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IBM Watson Studio vs SAS Visual Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Watson Studio
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (12th), AI Development Platforms (10th)
SAS Visual Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Watson Studio is designed for Data Science Platforms and holds a mindshare of 2.0%, down 2.3% compared to last year.
SAS Visual Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 4.2% mindshare, down 6.0% since last year.
Data Science Platforms
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Abilio Duarte - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly robust and well-documented platform that simplifies the complex world of AI
The main challenge lies in visibility and ease of use. Providing training sessions can be immensely helpful in helping users navigate and understand the tool's potential. This approach would empower users to explore and make the most of the tools and technologies at their disposal. Another area where IBM could enhance its offering is by providing more visibility to end users regarding the vast potential that Watson offers.
Renato Vazamin - PeerSpot reviewer
Single environment for multiple phases saves us time, and has good visualizations
We had that solution installed previously in another solution, Selvaya, but I don't think we used it at the time. We are now using SAS Detect Investigation as a complementary solution, in which we have part of the process, use a gene, SAS collects information and identifies some business situations, and the business guys use Visual Analytics to explore the results of the process. We previously used the FICO platform, but we switched because FICO's pricing was not scalable. Bringing more data or workloads to the platform required a significant investment in order to scale. We needed to change because we have a lot of data to process every day. FICO was also a little more complicated than SAS Visual Analytics.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Watson Studio is very stable."
"For me, the valuable feature of the solution is the one that I used, which was Jupyter notebooks."
"It has greatly improved the performance because it is standardized across the company."
"Watson Studio is the most complete tool for AI projects."
"The most important thing is that it's a multi-faceted solution. It's a kind of specialist, not a generalist. It can produce very specific information for the customer. It's totally different from Google or any search engine that produces generic information. It's specialty is that it's all on video."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"The system's ability to take a look at data, segment it and then use that data very differently."
"It has a lot of data connectors, which is extremely helpful."
"I use Visual Analytics for enterprise reporting."
"Data handling is one of the best features of SAS Visual Analytics."
"It is a very stable solution."
"I believe that the possibilities for exploring data and formulating visual results are quite good because it allows the business analyst to have different perspectives on the data."
"The product is stable, reliable, and scalable."
"The visualization capabilities and the email functionality are most beneficial."
"Great for handling complex data models."
"Visual Analytics is very easy to use. I use Visual Analytics for all the typical use cases except text mining. I used it to analyze data and monitor statistics, not text mining. I also use it for data visualization as well as creating interactive dashboards and infographics."
 

Cons

"One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration."
"I think maybe the support is an area where it lacks."
"The decision making in their decision making feature is less good than other options."
"We would like to see it less as one big, massive product, but more based on smaller services that we can then roll out to consumers."
"So a better user interface could be very helpful"
"Watson Studio would be improved with a clearer path for the deployment of docker images."
"Initially, it was quite complex. For us, it was not only a matter of getting it installed, that was just a start. It was also trying to come up with a standard way of implementing it across the entire organization, which had been a challenge."
"Some of the solutions are really good solutions but they can be a little too costly for many."
"There are a few little things that are predefined and can be done out of the box immediately. There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have. Small and mid-sized companies would struggle with it because they prefer something standard that has been predefined by somebody else."
"There is a need for coding when it comes to digital reporting which can be intimidating."
"The deployment isn't smooth. Deploying Visual Analytics on the cloud takes a lot of work, or you can use some providers that give you SAS as a service. For example, there is a provider called SaasNow. They host SAS Visual Analytics and the license. You can buy the license and deploy it there without the hassle of installation because deploying the software isn't easy."
"The product is expensive and needs the integration of more languages."
"In terms of configuration, I would like to see AI capabilities since many applications are now integrating AI."
"The integration aspects of the solution could be improved."
"The charts and tables could use better sorting, primarily using other variables than the ones on the figure. If they could implement views like in the older version (previous to Viya), it would be very nice."
"The solution is a little weak at the front end."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is generally reasonable and straightforward but can vary significantly depending on the specific workloads in use."
"IBM Watson Studio is a reasonably priced product"
"IBM Watson Studio is an expensive solution."
"Watson Studio's pricing is reasonable for what you get."
"It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis."
"Licensing is simple."
"I work with the tool's free version...The tool's corporate version is very expensive and requires a monthly hire."
"Visual Analytics is expensive for a small company like mine. You also need to deploy it on a server or cloud, so you pay for the license as well as the cost of the cloud or the server that you will deploy on."
"It's approximately $114,000 US dollars per year."
"The cost of the solution can be expensive. There is an additional cost for users."
"The product is quite expensive."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Watson Studio?
The pricing of Watson Studio is justified by the benefits and power it offers.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Studio?
One area that could be improved is the backup and restoration of the database and the overall database configuration. There were also challenges with programming the network extension in the last p...
What do you like most about SAS Visual Analytics?
The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
In terms of configuration, I would like to see AI capabilities since many applications are now integrating AI. It may be that our current subscription does not include AI-enabled features, but I wo...
 

Also Known As

Watson Studio, IBM Data Science Experience, Data Science Experience, DSx
SAS BI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GroupM, Accenture, Fifth Third Bank
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
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