MicroStrategy Reviews

• Mobility
• Ease of use
• Multi-sourcing ability

Many of my users have iPhones and iPads, and being able to deliver mobile dashboards to them is a great asset for them. The coming years will prove that traditional desktop reporting and even working will be a thing of the past. All industries are moving towards mobile reporting and away from physical reporting (paper). Being able to deploy mobile reports on our user’s iPhones puts the necessary data they need at their fingertips. And actually, in 2017, I plan on pushing some Apple Watch reports.

I have created some transaction services reports that allow the field to comment on issues that the c-level might have questions on. This in turn creates a very open and productive environment.

https://www.itcentralstation.c...It would be great if MicroStrategy could incorporate into the Reporting Services dashboards the adaptive response that a Visual Insight dashboard has; being able to auto-adjust to the peripheral. When you create a Visual Insight dashboard, it would auto-adjust according to what the user is using to see the report; be that iPad, iPhone, or laptop.

The drawback to a Visual Insight dashboard is that it doesn’t come with as many reporting options as a Reporting Services dashboard. The drawback to a Reporting Services dashboard is, if you have users that span multiple ways they see the data – laptop, tablet, or phone – you have to create a specific dashboard for each.

I have used it for 12 years.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

The level of technical support depends; if it’s an easy question, then they will quickly answer the question. I find the majority of my help via the knowledge base.

Up until a year ago, I used ProDiver. We switched because our company merged with another and they were using MicroStrategy.

We are a Windows environment, so set up was very easy.

Before choosing this product, We didn’t evaluate other options.

MicroStrategy depends heavily on your data, so don’t purchase it if your company doesn’t plan to make investments to warehouse its data.

From an end-user perspective, the VI (Visual Insight) component is valuable, as it provides self-exploration to users, along with data wrangling and simple integration with D3 data visualization and numerous data source exploration. Also, mobile BI deployment is easy and valuable.

In earlier versions, MSTR always required some technical person to set up the schema and the report/documents/dashboards for the end user. There were very few capabilities/features the end user could start doing on their own. With newer MSTR versions, there are easy ways for even end users to start importing data, wrangle data, if needed, and visualize using VI. And VI has additional features I have mentioned, which are like icing on the cake.

This product certainly has helped in various ways in all my past client implementations, be it simple on-schedule, automatic report delivery or self-service data exploration using Visual Insight.

MSTR is already well structured when it comes to overall product architecture. Starting with version 10.x, MSTR has improved significantly in the self-service space in comparison to BI tools in the market. However, the Visual Insight tool can be further improved, especially in the areas of presentation and export features:

• They need to add more default visualizations, which are already available in RSD; for instance, histogram is a basic one that must exist in VI.
• Currently, export from VI is not working as expected. (Most visuals get converted to bar chart when exporting.)
• Though presentation mode is available, it would be nice to have an option for a more storytelling-like feature for better presentation of MSTR dashboards (similar to what is available in other BI tools).
• Pure design mode for VI: This would help troubleshoot abrupt errors VI sometimes throws as a result of underlying data/dataset changes.

These are some of key areas I feel need to be improved; however, there are many more suggestion on the community’s idea exchange.

I have been using MSTR and related solutions for over eight years now.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

MSTR is one of most scalable BI tools around at the moment.

Depending on the type of customer you are (by that, I mean on-premise or cloud), tech support is usually knowledgeable and does escalate issues to a more-experienced expert when required. Response time on issues is average and sometimes, you need to be on top of it to get things moving or escalate to your MSTR account rep.

I have used different solutions at different client assignments and, as part of the BI practice group in my past experience, also provided a recommendation for MSTR in comparison to other BI tools, depending on the client infrastructure or use cases.

Initial setup complexity depends:

• If you are going on-premise with MSTR, then - depending on your knowledge on setting up the tool - some might call the setup complex. However, in my view, it’s straightforward, with tons of support and knowledge available.

• If you choose to go cloud with MSTR, its even simpler, as MSTR technical support takes care of all the setup for you.

MSTR can be costly and difficult to digest to begin with, but is certainly one of most structured and scalable solutions out there available in market. I think companies should look at the tool from the scalability and stability perspectives, along with weighing it against the most important use cases and to not just go by how easy it is to create or visualize data. Most tools only present a pretty picture of the tool by showing how easy it is for users to visualize data on their own and hiding the data preparation realities.

I have evaluated multiple tools in the past such as Tableau, SAP BusinesObjects, SSRS, Crystal Reports, QlikView, SAS VA, Looker, etc. Each evaluation you perform depends on the use case you are focusing upon, and most of these leading tools have evolved recently. Therefore, analysis performed by me at that point could be obsolete by now. However, as far as overall architecture level, MSTR still holds the leading spot in the market.

Most companies just starting to look around should try the MSTR cloud AWS offering, as that would take away most implementation hurdles or need for technical experts for setting up the environment, along with low cost of ownership compared to the on-premise offering. Also, focus on your use cases and the vision you have about taking reporting and decisions on data to that next level, which is scalable and strong as your business grows.

• In-memory cubes (aka Intelligent Cubes)
• Intelligence Server capabilities (SQL/analytical/etc. engines)
• Web
• Developer

Creating objects/reports in MicroStrategy is quite easy and is one of the main reasons for its success. The product also allows non-technical folks to create reports/dashboards with relative ease, which would explain its high adoption rate.

With MicroStrategy, organizations can allow their end-users to create their own ad-hoc reports/dashboards/visualizations, which greatly reduces their dependence on a dedicated development team. While a development team is still necessary for designing the schema and long-term solutions, this product reduces the burden on developers by empowering end-users to be self-sufficient.

The administration tools (primarily System Manager, Enterprise Manager and Operations Manager) need a major overhaul. These tools are generally used by MicroStrategy administrators to monitor the usage and bottlenecks in the system.

Enterprise Manager is one tool which is provided out-of-the-box by MSTR. It's basically a pre-built MSTR project with reports/dashboards to monitor usage at the user, project and system levels. This is primarily useful to see which objects are used most frequently and which reports need to be modified for improved response times, etc. Setting up Enterprise Manager can be cumbersome and it's a buggy product. A ground-up redesign of the EM project would be ideal. It is still a very powerful tool for its current design.

System Manager is also buggy (various workflows don't work as expected, documentation is lacking, etc.).

Operations Manager was a tool that MSTR released a couple of versions ago, but it was riddled with issues (a lot of errors during setup mainly). I believe OM has been scrapped in newer releases, if I'm not mistaken.

I have used it for 6+ years.

While the core feature (Intelligence Server) does encounter stability issues on rare occasions, it's still a very stable product.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. MicroStrategy has been quite friendly when it comes to scalability.

I would rate technical support 8/10. I used to work in tech support at MSTR. It is a very well-run department; very efficient, lots of smart and hardworking people (from technical and non-technical backgrounds). The support engineers aren't always given all the tools necessary to do their jobs and sometimes; they're working with certain black-box components, which makes troubleshooting very difficult. This in turn can increase the case/issue resolution times. But these are only a small percentage of all cases. All things considered, it's a terrific department/team to work with as an employee and customer.

We have always used MicroStrategy.

The initial setup is straightforward but can get complex as the requirements change. The product is quite flexible when it comes to accommodating special requirements.

Before purchasing licenses, be absolutely sure about the number of users that will be using the product. This will be useful when deciding to go with a named-user license (better for a small user base) or a CPU-based license (better for a large-er user base).

I wasn't involved in evaluating the various options. I joined when the decision was made to go with MicroStrategy.

Make use of their manuals and user community. There's a vast amount of knowledge out there in their community.

Scalability and the ability to process large amount of data are the product’s most valuable features. The ability for a user to create a report without knowing anything about joins, SQLs, tables, etc. is to me the best feature of MicroStrategy.

The product enables our business to create thousands of reports without knowing anything about the backend. MicroStrategy has been an enterprise reporting tool at our organization for a very long time. From the very beginning, the ability of the tool to provide a drag and drop interface to end users to create reports using the enterprise data warehouse effortlessly helps them in taking strategic decisions in their day-to-day operation.

The initial schema development takes some time. Without a robust schema, the tool will not function properly. The schema is the main engine which creates SQL effortlessly, but designing and maintaining the schema will take some time. The relationship between different attributes has to be maintained properly, as one incorrect relationship has the potential of affecting 100s of reports using that attribute. The schema can’t be maintained by end users and IT intervention is required.

There are two main development tools – Developer and Web. The two platforms are not in sync. Some options are not present in developer and some are present in web. The ones that are present in both are not located under same menus.

Dashboard development takes a long time.

The self-service BI part of the tool, Visual Insights, which is designed to provide the business the ability to create interactive dashboard using visualization, is not very great. Though Visual Insights has improved a lot in version 10.x, it still has a long way to go and is no way near competitors such as Tableau.

I have used it for eight years.

With every version, they will introduce some new tools/feature and it’ll take them a few versions or hotfixes to stabilize that new feature. There are different modes of running dashboards – presentation, Flash, interactive – and not all features work in all of the different modes.

The tool is scalable. Adding users or reports doesn’t have to be a headache, as long the hardware is robust enough to handle the additional reporting load.

There is a community site where developers can ask questions and get answers from other developers and experts, as well as MicroStrategy tech support. The community also has a pretty decent knowledge base in the form of tech notes, which provide information about known defects, issues and workarounds.

We have a support contract and regularly work with tech support on issue resolution, etc. I would give them 5/10, simply because, at times, the reps aren’t experienced enough and need a little hand-holding, which you wouldn’t expect considering they are the vendor and should know more or should be on par with the person asking the questions. Issue resolution also take a lot of time.

We’ve always worked with MicroStrategy.

Initial set up is a bit complex, as I’ve mentioned. Everything is based on the relationship defined in the schema. If someone messes that up, the reports will start giving incorrect output.

Also, to ensure scalability, the hardware needs to be robust, but I guess that is true for any tool.

It is an expensive tool. Licenses are user based or CPU based. Depending on the size of the organization, you might want to go with CPU based rather than user based, as that might be cheaper.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

It’s a good product for organizations planning to deploy an enterprise-wide reporting solution that will be built on top of a RDBMS. It is very robust and can handle large amounts of data fairly well. If the goal is to have a tool that can provide self-service BI and let end users create attractive dashboards without having to worry about object sharing, reusability, schema design, and IT involvement, then there are better & cheaper tools in the market.

Dashboard development.

Presents dashboards with more enhanced visualizations compared to other tools.

Business User friendly - which has been enhanced in Version 10.

4 years

Yes, the 2 million row limit.

No

Straightforward and simple, but takes long to install.

I think the tool respects the Dimensional Data Modelling basics and provides features and options that make sense accordingly, while also continuously trying to add exciting and user-friendly features, and being successful.

In all of the projects for various clients I have worked for, MicroStrategy has improved their functions, as it automates publishing for reports, addresses security, replaces multiple legacy systems with one central system, reduces the maintenance, provides better analytical power to users by letting them slice, dice and drill into the data. The tool provides one of the best pixel-perfect dashboards in the industry, appealing and pleasing to eyes.

Data blending needs more improvement; it should let us use all of the general options seamlessly.

I have used it for nine years.

Stability depends on the particular environment we are in; such issues can be resolved by getting help from MicroStrategy Support.

As with stability, scalability depends on the particular environment we are in; such issues can be resolved by getting help from MicroStrategy Support.

For MicroStrategy support, I give 8 out of 10.

I used SAP BusinessObjects before, but MicroStrategy is more robust and has very professional support.

Initial setup is very straightforward. They also provide cloud services for smaller clients who don't have their own infrastructure or don’t want to spend a lot on building infrastructure.

Honestly, I don't know much about pricing of other products, so I cannot compare, but I heard that MicroStrategy is expensive compared to its competitors. But, a company has to go over what they need and what they get through MicroStrategy and decide if it’s worth paying a little more for quality.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options that much; just based on my previous experience.

It's a great product and you can get the most out of it by following the data modelling principles and BI standards. So, plan from the beginning to have an ideal model, even though it takes more time or needs new work.

Mobile dashboards give people the data they need at a glance and on the go.

EVPs are able to run their entire business from an iPad; they can answer questions, see issues, etc. at their fingertips.

- Purchasing process: MicroStrategy is a very litigious organization. When we want to enter certain agreements, it's not uncommon for the request to go back and forth within legal for weeks. Some of this is our organization as well, though.
- Support: The support line used to be top notch, but now it seems as though the people manning that line are not very knowledgeable and can very rarely actually answer the question or solve the problem.

I have used it for 15 years.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

We previously used a different solution. We switched because MicroStrategy was more robust.

It is a rather complex setup, with many moving pieces and very configurable, so by default you must figure out how you want to configure it.

Be patient; get a good understanding of what you need.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated Oracle OBIEE and SAP BO.

Hire a professional to help implement the program not just the installation.

Recovering session finally works for all report types. Also, fundamental issues with ODBC causing involuntary restarts has been resolved. It has a couple of very useful end-user and developer features, such as copying panel stacks inside RS documents and the ability to attach images directly to a dashboard. They are pretty useful.

End users are able to work more on their own, so it lowers the cost of BI department.

The developer is a long-ago obsolete tool. Its interface and functions should be completely redesigned. The fact is not only is the user interface far obsolete (for more than 10 years), it is also quite often repeating tasks like dragging because it handles the actions incorrectly (like moving objects from report objects are to a grid). Also, it does not work properly when the resolution is too high, and the integration architect tool is far from being bug free.

They are working on a new tool with codename Workstation so we will see.

I have used it for three months.

We encounter fewer stability issues now (version 10.3 hf2); before that, there were pretty serious issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Technical support is getting better; there has certainly been progress over the past year, but it still could be so much better.

We switched because MicroStrategy is the most-advanced and feature-rich tool.

Each release (even a minor one) is unique, so initial setup is definitely complex; each installation has its own specifics.

Negotiate at least a 30-40% discount.

We also evaluated SAP BusinessObjects and Tableau.

Get a person who has some skill and has already done several installations.