Collibra Platform Reviews

The main use case for our organization was to collect and collate information for our business users, such as definitions, business rules, etc. 

The customers' names were stored in a data warehouse on Oracle, and with this product, you could insert information related to the customer. You could use Excel, for example, to add in data. You'd have all the information you collected from other places on one tool that users could navigate across to see all of the information.

One of the projects that we had with a client, was to collect and add all the information related to the HR functions. We collected technical information and data quality checks and so on. We inserted this information into Collibra. Once we did that, the user could enter in and read the collected information. That way, they didn't have to go to IT to pull queries for them. They were empowered to do it themselves. This solution basically reduced the search time. They no longer had to go to IT to open a ticket, or to go to an external supplier to recreate some already captured information.

The solution is very user-friendly, especially in comparison to other tools. 

Even a business user, which no technical competencies can manage this product rather easily. 

There are great workflows and other features that really simplify various aspects of the product.

The log information is easy to navigate.

The customization and the dashboards are pretty good.

Collibra, as far as I know, does not have a connector like Oracle, or a mainframe. It's important to have a connector so that you have access to up-to-date information. Sometimes the data can be out-of-date as the updates are not automatic. Users could be looking at obsolete information.

You need to be precise about the names of the field and you have to develop them yourself.

It's my understanding that they are working on a solution where you can import all the information that you need from a data validation too, or from a CRM. It's something they really need to get better at.

It would be better if there was a way to import all data and metadata in an automatic way in one block form.

I used the solution for one year.

The stability was very good. We never struggled with any downtime at all.

I'm not sure if the solution is scalable. I never really tested it. We only really handled a few areas of the data log analysis. For three functional areas it seemed to be pretty good, however, I couldn't say for sure if that would be the case if there was six or ten functional areas.

I've been in touch with technical support in the past and I found them to be quite helpful and knowledgeable. I've been satisfied with the assistance I've received.

I previously used Informatica as a data governance solution.

Informatica is better from a technical point of view. For example, in Informatica, you can buy these connectors which are very complete. You can import a lot of information from tables, names, matrices, and so on, from, for example, Data Visualization Tool, from Qlik, Tableau, from everything. You do not have to write code either in order to develop an API or to upgrade connectors by yourself. In Collibra, there are connectors, however, you have to upgrade them, if you, for example, need more information, more metadata, and so on. It's just not as easy. Informatica is more mature from a technical point of view. You get a complete data lineage and can see the data life cycle of all of your metadata.

The initial setup was not so complex. It was pretty straightforward. Collibra has, for example, workflows and other features that help you to import information. It's all very simple to understand and to use. You sort-of knew what to do from the outset and setting everything up was pretty easy as you just followed along.

The deployment doesn't take long. It's a matter of days or maybe weeks. It certainly doesn't take months.

I started the initial phase with the development of all the information. We got the metadata that we needed from the business user. Then we added the information to the data model. The data model related to Collibra was done by the Collibra administrator. We added this information to the data model. After that, we deployed everything by exporting metadata that we inserted into an Excel format, and then we deployed this information to the production environment by loading the Excel details into the new environment. 

I was never the administrator of the solution, and therefore, I don't know too much about ongoing maintenance and what might be involved with that. I do not believe there to be a lot of technical maintenance needed.

I handled the deployment myself. I didn't need the assistance of an integrator or consultant.

If you compare the solution to Informatica, it is much cheaper.

The licensing for this product is on a yearly basis and you have to pay for the type of users that access the platform. For example, if you want to have a user in read access mode, you don't have to pay for them. 

However, if you want a write access user, for example, to insert information, to upload data, and so on, you have to pay for that license. Therefore there are two main charges. You have the license cost of the tool and the cost of the users that have write access. Beyond that, it's my understanding that there are no other costs.

We're just customers. We're end-users of the product.

If a company wants to implement a solution more focused on the business aspects, this solution works well. However, if a company needs to, for example, have a solution that covers a 360 overview of a data governance implementation or a project where you have to collect business information, and also need to connect that business information to technical information, to create a data lineage and so on, there are other solutions that cover this part better. That said, Collibra is really user-friendly. It's really easy to use. For a non-technical business user, it's easy to access, to navigate information, and so on. Typically business users don't want to have an interface or don't want to use technical tools, so a company should be mindful of that.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case of this product is for metadata information for our technology assets. We also use it for all the governance dictionaries, and for minutes as well.

The solution is very useful for IT people but it's also helpful for those not literate or knowledgeable in IT. The sales department, for example, can track where the information is coming from, where the transformation is happening and where they can find a report for any specific asset. It's very important for them to have it handy, and I believe that for the people who need to know that information, it's very good.

The diagram showing the limits is absolutely magnificent. It shows an end-to-end business term or any asset going from end-to-end. From a visual perspective on the diagram, it's simply beautiful.

The workflows and the language they use needs to be improved. Programming the needs for every user on the workflows is a key improvement that is required. In addition, they haven't updated their training solution in a while. We need to implement a lot of things ourselves and they want us to move to the cloud but there are a lot of glitches in the system. There are three environments - stage, development and production. Often things work well in the first two stages and then when you get to production, they don't work. It happens a lot and their response is slow. 

I've been using this solution for 18 months. 

I would say that stability is around 85%-90%. It's very stable compared to other solutions on the market. 

Scalability is very good, excellent. 

Collibra provides one-on-one technical support, which gives access to a very knowledgeable person and their customer service is amazing. The only problem is that sometimes they don't know the answer so they have to check it out and get back to us. Sometimes you reach a dead end and that's the main problem of their system. We also now get in-house support.

We didn't switch from another solution, but we were using other solutions to control metadata. We used Infomatica for our transformation things. It wasn't like a governance tool. We also used Spark IS, an information solution, to harvest the data we needed.

The initial setup took a week because our systems are tricky due to security considerations. Deployment throughout the company took about six months, but that's an internal issue because of training implementation and that adds to the time. It's our main governance system so we had to move carefully. We already have 2,100 people using it. Operations uses it a lot and sales uses it for everything. 

For now, only 60% of our company is using it, so there's no ROI yet. 

Collibra started at a very reasonable price and then they increased the cost significantly by about 150% and almost lost us as a customer. It was something that the people from procurement and from finance ask whether the solution is really necessary.

At the time we also evaluated Unify, which became Boomi after it was purchased by Dell. That's an amazing tool as is Informatica. The issue there was that the price was too high. We went with Collibra because of the price and what it gives the end user.

Sometimes the technical support is messy but the system is great. It's a very good tool and I would suggest speaking directly with the technicians who develop the tool, rather than customer service. It's a great tool for a medium size company. if you're in a larger company, I would recommend implementing team by team. It's a tool that the end user needs to understand so if you implement it all at the one time, people will have difficulties and you won't have the support. 

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. 

The primary use case is generally about IT people trying to manage their metadata to control what data their organization has and where it's going, as well as to manage data quality and integration. Ideally, that needs to be tied to their business outcome, but that's still quite a rare use of the product. I'm the president of our company and we are partners with Collibra.  

Collibra are very good at helping organizations get a handle on controlling data and the knowledge around where the data is, its type, etc. If you don't know something, you can't protect it, so they help with that.

Their user interface is much more business friendly than anybody else's. Also, their workflows, the rules and policies on workflows, are really strong. They're very good at that. I would also say that the roles and responsibilities, their way to manage people within that process is efficient. Their GDPR module is also pretty good. 

I think the connectivity with different applications could be improved so that they ingest metadata through different applications, through integration with applications. The integration with different metadata sources is not where it needs to be. The company strategy is also, honestly, infantile compared to a lot of companies. If they were to extend the GDPR, if they were to kind of anonymize that and make it more general so it could cover CCPA and a number of the other legislations around the world, that would probably be a good thing.

I've been using this solution for about six years. 

The stability is good but it's only as good as the processes within your company. 

The solution is scalable, it can handle large volumes of metadata.

The technical support is limited. It's high quality, but not high volume, meaning that they have some really good people, but not a ton of them. Nowadays, a lot of people are getting into tech, but they're not really experienced in the particular solutions they're dealing with. It's also potentially hard to find people for that area that are really good, because it requires different types of experience. They have to know the application, but they also have to understand how applications work, how data warehousing work, things like that. Nothing against young people, but when they've only been in the industry for a few years and don't necessarily have that experience, they may not be able to help as much as you might need.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. 

I'd say that you need to understand what your business goals are around privacy and data, before implementing Collibra. The solution is not like an RSA Archer. They're not a security and risk application, they enable security and risks through management of metadata. They're a piece of the process, but they aren't the primary piece of that process. If somebody's looking at a security and risk application, I wouldn't necessarily say that this is the solution. They should look at data governance as part of the process of managing risk, but they shouldn't look at Collibra as primarily that type of application. If you're looking for a privacy and risk application you might want to look elsewhere, not because of quality issues but based on the full feature capabilities they'd be up against. I don't think Collibra can compete on those fronts. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.