The Pros and Cons of Buying a BI Tool for Your Company

Buying a BI Tool

You realize it is time to abandon the antiquated practice of contacting IT for reporting requirements. It is intriguing to consider the paradigm shift toward self-service business intelligence (BI). However, picking a BI tool is a difficult undertaking. You are aware that your business may benefit from improved analytics for decision-making, but you don’t want to pick a technology that would actually make things worse.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Common Business Intelligence Tools

The features of each BI solution are displayed in a comparison chart that we have put together. Here are some specifics on the features and advantages we compared before you look at the positives and negatives of these six BI products.

Power BI

Advantages:

  • Power BI is a universal tool. To complete the self-service BI task, you don’t need to purchase and acquire new tools.
  • The fundamental language that both the IT and business teams must learn is data modeling. The link may be Power BI.
  • To combine and clean data from your various systems, you don’t require a data engineer who is proficient in SQL. The magic is brought about by click-through operations on a ribbon.
  • Power BI supports a wide range of data sources, and it can also read information from text files like XML and JSON, as well as Microsoft Excel.
  • Strong AI visualizations and capabilities in Power BI enable data scientists and business analysts to collaborate throughout the enterprise, including using AutoML functions.
  • Every month, Microsoft updates Power BI, ensuring that you always have access to the newest features.
  • Power BI Premium features are available for purchase as specified licenses.

Disadvantages:

  • This device is quite versatile. For some people, the several levels might become confusing.
  • You must master DAX, Power BI’s calculating language, in order to take full use of its sophisticated capabilities.
  • To get the most out of this technology, your company must have solid data modeling knowledge (or secure the necessary implementation support!)
  • Power BI deployment is made simpler the more infrastructure you have invested in by Microsoft.

Tableau

Advantages:

  • The data visualizations are gorgeous, my goodness! The design team will give you the go-ahead.
  • The drag-and-drop features are simple to use for building interactive visualizations.
  • The star schema, which is easier to learn than the flat model on which it previously relied, has begun to be introduced.
  • The report is automatically adjusted for best viewing based on the user’s device by the program.
  • You receive a robust statistical engine and AI-driven insights right out of the box.

Disadvantages:

  • This program is useless without a capable SQL development team inside the IT department and a quick database.
  • It depends on employing different tools and services to complete the task. To keep up with Tableau’s demands, many businesses must invest in pricey data movement/transformation technologies like Alteryx.
  • They charge a high price for a license, so I hope you have a lot of money.
  • The strength of Tableau is data visualization, as opposed to a full-suite business intelligence platform, where expenses are increased due to the necessity for governance and management.

Qlik Sense

Advantages:

  • The data processing engine is lightning quick and has the capacity to process more data from various data sources.
  • It can instantly establish connections with many data sources.
  • You receive strong data discovery skills along with the one-of-a-kind capability to display incomplete or inaccurate data on dimensions.
  • Installing a desktop program is not necessary while working in a browser.

Disadvantages:

  • It is simple to make data visualizations that end consumers find difficult to understand.
  • It requires configuration to expand the platform (e.g., R and Python integration.)
  • Public reports cannot be published since the free tool lacks a community display and is short to be discontinued.
  • Even though it is not Qlik’s strong strength, another data preparation tool is frequently helpful despite not being required.

ThoughtSpot

Advantages:

  • It’s a beautiful idea how easy it is to use a search bar to get answers to your data inquiries.
  • There are no difficult report design tools to fiddle with; only implementation.
  • The simplicity of collaboration eliminates the hassle of conveying data insights and reconciling reports.
  • Each visualization incorporates AI analysis with straightforward feedback to enhance outcomes.

Disadvantages:

  • We sincerely hope you are ready to invest the time and money necessary to achieve the nirvana of business users discovering their own insights.
  • What if you have to respond to business inquiries regarding unimplemented systems? You’ll need to work things out for yourself.
  • Since Thoughtspot is a more recent technology, it can be more difficult to locate individuals with the necessary skills.

Looker

Advantages:

  • Are you saying I won’t need to invest in a pricey computer to complete all of my BI work? You may access your reports and make adjustments anywhere you are since Looker is cloud-based (internet sold separately).
  • Since the analysts at my organization are familiar with SQL, they can learn how to use this technology rapidly.
  • This platform makes a lot of sense if you have already made significant financial investments in all cloud infrastructure.

Disadvantages:

  • You have to click and filter a lot, and the data visualizations are mediocre.
  • We hope you enjoy writing complex SQL and code.
  • There are not many capabilities that you would anticipate from a BI application.
  • The future of this tool is uncertain as Google recently acquired it.

Google Data Studio

Advantages:

  • You don’t need to bother about any infrastructure or installation because it is cloud-based and completely managed.
  • If you currently use Google Analytics, Big Query, Google Sheets, or other Google products, you’ll benefit from the tight connection with the Google ecosystem and save a ton of time and effort.
  • In order to guarantee that the data utilized is constantly current, it provides live data connections.
  • The sharing and granular access control features operate in the same way as the rest of the Google office program.

Disadvantages:

  • Although live data connections are supported by the program, dashboards and reports are not instantly updated. (You could create a workaround for this.)
  • Since MS Excel is not supported, you will need to perform some file conversion gymnastics.
  • The dashboard’s live data connect function may significantly slow down loading.
  • Complex visualization cannot be supported because of its lack of adaptability and customization.
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