2014-03-23T15:53:00Z

When evaluating Business Intelligence Tools, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

Ariel Lindenfeld - PeerSpot reviewer
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168 Answers

Kseniia Gravis - PeerSpot reviewer
User
Top 20
2023-10-30T21:08:51Z
Oct 30, 2023

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it_user354258 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-12-10T17:42:37Z
Dec 10, 2015

Total cost of ownership is often overlooked during BI product selection. Cheap products do not equal cheap ownership experiences, whether it is missing functionality which must be provided by additional products, poor integration of modules which causes duplication of effort, weak support from the vendor, high cost of maintenance or constant changes to the product portfolio.

The key factors to consider are:

Is this product right for the intended user-base? It should not be necessary to purchase one product for IT, one for business analysts and one for 'end-users'. There are considerable cost savings associated with using a single platform (not a single vendor with many products they have built or bought).

Does the product have the depth of functionality needed, and foreseeably anticipated?
Is that functionality accessible? Can an expert easily access complex, deep functionality, without the occasional or new user being overwhelmed by the interface?

Can it reach all the necessary data sources? Both inside and outside the corporation.

How fast is the user experience, both in developing reports and dashboards and in retrieving the data? Speed of both allows iterative learning and development by new and occasional users, while ensuring high productivity for expert users.

Does it work with our real world data? Too often evaluation of products still relies on superficial test on restricted volumes of data, or the lower complexity data as "it would take too long to build a fully representative testing environment" - big mistake. Identify the product(s) you believe are suitable and then bear the cost of proving they can deliver in your own use case. Too often a poor acquisition is followed by increasing spend to "make it work", when money spent earlier on selecting and proving the right tool would lead to much lower overall cost of ownership and more importantly early success and hence ROI.

Does the company have a history of good backward compatibility? You will build a vast amount of intellectual property with a BI tool. You will become dependent on the insight it provides your organization. So investigate how well you chosen product has allowed users to migrate that IP forward through new revisions of their products. Rewriting IP is a good opportunity to clean it up and start over, but it's a massive unnecessary expense if you have built what you need and it is the vendor forcing you to rewrite your work.

it_user738690 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2018-01-04T18:26:10Z
Jan 4, 2018

It is really difficult to choose the right one, in my experience, the most important thing is not the tool that we choose. The most important thing is to design the correct scope, what we need to give us the tool based on two factors, the data we want to obtain and for whom that data will be. If a good approach is made, the chosen one will be the correct one.

MS
Vendor
2017-07-27T18:57:32Z
Jul 27, 2017

Use case! What and or for whom are you trying to provide reporting capabilities to and from what applications and data sources. What are the skill levels of these users - basic business users or analysts. Ease of use should be top of the list as well as a quality customer support experience.

There are many choices today around BI solutions (embedded, self-service, etc.) and finding the right one depends upon answering these questions.

it_user72771 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5
2016-06-29T13:01:58Z
Jun 29, 2016

Easy to use, performs well, cost, and not going to send me insane integrating it with other systems. Everything else is gravy.

it_user144300 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-08-07T02:57:09Z
Aug 7, 2014

Key Evaluation Points for BI Tools:
1) Ease of use – Self-service analytics and data exploration, End-user report consumption and Time to develop new reports
2) User Interface and Visualization effectiveness – If it does not look good business will not use it
3) Styles of BI Supported – Scorecards Dashboards, Operational Reports, OLAP Reporting, Predictive Analysis, Notification and Alerting
4) License/TCO – Open Source vs Enterprise Software – support and maintenance structure – development and administration costs, environment deployment constraints, admin tools
5) Performance and data scalability – Depends on the business requirements and data volume
6) Data source connectivity – Depends on the source systems that need to be integrated and backend data integration
7) Security – Authentication, Authorization, Application, Object and Data level security
8) Extensibility and API/SDK – If integration with external applications is required
9) Feature Set/Product Roadmap – scope of product features, speed of platform innovation

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Vendor
2014-06-08T18:42:53Z
Jun 8, 2014

Most folks tend to think of UI and the flashy, sexy stuff. However, experience has proven that adopting a platform approach is key to success - a Platform that can access any data source and provide capabilities for internal and external users from the same platform, and not merely serve as a data visualization tool. The ability to do disconnected analytics cannot be discounted; Further having a platform that does NOT mandate creating a data warehouse as a prerequisite; i.e. It shoild have the ability to access operational data sources with minimal impact to the back-end systems.

it_user17526 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-05-23T13:30:20Z
May 23, 2014

I believe you have to match product capabilities to company BI strategy first and then consider infrastructure standards and internal competencies. if you do these things you should get value. The type of BI solution is important but don't be fooled by the "it's all about data visualization or big data". it is not in most organizations...

AG
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2018-03-06T17:18:26Z
Mar 6, 2018

"Time to insight" is very important for me. Since the business questions arise non stop and need fast responses, going from raw data to answer a business question in the lesser time possible, with the easiest way of doing that, could be a huge differential in selecting a tool (set of tools).

it_user745797 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2017-09-28T18:23:54Z
Sep 28, 2017

User Friendly, Customization, Pricing

VG
Consultant
2016-04-10T15:07:25Z
Apr 10, 2016

1. Meet business needs
2.Total cost of ownership
3. Performance
4. Stability
5. Scalability
6. Easy to use/build reports/administration
7. Functionality/Visualization
8. Mobility
Along with
9. User friendly
10. Security
11. Method of implementation

it_user392709 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2016-02-22T13:46:27Z
Feb 22, 2016

1) Organic Adoption
2) IT involvement in only data prep/mgt. not having to build anything
3) true Self Reliance not endless self service report runs

it_user290742 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-08-12T19:41:18Z
Aug 12, 2015

In the following order :

Licensing Cost
Ease of Use for End User
Functional Capabilities
Performance

it_user289488 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-08-11T08:22:45Z
Aug 11, 2015

1. First and foremost. Gather the detailed BI requirement from Organization needs. Answer the below questions,
a. How much GB (memory size) is required to hold / maintain organization data?
b. How much the data is going to increase by months and years?
c. How many BI users (Analyst) are going to use BI system?
d. How Critical would the BI system would be for End users?
e. What are the reporting requirements from End users? do they need simple report, visualized reports, Self service BI requirements
f. What is the Budget to build BI?
g. Is management ok to have Cloud BI?
........... like this much more information
Based on this above needs selection of BI would vary.

Typical BI tools features

1. Core BI features
DB Engine, Master Data Management, Data Quality Management, Scaleability, Performance, Hardware and Software Maintenance, Replication requirements
2. Additional features such as reporting, sharing, collaboration, visualization, etc
3. Ease of use (installation, operations, learning, etc)
4. User friendly design environment and run time environment
5. Customized Security features
6. Product Stability and Consistency
7. Good Product Support available
8. Ability to merge / mingle with Social Media.
9. Cost not significantly high/low with competitor products
10. High Productivity to develop and deploy
11. Forum / open support guidance availability

I see these are the basic BI selection criteria.

it_user272418 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-07-23T13:34:38Z
Jul 23, 2015

Security integration. My existing application already has a list of users and what products they have access to. Allow me to push this assignment to the BI tool or have the BI tool call out for access to a dimension. Don't make me duplicate permissions.
Ease of setting up the metadata layer (I would like to be able to manipulate it programmatically / via scripts)
Make it appear to be part of the existing application. No separate logon, run headless or allow significant LnF changes.
Licensing to match my usage not my hardware.

it_user267978 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-07-07T08:03:24Z
Jul 7, 2015

Most important it is to support all End-User needs; Analyst, Management, Operational

it_user138477 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-07-04T14:19:53Z
Jul 4, 2014

The success or failure of any BI project depends on collecting and prioritizing Business requirements and must include the following:

1. A targeted business process

2. How BI can improve the process

3. When BI will be used

4. What kind of BI is needed

5. Who will use it

6. How improvements will be measured

In most cases, BI investments need to address:

Better alignment of BI with business strategy
Improved data quality
Better integration of BI systems with other systems, such as CRM or ERP
Better understanding of user needs and requirements
Improved user training
Brainstorm ideas - on how BI can be used
Identifying business questions - gaining more detail on requirements and information needed

it_user121821 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-05-31T15:00:46Z
May 31, 2014

The most important criteria for me would be it's ease of use for non-technical users. If you have to use data analysts to develop all the reports then keep looking.

it_user105942 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-04-15T17:14:22Z
Apr 15, 2014

Performance and Scalability. Ease of use goes without saying.

AM
Real User
2020-02-21T13:52:48Z
Feb 21, 2020

Afordable for the company. Capacity of training. Solutions for needs

JT
Real User
2018-09-19T02:40:38Z
Sep 19, 2018

For us it normally comes down to a combination of the following:
1. Cost of implementation
2. Ease of use
3 Vendor lock in or does it use shared technology

KL
Real User
2018-04-09T07:54:19Z
Apr 9, 2018

1. Cost of implementation & Licensing Price
2. Ease of use and drill down function
3. Ease to change the source of data, as data information is keep increasing
4. Can link to multiple datasource like mssql, MySQL, excel, csv.....
5. Speed of data present BI & Drill down
6. User access rights, since not all information should be publish to all level of people

II
Real User
2018-01-04T20:30:52Z
Jan 4, 2018

will the solution solve my present,past,and future problem. how about support should incase of downtime. performance and scalability

CN
Real User
2018-01-03T10:39:30Z
Jan 3, 2018

01> Fulfill the business requirements
02> Cost of the Implementation.
03> User friendly, ease to use
04> Real time Dashboard
05> Performance & Scalability
06> Troubleshooting and Support

AH
Real User
2017-12-14T06:14:55Z
Dec 14, 2017

“It’s better to have fewer things you trust than have a whole lot of things that are suspect,”

II
Real User
2017-12-11T14:55:53Z
Dec 11, 2017

Support is the number one thing you think of before any other thing

it_user280122 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Top 20
2017-12-01T14:08:19Z
Dec 1, 2017

Customization, Scalability, OnPrem or Cloud, Licence price v Functions you get and the resources the BI system demand in staffing.

it_user779502 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2017-11-27T00:53:51Z
Nov 27, 2017

Scalability, Performance, Security

it_user734421 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2017-09-11T09:22:05Z
Sep 11, 2017

User experience, metadata support, Performance

it_user720018 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2017-08-16T13:18:14Z
Aug 16, 2017

Speed to market, User interface, scalability, performance, and many other depending on how bad your current BI situation actually is.

it_user656796 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2017-05-02T02:36:40Z
May 2, 2017

Definitely, ease of use, the real-time dashboards, performance, and stability. The fact that a relative novice to Cognos is able to utilize the tool on day 1 is impactful.

it_user636228 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2017-03-28T12:19:34Z
Mar 28, 2017

Connectivity
ETL
Visualization
Easy-to-build

it_user629103 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2017-03-17T14:17:07Z
Mar 17, 2017

Easy to use/build reports/administration

it_user609816 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2017-02-15T12:55:12Z
Feb 15, 2017

1) Integration capabilities to make complex solution (to bi built in the core systems / co-exist with core system)
2) Ability to get data from RDBMSs (from core system) easily

it_user581268 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2017-01-04T18:41:10Z
Jan 4, 2017

1. Scalability
2. Self Service
3. Visualization
4. Mobility
5. Performance

it_user524055 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2016-10-01T17:50:25Z
Oct 1, 2016

1:Functionality/Visualization
2: Mobility Along with User friendly
3:. Security

it_user326337 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2016-09-28T12:20:07Z
Sep 28, 2016

When it comes to integration capabilities, which system-integrations are crucial to the solution performance, to the extent that users must be continuously informed/updated about their availability?

it_user73488 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2016-03-21T15:27:16Z
Mar 21, 2016

A package that can be used by Main Street. Too many of the BI Vendors only focus on enterprise. Organizations of all sizes have tons of data that important information can be gleaned from. Frankly, the smaller your organization, the more you need it because your risk threshold is lower.

it_user391644 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2016-02-19T11:12:19Z
Feb 19, 2016

1) Functional capabilities
2) Scalability
3) Licensing /TOC

it_user376869 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2016-01-26T17:23:56Z
Jan 26, 2016

Adaptability of the tool
Constant Development & investment
Ease of use for end consumers

it_user372987 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2016-01-20T05:38:04Z
Jan 20, 2016

Data Analysis (Understanding of Data) after analysis you can discover pattern of data or you can extract fruitful data for the business process or business management automatically.

Vendor
2016-01-08T18:42:24Z
Jan 8, 2016

Clear experience for end users and have efficient integration wiht other systems and technologies

it_user364383 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2016-01-06T05:38:29Z
Jan 6, 2016

TCO and a set of features that you need for your work.

it_user359049 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-12-21T13:50:22Z
Dec 21, 2015

Ease of use

it_user119238 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-12-15T12:57:36Z
Dec 15, 2015

TCO
Ease of Use
Easy integration capabilities
Security

it_user342831 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-11-18T14:52:20Z
Nov 18, 2015

Scalability from dept level to corporate wide.

it_user339051 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-11-10T21:59:21Z
Nov 10, 2015

1. Meet business needs
2.Total cost of ownership
3. Performance
4. Stability
5. Scalability
6. Easy to use/build reports/administration
7. Functionality/Visualisation
8. Mobility

UD
Real User
Top 20
2015-11-07T00:43:01Z
Nov 7, 2015

1. Unified Access & Connectivity
2. Discover & Explore
3. Collaborate
4. Administration

it_user325755 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-10-16T20:14:02Z
Oct 16, 2015

BI tools are not easy to implement unless:

1. you have done a business need analysis.
2. you develop an strategy that provide continue support to the end users.
3. you got executive management approval.
4. you have a product maintenance plan that allows to continue to update the products.
5. you have a daily backup/restore strategy in place.
6. you have a technical team trained.

it_user327975 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-10-14T07:42:15Z
Oct 14, 2015

-Is BI Tool User Friendly for data modeling?
-Is Licensing Cost affordable?
-Is BI tool have ETL option?
-Is Web based?
-Can it produce charts on graphs? If yes then can we use it another application by just coping & pasting?
-Is it have auto ETL & auto report scheduling option?
-Is it have user management option?
-Is it have Export facility?
-Can we integrate different database in one table?
-can we connect flat files?

it_user324630 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-10-08T11:34:33Z
Oct 8, 2015

Implementation time/complexity
Ease of use (from implementation to user in a short amount of time)
Training and support availability
Shared knowledge boards (is there a community of users who share ideas and suggestions?)
Scalabilitly
Visualization tools - with ability to produce visually appealing, value added dashboards, charts, and standard reports
Can the tool produce interactive files (e.g. Xcelsius output) that are shared externally via .pdf, Excel, etc.?
Multiple file output options
Publication options
Cost

it_user322836 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-10-05T17:12:34Z
Oct 5, 2015

I think the most important criteria would consist the ease of use (user friendly), implementation and licensing.

Vendor
2015-09-29T22:17:26Z
Sep 29, 2015

- Architecture / Infrastructure
- Compatibility across platforms and devices
- Predictive Capability
- Data Mining - breadth / depth / reach
- Security Considerations
- Customization - Search
- Customization - Visualization
- Automated Updates to Information

Vendor
2015-09-25T11:35:35Z
Sep 25, 2015

-How little training is required to get end users (Non-IT) going.
- Scalability
-Ability to access multiple types of data sources
- Ability to integrate with OLTP databases with minimal footprint. (Im assuming OLAP integration is defacto)
-Data blending capabilities.

it_user314655 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5
2015-09-18T12:39:36Z
Sep 18, 2015

- Ease of use for IT and non-IT end users
- OLAP functions
- Performance: Creation and consumption of In-memory MOLAP cubes
- Accepting integration with other OLAP engines thru MDX queries
- Easy mapping of Logical views from physical datawarehouse tables/views.
- Creation of Dynamic Dashboards and Transparent way to expose them to Mobile applications
- Scalable solutions.
- Authorization Model at very low granularity level (attribute data) to allow multi-tenant solutions.
- License model and cost

it_user308808 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-09-14T19:00:47Z
Sep 14, 2015

User Friendly, Feature richness, Scalability, Infrastructure requirement, Ease of Troubleshooting and Support.

Vendor
2015-09-14T15:39:13Z
Sep 14, 2015

User Friendly, Feature richness, Scalability, Infrastructure requirement, Ease of Troubleshooting and Support

it_user308808 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-09-09T22:24:59Z
Sep 9, 2015

1. Licensing cost.
2. Infrastructure requirement.
3. Scalability.
4. Complexity/ Ease of Development effort as well as Customization.
5. Metadata support.
6. Mobility and Cloud based customizations.
7. Ease of Troubleshooting and Support

it_user301281 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-09-04T04:55:53Z
Sep 4, 2015

Integration Capabilities and User friendly

it_user305181 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-09-03T14:45:19Z
Sep 3, 2015

Licensing Cost
User Friendly
Low Maintenance Cost
Integration Capabilites

it_user303885 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-09-01T21:49:35Z
Sep 1, 2015

Product roadmap, ease of use, performance and cost.

it_user301281 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-08-28T12:04:45Z
Aug 28, 2015

Usability, Speed to market, Manageability and scalability
Mainly Reports are Integrate with Web UI applications

it_user301311 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-08-28T08:03:28Z
Aug 28, 2015

Easy to use and build the reports, scalability

it_user292680 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-08-16T13:53:09Z
Aug 16, 2015

Feature richness, Flexibility and Cost ( License and Support)

Vendor
2015-08-06T13:26:10Z
Aug 6, 2015

Performance
Time to market, agility
Ease of user (end users), user empowerment
Scalabilty
Hierarchies easy to build, maintain and navigate

Vendor
2015-07-22T15:55:42Z
Jul 22, 2015

Principalmente: Integración, facilidad de uso, visualización de información en tiempo real y costos de licenciamiento. Entre otras con menos peso como soporte, movilidad, documentación, etc.

Vendor
2015-07-21T12:04:12Z
Jul 21, 2015

Ease of use,
Integration with current analytics tool I am using: google analytics,
Cost

Vendor
2015-07-20T16:06:16Z
Jul 20, 2015

Integration, Licensing

it_user274254 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-07-16T22:57:36Z
Jul 16, 2015

Functional Capabilities

it_user273981 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-07-16T16:47:39Z
Jul 16, 2015

1) The most important is that the functionality meets the company requirements.
2) That the new functions required in the future can be easily implemented
3) Security
4) Stability
5) Performance
6) user - friendliness
7) TCO

Vendor
2015-07-13T14:13:38Z
Jul 13, 2015

Self Service capabilities; ease of use; documentation and developer community

it_user265746 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-07-02T06:04:44Z
Jul 2, 2015

Open API interface which allow you extend functionality not covered by default. If you take one of the TOP 10 BI tools every product has cons and pros. In my practice from many projects I haven't product which 100% satisfied customer requirements

Vendor
2015-07-01T18:01:43Z
Jul 1, 2015

Not in order of importance:
1. Licensing cost
2. Scalability
3. User friendly (I mean also for non technical user)
4. Good support (remote and on site)
5. Use of well known components (DB, OS, etc.)

it_user263847 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-07-01T10:21:09Z
Jul 1, 2015

1. Data Handling
2. Ease of use/implementation
3. License Cost
4. Latest technique & innovations
5. Connector - Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics

it_user262884 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-27T11:44:40Z
Jun 27, 2015

- Turnaround time, the ability to meet the shrinking decision window
- Vizual / interactive BI structure, strong data vizualization with analitic dashboards
- Ease of use
- Cost of licensing and ownership
With respect to these criterias I prefer E-Kalite Software

it_user259986 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-26T15:02:19Z
Jun 26, 2015

@ChaelChristopher i think still it means the singular. If he wanted to mean plural, the question would be "what are your most important criteria.. ".
Off course there are a lot of criteria to when you are researhing a BI tool. But every role can have different priorities. Power users or developers may want it to be easy to use, sponsor may want it not to cost too much.

it_user234246 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-06-26T14:29:07Z
Jun 26, 2015

@Mehmet Üskes -- Criteria is a plural concept, criterion is singular. I think the bulk of these answers are adequate...the reality being that no one selects a BI tool for just ONE reason. There are always strengths and weaknesses in a class of BI tools but if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. Selection should be based on the basic needs of a project or an organization, and the needs of a single business user will be different than the needs of an organization that needs to OEM a vendor's solution into their own offering.

it_user259986 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-26T14:10:59Z
Jun 26, 2015

I wonder why most of people answered with writing more than one criteria and some of them have shared long lists. Is not it clear : "What is your most important criteria" ? It means you should say your MOST important criteria which has to be only one, Otherwise the question would be like "What are your important criterias.. " :)

it_user262893 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-06-26T14:01:16Z
Jun 26, 2015

Ease of use (UI/UX implementation & learning curve)
Ease of implementation
Stability
Performance & Scalibility
TCO
Other tools included in the package (reporting, ETL, analytics, db etc.)
Interoperability with other tools

it_user260289 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-23T16:24:27Z
Jun 23, 2015

1. Performance
2. Usability & UI
3. Maintenance and code
4.Reliability
5. Connectivity to Databases

it_user259986 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-23T07:49:15Z
Jun 23, 2015

Cost

it_user258492 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-06-22T13:52:10Z
Jun 22, 2015

At présent time INTEROPERABILITY ....

it_user254994 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-06-15T09:01:28Z
Jun 15, 2015

Simplicity then scalability. Everything else is negotiable in BI

it_user253476 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-11T15:03:19Z
Jun 11, 2015

0.Security
1.Compatibility
2.Limitations
3.Ease of access
4.Visually Friendly
5.Simplicity

it_user251190 - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
2015-06-08T09:54:21Z
Jun 8, 2015

Ease of use (Time from data to Insight) and the enterprise capabilities (single version of the truth within the company)

it_user249393 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-06-03T20:44:02Z
Jun 3, 2015

Ease of use, speed of implementation, ad hoc capabilities.

it_user243015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-05-22T05:44:51Z
May 22, 2015

1) Cloud strategy of the product.
2) Ease of use when cloud based.

Vendor
2015-05-21T06:55:55Z
May 21, 2015

(1) Visualization capabilities

it_user240618 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-05-18T17:18:03Z
May 18, 2015

Easy use, fast implementation and search performance

it_user240558 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-05-18T13:57:16Z
May 18, 2015

Ease of user and data connectivity

it_user240387 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-05-18T09:00:35Z
May 18, 2015

1. Scalability 2. Simplicity and the power to end-users to analyse data 3. TCO

it_user236448 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-05-11T12:36:59Z
May 11, 2015

versatility
capacity to develop
user friendly
Does the tool integrate with many data sources

it_user236817 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-05-11T09:06:27Z
May 11, 2015

A lot depends on context but important factors I've seen influence people are:

- End-user ease of use (meaning self-service and integration into the desktop today)
- Enterprise features such as integration into enterprise security
- Ease of data acquisition and ingress into the platform
- Cost
- Existing vendor relationships
- Long term support costs (when people think of it ...)

Vendor
2015-05-07T21:27:54Z
May 7, 2015

The cost is important but having a tool that is simple enough for user to use and build on but also strong enough to support complex processing and provide strong performance is equally important.
Connectors are very important, being able to use various data sources.

it_user234246 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-05-05T18:40:01Z
May 5, 2015

Integration - applicable on many fronts...
Is the platform integrated as a whole (i.e., a report created for web renders correctly on a mobile device)
Does the tool integrate with many data sources, including RDBMSs, cubes, spreadsheets, APIs...
Importing SAS, R, or PMML packages?
Integration with Office?
Does the BI vendor provide well-documented and flexible APIs?
Can the the platform be integrated with SSO and portals?

it_user231963 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-04-30T12:17:19Z
Apr 30, 2015

And, in order:
1. Easy for non-technical users & UI
1. Ease of Troubleshooting and Support, and Security.
1. Reporting / Visualization - dashboard, cubes
4. Licensing cost / Infrastructure requirement /Scalability.
5. Complexity/ Ease of Development effort as well as Customization.
6. Metadata support.
7. Mobility and Cloud based accessibility.

The top three are '1' as the order would change depending on the budget and size of the organization.

it_user231828 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-04-30T06:15:43Z
Apr 30, 2015

Ease of tapping into DB, ease of use, and available industry benchmark.

it_user222948 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-04-14T13:06:36Z
Apr 14, 2015

I am a user, but I compare Bi tools. In my understanding,
1. Cost
2. Complexity and time in installation
3. Security
4. Compatibility
5. ETL - Issues around it
6. Support
7. Responsiveness (Device compatibility for end users)
I guess, there will be more, but these are on top of my mind.

it_user222765 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-04-14T11:31:41Z
Apr 14, 2015

Easy for Development
Provide all Information to all levels of management.
Easy for publishing
Security

Vendor
2015-04-13T06:33:37Z
Apr 13, 2015

- User Friendly
- Ease of adaptation
- Security
- Cost

Vendor
2015-04-10T21:45:34Z
Apr 10, 2015

1. Interoperability
2. Ease of Use
3. Security
4. Cost

Vendor
2015-04-02T02:46:20Z
Apr 2, 2015

1 - user friendly & high performance
2- cost
3-perfect database to access Tables
4 - ((((( TRUST )))))

it_user217017 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-04-01T17:50:01Z
Apr 1, 2015

1. Total Cost of ownership.
2. Infrastructure requirement.
3. Scalability.
4. Complexity/ Ease of Development effort as well as Customization.
5. Mobility and Cloud based customizations.
6. Ease of Troubleshooting and Support.
7. Resource (employee/contractor) availability to execute and maintain

it_user216021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-03-30T16:53:49Z
Mar 30, 2015

Ease of implementing and user friendly visuals.

it_user212286 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-03-23T16:41:35Z
Mar 23, 2015

Ease of use, scalable

it_user211272 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2015-03-20T19:57:34Z
Mar 20, 2015

Flexibilty and suitability to requirements

it_user164241 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-03-02T12:10:15Z
Mar 2, 2015

After more then 15 years experience in BI Consulting,
I see as most important is:

1. Completeness of the solution (is it possible to cover all business requirements with a single BI platform )
2. Centralized administration and unified semantic layer
3. Ability to integrate with a variety of data sources
4. Scalability
5. Support and maintainable upgrades

it_user201531 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-03-01T07:11:38Z
Mar 1, 2015

License model fitting our startup requirements; dashboarding incl collaboration functionality; cloud based, sass capability and multi tenant; integrated lite dwh plus mdm functionality

it_user200571 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-02-26T18:24:27Z
Feb 26, 2015

Flexibility it gives to the end user to discover and explore without being constrained by (by IT) pre-defined 'search trajectories' / access paths

it_user200070 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-02-25T19:06:33Z
Feb 25, 2015

Licensing cost
User Interface
Scalability
Flexibility
Performance
User experience
Customization
Support
Mobility

it_user199443 - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
2015-02-25T16:27:17Z
Feb 25, 2015

competitive differentiators

it_user198675 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-02-24T02:24:23Z
Feb 24, 2015

Integration with current systems

Vendor
2015-02-19T15:57:50Z
Feb 19, 2015

Visualisations of data to make sense of them

it_user194862 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-02-17T03:47:01Z
Feb 17, 2015

(1) Ease of use
(2) Ability to integrate with a variety of data sources
(3) Company reputation

it_user190740 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-02-05T23:11:15Z
Feb 5, 2015

The answers already provided cover much of what I would recommend, so let me add a few items that are not mentioned:

1) Company track record. Have they delivered in the past on new features and new functions?
2) Is there a product roadmap for future development?
3) Is there native driver support for your data source(s)? Relying on ODBC for your BI tools is going to guarantee slow performance.
4) Are the major modules/functions web-based or PC-based? If you have to install software on every PC it will cost more to maintain and be more difficult to upgrade.

I hope those are helpful.

Vendor
2015-02-04T02:16:31Z
Feb 4, 2015

How quickly it can crunch millions of records.

Vendor
2015-01-30T15:14:20Z
Jan 30, 2015

Cost Effective

Vendor
2015-01-23T07:14:44Z
Jan 23, 2015

1. Data visualizing capability
2. Tools for ETL and Reporting
3. Ease of use
4. Implementation cost
5. Development cost

it_user184407 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2015-01-21T18:49:35Z
Jan 21, 2015

Functionality and cost. Cost to include license, infrastructure, training and ongoing support.

it_user182949 - PeerSpot reviewer
User
2015-01-19T07:50:26Z
Jan 19, 2015

Ease of use, Visualization options, Interactive, accuracy when combining data from multiple data sources, alerts

it_user182613 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2015-01-16T22:47:43Z
Jan 16, 2015

You need:
type of storage: MOLAP; ROLAP HOLAP
Architecture: Stage, Landing, Reports
Integration, Analysis and Reports Tools

Vendor
2015-01-14T15:24:20Z
Jan 14, 2015

TCO / Functionality trade offs for the current environment with an eye on the longer term.

DR
Writer
2015-01-03T01:57:19Z
Jan 3, 2015

I am a news writer at TechTarget.com and am interested in interviewing users of BI solutions. If you are willing to be interviewed, I can assure you that I will fact check before publishing. If you found BI software that performs well or not so well, and your company will allow an on-the-record interview for a story, or if you know someone I can contact at your company for a story, I would be pleased to speak with you. Please email at dring@techtarget.com

Vendor
2014-12-31T11:01:31Z
Dec 31, 2014

Apart from sufficient functionality: readiness and ease to deploy and upgrade.

it_user176346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-12-29T20:46:26Z
Dec 29, 2014

Whether the adequately meet the needs of the business.

it_user176154 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-12-29T16:50:38Z
Dec 29, 2014

1. Find good use cases
2. Ease of integration
3. Have mobile versions
4. Security aspect when used with mobile devices.

it_user136014 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-12-24T06:16:58Z
Dec 24, 2014

1. Easy to Use
2. Scalable
3. Free Support
4. cost effective
5. Business Requirement

it_user175071 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-12-23T11:11:35Z
Dec 23, 2014

Flexible intergrating with existing systems, ease of use, maintenance and good technical support

it_user173649 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-12-18T07:46:09Z
Dec 18, 2014

1-Business ( Answer from the Business Users)
2-Development Effort.
3-Cost of the product
4-Maintenance.
5-Technical Support.

it_user171051 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-12-11T15:42:22Z
Dec 11, 2014

1 - Self-Service : Empower everyone with reports that are easy to build and share customize reports
2 - Unify disparate data sources : use data from multiple sources in a single report, (Excel, text/CSV files, any database, Web, etc.)
3 - Real-time business intelligence : makes data available on demand rather than on regularly scheduled annual, quarterly or monthly
4 - Maintenance issues and easy to implement. : centralized data management and implementing a generic solution to meet specific challenges often becomes difficult and costly
4 - TCO : have the lowest ownership costs (pricing Licensing + installation & maintenance costs + Infrastructure requirement)

Vendor
2014-12-10T01:07:35Z
Dec 10, 2014

1. Self Service / Ease of Use
2. Performance and Scalability to handle Big Data
3. Database agnostic
4. Good Product support and TCO

it_user167100 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-12-02T01:37:59Z
Dec 2, 2014

Knowing what you want to achieve with that tool

it_user166260 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-11-28T07:59:16Z
Nov 28, 2014

for BI platforms;
1. ease of use from end user point of view, and ability to manage flexibility for different user groups
2. ease of maintenance
3. visual capabilities
4. performance

it_user164838 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-11-23T09:17:07Z
Nov 23, 2014

I think the most Important criteria Is not specific feature, it's actually the matching between the customer's needs and the features of the tool. So you can write ease of use for example but if the solution is a dashboard that hangs in the CEO / CTO / CFO office then it's not relevant.
If the need is to analyze the data by only the economic department then you need a tool that is great at analyzing like Sisense or Tableau.
On the other hand if the requirements is a full-scale large-company business intelligence solution for thousands of users that maybe you Can go with more general solutions like Yellowfin.
The requirement could be embedded business intelligence then you can consider tools that made for that (yellowfin / pentaho) and don't forget Big-data That can change the picture altogether.

So, in other words, first know what your customers need then you can pick the right set of tools:
data integration, data warehouse, business intelligence GUI tool.
And you also can combine several of them for example:
1. Pentaho data integration, exasol , yellowfin
2. MySQL and Sisense (that has an internal in memory database)

Our website: http://www.inflow-systems.com
Also I am the author of the course: Pentaho kettle tutorial at http://pentahokettletutorial.com

it_user163452 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-11-17T19:46:08Z
Nov 17, 2014

Ease of Use - ability to train a 'power' user. Flexible and performance options.

it_user160860 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-11-05T00:17:20Z
Nov 5, 2014

#1 - Ease of use without the need to know how to code as a business user. Should simply be able to search for answers or drag and drop fields to get insights.

it_user160833 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-11-04T20:36:09Z
Nov 4, 2014

Following this order:
1. Comprehensive, Easy & Intuitive User Interface (Scorecards Dashboards, Reports, OLAP, ...)
2. Licencing->Installation->Maintenance Costs + Infrastructure requirement (TCO)
3. Performance, scalability & Connectivity (data sources)

2014-10-30T11:57:10Z
Oct 30, 2014

Business user friendly

it_user158118 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-10-22T22:44:24Z
Oct 22, 2014

1. Flexibility
2. Cost
3. Ease of Use
4. Mobile

Vendor
2014-10-10T08:29:29Z
Oct 10, 2014

Ease of use is key.

it_user154440 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-09-29T21:31:59Z
Sep 29, 2014

Usability, Integration, Performance & Scalability

it_user154338 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-09-28T22:21:10Z
Sep 28, 2014

1. Ease of use
2. Help/Support

it_user153936 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-09-25T01:04:15Z
Sep 25, 2014

1) Simplicity / Ease Of Use
2) Integration / Ease Of Integrating
3) Supportability / Maintainability Over Time
4) Performance & Scalability

it_user153630 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-09-23T10:09:22Z
Sep 23, 2014

All above and flexibility of integration with existing corporate systems

it_user153165 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-09-18T21:30:02Z
Sep 18, 2014

Cost, Performance, Ease of Use, Visualizations

it_user152061 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-09-12T07:12:58Z
Sep 12, 2014

Performance, Licensing Cost and User Friendly

it_user138537 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-09-08T10:16:52Z
Sep 8, 2014

We have found that a easy-to-use UI, Integration with our ERP/DW, and speedy performance are favored by our business users. Otherwise, the BI tool will end up being a burden of our IT team with less-than-stellar gains by the users.

it_user150045 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-09-03T09:31:11Z
Sep 3, 2014

It depends on the environment where you are implementing the BI solution. If you are implementing a solution in a 100% commercial company you want something very easy to use. If you are facing an organization full of geeks you want something that can be twisted in every single way... And so on.

Vendor
2014-09-02T07:02:11Z
Sep 2, 2014

I would start by saying that there is not a single criteria that will magically make you decide on which BI tool to use. First things first, requirements should be analyzed in the perspective of scalability(that will lead to performance as well), licensing/maintenance/training cost, target audience and tools available. In regards to the last point, analysis on the data source connectivity provided, ETL processes made available, semantic layer and reporting/analysis tools provided should be considered. It can be that not only tools from one vendor will do the job for you so integration with other tools should also be considered.

it_user145521 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-08-26T16:28:51Z
Aug 26, 2014

Good Feedback.

SO based on feedback, all I can add is evaluate
SCALABILITY :
1) Your need : How much Data
2) usage: just for a few months or Long term example : 15 years
3) IS the data model going to change over the years or period.
4) will their be new feeds over time.
EASE OF USE
3) How many reports : this is where ease of use,dash boards come in picture
ETL:
1) extract , transform load functionality . This is important , if your ETL guy or girl leaves the company , you are screwed , unless tool is able to simplify the ETL process , that you can do reverse engineering.

COST:
1) based on your answers above you can choose the appropriate BI tools out there.

PERFORMANCE : Non related to tool
1) this depends upon your HARDWARE, Data model and architecture , and fine tuning of queries...in addition maybe populating the Data marts or views and / or Reporting universe.

Vendor
2014-08-12T12:53:49Z
Aug 12, 2014

Check support for Analytics, Data Insights, Visualization and data as service

it_user146187 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-08-12T12:06:16Z
Aug 12, 2014

1. Easy of Use
2. Licensing cost

it_user145740 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-08-08T08:25:55Z
Aug 8, 2014

At risk of repeating others, ease of use, scalability, security (user and row level for example) and TCO are probably top of my shopping list. Compatibility with other tools also quite important (for example R or hosting visulisations on intranet/internet)

Vendor
2014-07-15T20:38:25Z
Jul 15, 2014

Scalability and Performance
Maintenance Requirements
TCO
Product Roadmap

it_user140223 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-07-14T21:40:50Z
Jul 14, 2014

Feature Set, Ease of use, mass deployment capabilities, and licensing costs..

it_user138285 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-07-03T15:14:41Z
Jul 3, 2014

Performance, understandability and user-friendly

Vendor
2014-06-27T08:36:27Z
Jun 27, 2014

The scale at which you are going to implement the BI tool. Everything else has a solution But you can't go using in memory tools for a Global enterprise.

it_user134724 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-06-20T17:58:01Z
Jun 20, 2014

It is important that a Business Intelligence solution supports the principle of ‘create a report once; run on every device’. People today use tablets, smartphones very very often.
Second, performance? a good response time is also important.

DD
Real User
2014-06-20T02:44:10Z
Jun 20, 2014

Following this order:
1-Licence cost
2-Visualization data (dashboard, reporting,..)
3-Performance (Load/process data)
4-Security
5-Easy for non-technical users

Vendor
2014-06-19T23:54:23Z
Jun 19, 2014

Integration with existing portfolio

it_user132261 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-06-19T18:23:57Z
Jun 19, 2014

User friendly and very good dashboards

it_user130491 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-06-19T15:42:39Z
Jun 19, 2014

Flexibility, ease of use, scalabilty

Vendor
2014-06-19T14:36:02Z
Jun 19, 2014

User friendliness is at the top of my criteria list!

it_user116694 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-05-16T13:50:54Z
May 16, 2014

Simplicity ~ Scaleablity ~ Sensiblity

it_user115203 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2014-05-15T18:05:55Z
May 15, 2014

The following is the order I follow when I research BI tools:
1. Scalability and Performance
2. Usability & UI
3. Mobile and Cloud Based integration and accessibility
4. Maintenance and code
5. Connectivity to Databases and Big Data

Vendor
2014-05-13T16:28:23Z
May 13, 2014

User Friendly
IT Maintenance Friendly

it_user108354 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2014-04-24T16:33:57Z
Apr 24, 2014

The following are important when researching BI Tools:

1. Licensing cost.
2. Infrastructure requirement.
3. Scalability.
4. Complexity/ Ease of Development effort as well as Customization.
5. Metadata support.
6. Mobility and Cloud based customizations.
7. Ease of Troubleshooting and Support.

it_user103908 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2014-04-08T17:51:23Z
Apr 8, 2014

Ease of use, implementation, adaptability licensing.

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