Birst Reviews

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.

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.

• 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.

• Good drag and drop dashboard widgets
• Ability to create formulas and custom calculations
• Ability to create ETL jobs for simple data warehouse creation
• Automates the creation of the star schema
• Automatically creates facts and dimensions based on data types

We actually do not use it anymore as it did not meet our needs.

• The query generation is inefficient and cannot be tweaked. You have to live with whatever queries are generated by the system.
• The ETL process creates enormous temp files: Disk space can be an issue with big data sets.
• Troubleshooting is problematic: The system is a black box. Once a trouble spot is identified, there is very little ability to change the issue.

I have used the solution for close to two years.

We encountered a stability issue as this solution did not scale in our environment. It was not performing in our OEM environment with the size of our database.

The ETL, querying, and user interface did not accommodate our performance requirements.

Technical support was good. They just couldn't address the performance issues.

The initial setup was easy. It is just a virtual appliance.

We had a complex setup that involved OEM and integration which was painful.

We evaluated some other options.

Birst is a great tool for:

• Creating a simple data warehouse
• Uploading data for quick analysis, visualizations, and dashboards

It is not a great tool to integrate into an enterprise level application.

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.

It can be integrated with Sales Force. Users can jump to the Birst dashboard from SFDC without a repeat login.

The user can view a product usage dashboard within the SFDC.

• User interface: The screen layout is not up to the market standards
• Customer support: Not helpful at all
• Site/user administration: There is no user administration function on the front end. Most activities require a manual command.

We have been using this solution for two years.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 3/10.

Before choosing this product, we were not using another solution.

The initial setup was extremely complex. The Birst consultants wasted a lot of time in configuring the system.

We have no specific comments regarding this issue.

I was not involved in the selection process.

I would suggest they use something else instead.

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.

• Built-in application connectors for most common purposes: ERP/CRM AWS and REST API.
• Single suite module from ETL for reporting and dashboards
• Cloud based BI that can be accessed from anywhere, anytime from mobiles, iPods, tablets, and PCs.

I built dashboards for the sales and marketing department which helped them do forecasting.

Birst constantly rolls out new features so they are always improving. Birst has a very active forum online. People post lots of feedback in regards to existing features. At times, they need to improve.

In my case, I needed a REST API connection and an AWS connection. They released those features after a few months.

I would like to see better connection functionality. It is not very intuitive and the UI is kind of neglected.

We have used this solution for two years.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10.

I used Microsoft BI suite. Our company is the sole reseller of Birst.

The cloud based version is pretty straightforward. The appliance version needs some configuration, but it's not difficult.

We explored other alternatives, but there are no other solutions like Birst that do cloud BI analytics.

It depends on what they purchase. If it is an appliance, then go with AWS.