us what you think about QlikTech's report, approach, and competitive differentiation using the comments box below. You can also rate QlikTech in Motley Fool CAPS.

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