Birst Reviews

To a technical consultant like me, this is a great great tool for creating value added visualizations, exploring and validating the concerned data while building custom charts tailored to what the business needs.

Dashboards follow the Birst Value Based Design principles which enables users to start at the top to interrogate and review they KVI (Key Value Indicator), then drill down to explore the data and the drivers of the KVIs.

Apart from the existed Visualisation types, Birst enables the use of interactive dashlets using JavaScript and other scripting languages.

We are a golden partner of Birst. We use our Birst expertise to deliver Birst projects to customers.

In general, Birst as a cloud VI solution is a user-friendly tool that looks really nice and engages users straight away.

Users can now explore data that they couldn't do before, as well as use quick meaningful representations to understand the data and drive business growth. Traditional data exploration tasks that included complicated formulas can now be transformed into interactive dashboards.

I would like to see the following:

• Better reporting functionalities
• More charts
• Enriching chart formatting to include additional properties and styles
• More advanced charts (advanced waterfalls and heatmaps)
• A type of chart to be used for time analysis. For example, current vs. last year, last month, etc. Currently, this is possible by using Birst time series or custom expressions.

Since this is something that most companies use and need, it would be interesting to create a chart type dedicated to year by year comparisons. Maybe a four block chart where each one can be configured to show specific time comparisons.

Some examples: Current year vs. last year, current month vs. previous month, and YTD comparisons.

We have been using this solution for more than a year.

There have been no serious incidents.

There have been no serious incidents.

As the volume of data gets bigger and bigger, so does the extraction/processing of the data and the dashboard rendering. There are always workarounds. The extraction/processing can be improved by using incremental data refresh. Dashboards can be optimized by using filters.

Technical support has a quick response time and a high quality of service. I would rate them with a 7/10, as there is always room for improvement.

This entirely depends on the data and the company's data model.

Always start from the value based design that Birst depends on. It will help you first define the problem and then understand the data. After this, the process of enabling Birst will be much quicker and enjoyable.

The valuable features are:

• The ease of reporting
• The ability to customize reporting format
• The ability to have different spaces for users to play with their own data and data sources without impacting other users
• The ability to utilize this solution for both internal and external users

It has given us the ability to join all our data sources into one place to streamline reporting and analytics. It is important for security and reporting integrity to keep internal and external users separate. This prevents mishaps with externally facing material.

I would like to see better training. The cost-benefit was not great. We received very basic training for a high cost. They could have gone into a deeper understanding of the tool. They kept the training very basic.

We have been using this solution for six months.

We have only encountered one small instance of downtime, which lasted for less than fifteen minutes.

The non-enterprise version requires you to hook up data sources to each space you create. It doesn't let you create one data warehouse in which you can build all types of reporting. This allows for more control and better security, but it can slow down the scaling process if you need internal help from IT.

The installation varies by use case. The setup was intuitive, although we did hire a third-party implementer. We recommend this, unless you have in-house expertise.

They were willing to negotiate price. They were very accommodating as my company was smaller and had a lower budget for this type of project.

We evaluated Domo, MicroStrategy, Sisense, Looker, and Salesforce Wave.

Make sure you have cleaned up your data before starting a project like this. Also, clearly define your use cases. Don't try to bite off too much at the start. Think in terms of quick wins.

The fact that it is completely cloud based makes the maintenance easier since we don't have the onus of maintaining the server.

Since Birst is completely cloud based, we do not have access to its servers. It is very slow at times. We can do nothing about it and we can't even restart the servers.

We have used this solution for six months.

There were stability issues with Birst. A dashboard/report takes a lot of time to open if there is a lot of data. In a typical customer facing scenario, such things aren't acceptable. A customer does not want to wait for ten minutes for a single report to open.

The tech support was an OK experience. Birst depends primarily on their forum for their issues to be resolved.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

As far as other products are concerned, I used Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) before using Birst. I am back to using it.

Birst is only good for small scale organizations which have to deal with less data.

The dashboard tool is the most valuable feature, as it gave a quick customizable overview of data I needed to access on a daily basis.

Everything we did in the marketing team needed to be based on data and Birst helped us to make calculated decisions based on the given data.

The ability to filter out massive amounts of data and load it properly on screen needs to be improved. I would need to hide the data while I put a report together because it would load too slowly.

I have used this solution for around one and a half years.

There were some stability issues less on Birst's end and more in regards to the different types of data that were fed into Birst. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the stability.

Personally, I did not encounter any scalability issues because I only had to deal with the given data for a six month period at a time (season) or maximum for a year's worth. However, I can imagine how slow the system would be, if we needed to look at it in terms of years and years of data.

I didn't have to deal with anyone from Birst directly, as we had someone in-house who was our Birst source of truth and he would help us technically as well.

Prior to me joining the company, I understand that they used another system. When I joined, they had recently switched to Birst, as we were in need of a more powerful way to deal with data, apart from PowerPivot tool.

I didn't experience the initial setup. I helped build the dashboard with zero knowledge or prior Birst background. It wasn't too complex as I could figure it out with little help but not as straightforward in terms of the UI. It wasn't as intuitive.

I wasn't part of the decision-making process but I know they evaluated other products as well. Eventually, it was down to features and pricing.

It's quite a powerful tool, i.e., if all the data you need can be integrated properly.

The option to build and deploy analytical models quickly, within days rather than months. We use a variety of cloud applications such as Google Analytics.

Birst offered us a solution that had built-in connectors which could be used to build a fact model. We can use this to perform the standard data modelling steps: extract, transform, load, and develop scheduled reporting within weeks.

Daily, weekly, and monthly automated reports delivered to senior management. Prior to this rollout, there was no visibility.

I would like to see improvements in the administrative modules. These are about to be addressed in Version 6.

We have used this solution for about two years.

There have been no stability issues.

There have been no scalability issues.

Technical support is excellent.

The Initial setup was delivered in four weeks with a clear use case for data sources aligned to two KPIs.

Pricing and licensing is negotiable.

We evaluated Tableau, Looker, Business Objects, and QlikView.

Ensure that you fully understand BI and enterprise data warehouse architecture.

Its ability to create a complete, end-to-end BI solution using a single software stack product is the most valuable feature. This is important when we consider the need to apply agile development approaches to the creation of BI/analytics software implementations.

Birst essentially removes the previous BI software stack paradigm which was premised on the need to have at least three differing software products so as to achieve an end-to-end data processing platform. The need to manage three different software assets was (historically) the reason a BI project could not be ‘agile’.

The ways in which it has improved the working of our organization are mentioned below:

• Limited overhead resourcing (a single skill set is required).
• Dramatic reduction in the time needed to create either PoC implementations or defined software products.
• Ability to create a ‘packaged’ BI product which can be considered as a plug-n-play opportunity, either as an internal asset or more importantly for sale in the market.

• Visualization: This aspect of the product is not up to the same level as its competitors in the market. However, it should be noted that Birst provides a complete end-to-end solution, whereas all its competitors are providing solutions for the front-end visualization piece only (for example, the Tableau solution).
• Cloud performance: While this is a unique selling point and a significant advantage in the market, we experienced some issues with the performance in the cloud-based offering when hosted in the US. However, I now understand Birst has an APAC data center.

I have used this solution for around 18 months.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

The technical support is quite fair. Since we are a US-based organization, we required communication with the US on a regular basis.

While the support was excellent and timely, the need to sync time zones did cause some issues. However, I now understand there is a dedicated APAC technical support team based out of Australia.

We were not using any other solution; this was a green field implementation.

There was zero setup complexity, as the solution is offered via a cloud infrastructure, i.e., no local installs are required.

The only challenge was understanding the transformation syntax (BQL). As an example, we created a series of analytics products using the tool in a matter of weeks and that, too, with zero prior Birst experience.

Licensing is an issue in Australia due to a fairly high-level entry point (also priced in USD). However, one must consider that the license cost negates all of the local infrastructure requirements, including hardware.

Birst is a complete solution, i.e., there is zero need for any additional software in order to complete a BI project. This is not the case with any other competitor in the market.

We evaluated other products such as Tableau, QlikView, and MicroStrategy.

When considering the entry cost, you need to take into account the cloud architectural component. There will be no further infrastructure costs; hence, it can actually end up to be a cheaper option.

You should also review the competitors in terms of the end-to-end architecture. Many competitors will claim to have an end-to-end solution, when in reality there will be a highly manual (command line) facility built-in.

Birst has been developed from the ground up to be a true end-to-end BI / analytics product. There are zero additional software requirements in order to create an enterprise-wide / scale solution.

Some valuable features in this product are:

• Auto modelling: Simply by uploading Excel, we can start reporting.
• Birst's auto feature creates ETL in the back-end by analyzing data.
• Cloud-based: This cloud-based tool is easy to maintain and can be managed with a single window.
• Single-window development: No need to maintain / install multiple tools for metadata, reports development and service management.

We use Birst for developing solutions and prototypes, that are helpful for our customers.

For complex reports with heavy calculations, performance can be improved. I would appreciate more customization options in measure calculations.

Earlier, we were challenged during one of the previous versions (maybe Birst version 5.18). We wanted to define a new measure and build a complex calculation using the custom and existing measures. Then, there were certain restrictions in using the custom measure.

We are currently using version 5.23 and an update is due for us. Birst (currently updated to version 5.24) is very dynamic and there is another update (version 5.25) which will be released by them soon. We never tried to explore in the recent version and unsure if customization is available already.

I have used this product for a period of 18 months.

Product upgrades are frequent. In this manner, Birst tries to introduce new features and fix issues from existing versions. However, during upgrades we had to redevelop certain report prompts (and in rare cases the report itself).

Data processing time increases as volume of the data increases. However, if you are in the typical data load cycle schedules for end-of-day loads during off-business-hours, the time is minimal.

Birst provides quick and helpful support on raised queries. Overall, the level of technical support is good.

Previously and still now, we use Oracle BI (OBIEE). I find Birst are pioneers in Cloud BI platforms.

The setup was straightforward. Birst being a cloud-based solution, it does not require installation on servers. Allocation of space happens fast and with easy steps.

Birst has subscription based pricing policy, with a commitment for certain minimum time period.

We evaluated other solutions namely Oracle BI Cloud Service, GoodData.

It is important to identify a use case and deliver business benefits. Then gradually, you can expand to users (or other use cases) in different functions and shorter sprints.

This tool possesses valuable features such as its ability to perform ETL, extract data from various sources (flat files, relational DBs, application connectors) and dashboard scheduling.

Unfortunately for us, we are looking for better options other than Birst as it is not so user friendly.

Birst needs to improve various features, namely:

• Application connectors as existing ones aren’t quite reliable.
• Resolve issues of frequent timeouts.
• Provide a friendlier UI.
• The BQL (Birst Query Language), which is used for applying filters in dashboards, conditional formatting, custom calculations, etc., needs a more constructive syntax.
• The error messages displayed need more useful information about resolving issues.
• Build an external forum/community for online help. The in-built Birst community is relevant only for simple tasks.
• Provide concepts for Dev, QA and Production environments.

I have used this tool for about a year and half.

Owing to the above reasons, we could not make use of the Birst tool productively. Hence, we will not be able to make a fair comment.

Owing to the above reasons, we could not make use of the Birst tool productively. Hence, we will not be able to make a fair comment. In addition, this tool does not allow frequent updates.

Personally, I have not interacted with their support team but when my colleagues did they received an average response.

Initially, we have used Tableau, SSAS, BO. At first, we were quite impressed with Birst’s capabilities. Now we understand that it is still a maturing tool.

Recently we have evaluated Looker, Sisense & Qlikview. Tableau seems to be the best amongst the lot. Sisense would follow thereafter.

There is no doubt that Birst possesses great abilities. However, it becomes too time consuming to understand and implement this product. It is important to decide the main criteria for selecting this tool whether just as a dashboard function or to provide start to end solutions from ETL to visualization. This product requires users to come out of their comfort zone and explore it.

• Scalability: Because the product can be set up in cloud-based systems, the scalability is there.
• Availability: The user interface is fully browser-based, so no installation for users is always a big plus.
• ‘Networked BI’-approach: In technical ways, it makes all of the core measurements consistent throughout the company. It tackles the issue related to inconsistency in reporting inside company departments.

Licensing has been shown to have some issues.

There are specific Birst connectors included in the out-of-the-box price tag, and there are several more connectors available in Birst that have their own license fee.

Thinking from a customer perspective, this is really important to know. As per my experience, the out-of-the-box price tag is the one that is used and the extra license of connectors available was sort of a ‘surprise’. However, this was explained by Birst and it is understandable that their other connectors cost extra.

My own experience just made me think that this was a hidden cost that they tried to hide, but keeping that in mind, it might only be my experience as to how this surfaced for us, because I had this image of Birst that you pay _this_ amount and get everything.

I have used it for a few months.

I have not encountered any stability issues so far. It will be interesting to see how it handles actual several-user usage.

I have not encountered any scalability issues so far. Scalability is one of the core features of this product that makes Birst great.

I have not used technical support. However, answers to product-related questions are sometimes buried quite deep.

Initial setup from the customer point of view is straightforward but as an administrator, it has its own complexities. However, the main focus is that Birst setup for the ‘actual’ user is clean, straightforward and easy.

Pricing is ok. However, the kind of data you have can alter the price through Birst connector license costs.

GoodData was an option; however, it did not fulfill the requirements as well as Birst did (one year ago).

Check your needs, what actually is required and what kind of data you have. Then look into Birst and similar products for the most suitable to _your_ needs.

Data visualization: The company I worked for had clients all across US. It was important for us to visually present the details to the senior management so that they were able to relate to the analytics very easily. Additionally, analysts were able to easily build visualizations and explain them when they were presented. Data in charts/maps speak more than data in a spreadsheet.

Also, in the customer-facing portal, it was easier for the customer to see visually than reading a report.

Data can be downloaded unto the Birst server, which means the analyst can run their own analysis without issues.

• Performance was not that great; in-memory processing would help.
• Real-time streaming.
• At the time that I looked at this product, it was in a incubation/stabilization mode. We ran into challenges with the performance. We were told that we will be able to build our star schema model and run our dashboards easily. But, when we had to do a lot of summarization, the performance was not that great.

I have used it for three months.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I encountered scalability issues.

Technical support is good.

I previously used in-house analytical solutions using Cognos and some of our native Java code base.

Initial setup was straightforward, because it was a cloud-based solution.

Negotiate.

Before choosing this product, I also evaluated Tableau.

If you are looking for a cloud-based, lightweight data mart and reporting, this tool is good.