What is our primary use case?
I have used SAS Viya Platform for almost three years in various ways, including preparing data, using it, generating extracts, and sending them through email to users. We also built an internal dashboard specifically on SAS Viya Platform, and we mainly use it for usage metrics and many other KPIs that users follow. We have developed and shared many dashboards across teams.
We had two main use cases with SAS Viya Platform. The first was direct reporting to users, where we extracted data from SQL Server as well as Snowflake. We prepared the final report based on SAS Viya Platform using its capabilities and then generated Excel files to send to users' emails. This scenario proved to be very good and efficient in two ways: preparing data and performing many transformations using SAS capabilities, plus sending it in Excel format, which is very rare and difficult to achieve through Power BI, Tableau, or any other reporting tool. We found it critical to use for this purpose. The second scenario involved building reports for users where we used many different types of data sources that were difficult to consolidate in a way that served reporting purposes across various fields. Data came from different sources depending on the nature of the requirements: some from transaction systems, some from data warehousing, and some from portals. We had to consolidate all of these to create analytics and decision-making reports for users. We found this very useful.
It was good in that whatever we needed to prepare, we could prepare it, save it, and use it multiple times. This self-service capability allowed us to develop and prepare data once and then utilize it in multiple reports, which was very beneficial. Where we struggle and where improvement is needed is in how we can make report calculations more feasible for different kinds of calculations. If we can improve there, along with the setting of the UI, placing elements exactly where we want, and utilizing the entire canvas, that would be valuable.
I found it difficult to customize or prepare reports on the reporting side with SAS Viya Platform. Additionally, nowadays there are many AI capabilities that could be built in. I would expect that if those could be integrated into the existing SAS Viya Platform, it would be a really good tool to use.
Any core complex tasks, calculations on-the-fly, and many source integrations needed with SAS Viya Platform are very manageable, and specifically SQL-based tasks can be done through SAS Viya Platform. This can also be shared across with SAS Viya Platform reporting tool. In that way, it is a really good tool.
What is most valuable?
Many good things stand out about SAS Viya Platform, including that it is a very mature tool, very reliable, and performs very consistently. We rarely experienced failures. The main capability was preparing data coming from various sources, and we were still able to import them, merge them, prepare them, consolidate them, and then prepare reports on top. This was a very rare quality of the platform, as many BI tools struggle to generate data models from various sources. The reports were also very easy to read and develop. One thing I expect more from SAS Viya Platform, specifically on the report side, is how the calculations work. It is not that strong in that sense. It was very difficult to build the required calculations directly on the reporting side. There we sometimes struggled, and when customizing reports, adding filters, or creating and placing charts in a proper way, it required a lot of effort and time. Many settings were not readily available or visible to users or developers so they could easily build them. We struggled a lot there, but overall we face a few issues on the reporting side.
The best feature SAS Viya Platform offers is its engine, which mainly supports data preparation. That is the best thing we have seen so far.
It was very easy in terms of the language with SAS Viya Platform. We had SQL-based capabilities, which are supportive, and we are experts in SQL, so we prefer to write logic in SQL. It supports this in a very good way. There was also capability to build objects that you can read and write anywhere across your data preparation. That was very good, and the speed was excellent.
SAS Viya Platform was very good overall. It is quite comparable to other BI tools we have in the market.
I found SAS Viya Platform quite mature on the security side. We built row-level security, implemented security measures, and it is really easy to make it consistent across users. We found it good.
What needs improvement?
One thing I expect more from SAS Viya Platform, specifically on the report side, is how the calculations work. It is not that strong in that sense. It was very difficult to build the required calculations directly on the reporting side, and we sometimes struggled. When customizing reports, adding filters, or creating and placing charts in a proper way, it required a lot of effort and time, and many settings were not readily available or visible to users or developers so they could easily build them. We struggled a lot there.
SAS Viya Platform is very good overall. It is quite comparable to other BI tools we have in the market.
Where we struggle and need improvement is on report calculations and how we can make them more feasible for different kinds of calculations. If we can improve there, along with the setting of the UI, placing elements exactly where we want, and utilizing the entire canvas, that would be valuable.
I found it difficult to customize or prepare reports on the reporting side with SAS Viya Platform. Additionally, nowadays there are many AI capabilities that could be built in. I would expect that if those could be integrated into the existing SAS Viya Platform, it would be a really good tool to use.
I have not used much of the AI side of SAS Viya Platform, but I would like to use it. If many things could be added, such as automated calculations, automated charts, or generating many insights and narratives, it would make SAS Viya Platform a great tool.
Two main improvements would transform this into a great tool: improving the UI and calculation capabilities, and merging AI capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used SAS Viya Platform for almost three years in various ways, including preparing data, using it, generating extracts, and sending them through email to users.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAS Viya Platform is good, scalable, and stable. We did not find issues with that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAS Viya Platform is good, scalable, and stable. We did not find issues with that.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for SAS Viya Platform is adequate. If we go with public support, it is difficult to find because the community is not that strong. However, if we go with specific support directly from SAS Viya Platform customer support, it is available. We have been connecting with SAS Viya Platform because the community on the public platform is not that supportive. Customer support we receive is timely, so we are satisfied with that. It totally depends on how mature the tool is and how many developers are using it. That creates the community and makes it very good for other developers. That way, we do not have to reach out to customer care every time; we can directly get support from the public itself. Normally, with any tool, that is the key success factor, where many users start using the tool and then they support it based on their knowledge and share it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did evaluate other options before choosing SAS Viya Platform. Tableau and Power BI were among them. We were not satisfied with those options, which is why we chose SAS Viya Platform.
How was the initial setup?
Building the UI is also not that difficult. If you compare it with Tableau, it requires a lot of effort and expertise to build a good UI. Here, you can create a good UI by default within one or two days. Whatever UI is required, you can make it within one or two days, but with Tableau, it is very difficult. Even expert engineers require a lot of time to build that.
What was our ROI?
For SAS Viya Platform, I would say there is time savings because many integrations require a lot of effort, time, and many engineers. Here, we can make it in a very easy way.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not much aware of the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SAS Viya Platform because that was handled by the administrator. However, I do not think it is too costly to use. I never did a comparison between other market tools such as Tableau or Power BI with SAS Viya Platform, so I do not have much clarity on that.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Tableau and Power BI were among the options we evaluated. We were not satisfied with those options, which is why we chose SAS Viya Platform.
What other advice do I have?
Our company is very large, so we use multiple tools. We are using Tableau and Power BI in parallel, and based on the use cases, we switch to SAS Viya Platform. Wherever we feel it is really good and where we can build and deliver to users in an efficient, easy, and fast way, we use SAS Viya Platform. However, in our company, which is very large, we use many tools.
SAS Viya Platform is good overall. Two main improvements would transform this into a great tool: improving the UI and calculation capabilities, and merging AI capabilities. I would rate this product seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other