MicroStrategy Reviews

Highly scalable: It is not a bottleneck for leveraging a high-capacity analytical database.

Users can now consolidate data from across the business without reaching boundaries of cubes.

Even though self-service capabilities have been greatly improved, the basic reporting layout is still behind similar products.

I have used it for 18 years.

We have only encountered minor issues from time to time.

Scalability is excellent.

Technical support has been similar to other vendors.

We have not previously used a different solution.

There is a lot of setup to perform, so initial training is important.

Consider CPU-based licenses, if you have a large user population with highly varying reporting needs.

I do not recall whether we evaluated other options before choosing this solution.

The core of your data source (data warehouse) should be star schema, preferably starflake. Then you can attach other data sources around that.

It is one of the best BI reporting tools as per Gartner. It is a complete reporting bundle, which includes reports/dashboards/document creation along with Cube.

It also comes with self-service analysis that helps the user carry out short analysis within the corporate level. It has a good administrator tool to handle the administrative part. It has server distribution to publish the dashboards and reports from the end user in different formats as well.

It includes lots of other features that help to take the reporting to the next level; for example, R Integration that supports more than 70 databases.

It has strong metadata in the architecture, which makes a huge difference with the other tools in the market.

It's a DSS tool. Thus, for analysis in an analytics-oriented company, it has made a huge difference in their decisions.

This product needs to be ready to use at the enterprise level . As the market is growing and changing very fast, sometimes the development team does not have sufficient time to incorporate requirements within the given time frame. Thus, some solutions should be ready to use, i.e., the plug and play functionality for solutions at the enterprise level.

I have used this solution for more than 10 years.

Not many issues were encountered in terms of stability; there were only a few defects which were resolved in later releases.

There were no scalability issues.

I would give the technical support a 8 out of 10 rating.

Previously, I have used different solutions. However, I have found MicroStrategy better than any other tool.

A few configurations are needed as per requirement.

The pricing policy is good compared to other products in the market. It's a license-based software.

We did not evaluate other options. As we know, it's the best solution.

• Sharing objects, which helps the end user with self-service reporting.
• Security filter controls the data-level security in the report for sharing with more than one partner.
• Access Control List controls the object-level security for accessing by user.
• OLAP functionality:
  
  • Multidimensional analysis: OLAP helps the user gain an insight on the data coming from different sources.
  • OLAP helps faster execution of complex analytical and ad-hoc queries.
  • Allows trend analysis periodically.
  • Drill down abilities.
• MicroStrategy Desktop is one of the popular analytic tools that can be migrated to a server for publishing for other users.

• * Reduced IT dependency. *
• Using template
• Users (Business Analyst) are using this canned report template for their reporting based on their info and save that report in their own folder. And they are using subscription to deliver that report to their stakeholder.
• Allowing user to create report from scratch. Train them what to use and what to not use. Once they familiar these then they don’t dependent on IT.
• Introducing the Dashboard; provide enough information in the dashboard. Once user started using those dashboard then they don’t dependent on IT.
• Now most of the request from users like below;
• - New metric (custom metric)
• - New filters (custom filter)
• - Complex reports where they can’t create by themselves.

• MicroStrategy Desktop: Personal analytical tool that helps users to do their analytical work using multiple sources of data. However, this tool needs to improve to add more analytical functions, and an easy solution to use third-party graphs and maps.
• Multi-level security: Currently, MicroStrategy provides multiple ways of access (Standard, Windows, Database, LDAP, etc.) the MicroStrategy tool (use either one of them), but not combined solutions.
• Big data solution: Currently, MicroStrategy is providing a very good big data solution for MicroStrategy Desktop but not an easy server-level solution.

* Reduced IT dependency. *

n Using template

o Users (Business Analyst) are using this canned report template for their reporting based on their info and save that report in their own folder. And they are using subscription to deliver that report to their stakeholder.

n Allowing user to create report from scratch. Train them what to use and what to not use. Once they familiar these then they don’t dependent on IT.

n Introducing the Dashboard; provide enough information in the dashboard. Once user started using those dashboard then they don’t dependent on IT.

Now most of the request from users like below;

- New metric (custom metric)

- New filters (custom filter)

- Complex reports where they can’t create by themselves.z

We have been using the solution for about eight years.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

I would rate the technical support as about 7/10.

We were previously using Crystal Reports. We switched because of the analytical solution offered with this product.

Initial setup is straightforward. Step-by-step configuration information has been provided by the vendor.

I would advise others to go for the Named User license instead of the Server Level license initially. License pricing is moderate.

I am not aware of any other evaluated solutions.

Go for it.

In version 10, Visual Insight had a major improvement. Now, it is a very powerful self-service BI. In version 9, you still needed Flash on your machine, but version 10 is based on HTML5. It is very easy to build your dashboard and once you save it, it is available on all devices, including your iPad.

MicroStrategy is using what they call a meta-database, where you store all your business logic and you can re-use it in any report or dashboard. This helped us a lot. You now have one version of the truth and it is re-usable. You don't need to build complex calculations in your Excel sheet, as we were doing in the past, with the risk that someone made a slight variation to the business rules.

The dashboard and reports are what they call pixel-perfect, which means you configure a fixed size for your report and align everything based on the fixed size. But now you have various devices with different screen sizes, and it would be smarter to have a flexible layout which will scale according your device.

We have been using MicroStrategy for five years, starting with version 9.

MicroStrategy is running very stable but demands solid hardware.

So far, we did not have issues with scalability, but we never had more than 50 users using it at the same time.

Support is for technical issues, e.g., my installation does not work or I have a bug. It doesn't help you if you want to define new business rules and you would like to know what is the best way of doing this. Support will forward you to their consultants for these kind of questions.

We had Excel and a tool called Excelcius, which was just a tool to create a better looking dashboard. But your intelligence was still in Excel. We wanted to remove the intelligence out of the Excel sheets and into a central database.

MicroStrategy has a steep learning curve and you need to spend time in training before you can use the full potential.

The license is based on a fee per user, but recently they did decrease prices.

We were looking at SAP BO and Cognos.

MicroStrategy is what they call an enterprise solution, which means you can use it for reports, dashboards, self-service BI and mobile devices. The meta-database is a real advantage because of the reusability of your business rules, but you need to put time and effort into training; otherwise, you will get very frustrated.

The most valuable thing is not the product. It's having a product for BI. We first made a lot of dashboards. They are very useful for management and automatic reports with summarized data.

The dashboards can be exported to MHT. This allow us send them by email, or publish in our intranet and sync in mobile devices so they can use it off line.

We have centralized a lot of reports. We all are using the same data. We've discussed a lot about the significance of some terms.

The administration of automatic email reports is not very good. It has to be improved in a more easily and effective way, with the same license.
I would like to see data mining integrated.

I have used MicroStrategy for five years.

We have not had stability issues.

We have not had scalability issues.

We have had no technical issues.

We used Oracle Discoverer but it was very poor.

We have a very smooth setup. This was because we began with a small project that includes installation.

Setup is not complex.

We evaluated an Oracle BI product, I think it was former PeopleSoft, but we choose MicroStrategy because .mht files cab be sent by email and you can use it without internet access.

The main effort is making the DW and the models. The rest is not so difficult, but you have to implement a corporative strategy to stop using any other reporting system.

We value the ability to build dashboards and reports in a relatively simple way. We can teach end users how to do their own reports and dashboards making the process cheaper and faster.

Also, the ability to import data from a grand variety of sources and combine them into a single report/dashboard, skipping the expensive ETL process or validating it before a robust construction.

MicroStrategy makes it easier to control internal and external demands and also to monitor public programs financed by the institution.

Data discovery and self-service BI still needs to be simpler to end-users.

I have used MicroStrategy since 2012; four years.

We have not had stability issues.

We have not yet had scalability issues.

I rate technical support a 4.5/5.

We did not have a previous solution.

Initial setup was complex. MicroStrategy is a hard tool to configure in many ways, starting from its licensing schema.

Make a good study of your needs because its very expensive to change from nominal licensing to a server core licensing.

The buying decision was made by a previous team. But other solutions are always evaluated, like Tableau and ClickView.

Make sure there isn’t a cheaper solution that satisfies your demands. Prepare a good team to develop and use it or you’ll have a big mess and difficulties making data discovery and self-service BI.

The ability to create VI’s which are easy for front end users to manipulate in order to see the data they wish to see.

Visual Insight allows the developer to create reports and/or cubes as the foundation and the end user can easily pull any of the metrics and attributes into the report, graph or other visualization without requiring technical reporting knowledge. This really gives the end user the ability to manipulate the data as they see fit. They can see as little or as much detail as the report/cube allows.

The ability for end users to self-service on ad-hoc reports.

Instead of using a lot of table joins within MSTR, we have had to rely on ETL for those same reports and then expose that view/report in MSTR. A couple of reasons for this are slowness when running the report inside MSTR and difficulty in setting up left joins when using multiple tables.

We have been using the solution for about three years.

We have not encountered any stability issues. Only a few outages that have always been resolved quickly.

Scalability issues have been the most significant which we have faced.

This is not an area I have to deal with much but from what I have heard it seems to be good.

We previously used SSRS. We still use this sometimes but have been working to transition to MSTR. MSTR gives the end users more flexibility when looking at reports.

The setup was complex. Our warehouse was completely rewritten in order to fit the MSTR model.

We have no specific comments regarding this issue.

We evaluated others but I was not part of that decision making so am unaware of other options being looked at.

Find other companies who are willing to share their experience and the lessons learned when setting up their environments.

It can be applied to a wide range of uses. It's a complete solution for all the BI needs of a company.

Mobility features have helped people who work supervising shops.

Visual Insight isn't as easy to use as the competitors.

I’ve used MicroStrategy for 15 years.

We occasionally had stability issues.

We did not have any scalability issues.

I rate technical support 1.5/5 because they hardly ever help you with problems and when they do it's very late.

We have always MicoStrategy.

Recently, the licensing method and pricing have been simplified. Now it is much easier to understand.

At that moment many of the current tools didn't yet exist.

No special advice.

• Enterprise reporting
• Mobile
• Distribution
• Dashboards

Most of our customers for whom I implemented the solutions were interested to see the level of detail. However, due to a couple of weaknesses we get from this tool, this was a bit painful.

We do consulting and Implementation of solutions to many industries like retail, distribution, manufacturing, oil & gas, wholesale, etc. Most of the solutions require the end reporting to be apt and simplified in nature. MicroStrategy’s built-in solutions help a very reasonable amount of customers. As they require customization, developers are required to use the desktop client. That is not simple.

Simplify the development environment and improve the visualizations.

I have been using MicroStrategy for one year and three months.

We have not had stability problems.

We have not had scalability problems.

I rate technical support 2.5/5.

We did not have any previous solution.

Setup was pretty much straightforward.

Licensing is completely dependent on the number of architects and developers the organization requires. The pricing is reasonable when compared with other industry leading tools.

We evaluated Oracle BI, Microsoft BI, Tableau and Cognos.

I recommend that they evaluate the in-built dashboards, test them with sample data and see how dashboards best fit your needs. As the development or customization of this tool is a crutch, people do not prefer to get into this technology.

It is very easy for non-IT personnel to create (grid) reports. And once the report is created, the user can switch rows, columns, and add filters. This avoids the creation of a lot of reports that have just a different look.

The drill-down functionality is also very good.

It did not really change the way the organization works. But it has improved our budgeting process. It also gives us a better overview of our warehouse management.

It has two versions: web and desktop. Some changes can be done with the web tools and some can be done with the desktop tool. Reconciling the two tools to make all functionality available in all tools would be a great improvement.

The graphs available for the new dashboard of version 10 are weak. You can include all the 3D graphs that you find, but you have to find them and include them or develop them yourself. By default, you should have at least the same possibilities for the graph so that you can add in a document. For the moment, I still use the document because I did not find a line graph that can use multiple metrics and multiple categories.

I have personally used it for three years now. The company I am working for has used it for four years.

We have not had stability issues, but we are a small group and we do not use the mobile functionalities.

We have not had scalability issues, but we are a small group.

I find technical support very responsive. If they do not know the answer, they search for it until they find a solution that solves your problem. The community site has also a lot of information.

I am an external consultant and I know the Microsoft BI suite. I also worked a bit with QlikView. The company that uses MicroStrategy had no other tools before it.

I was not there at the initial setup. I found it easy to add some new attributes, facts, and metrics.

I am not in charge of licensing. They made a change in the licensing module some time ago and we can now use all the enterprise tools for free. This was a big improvement. We are using a name license. The advantage is that these licenses can be used on all environments.

I was not there for the initial choice. But I know they had a PoC on SAP BusinessObjects and Microsoft BI.

If you use MicroStrategy on top of a data warehouse, put all the code translation in a snowflake schema. The reason is that often the last pass of the process translates the code into labels and it is easier if these labels are in separate tables.

Install the enterprise manager tools and projects at the beginning. You can create a lot of objects and you need to know which one is used. This tool is not perfect, but it will give you an overview of the utilization of MicroStrategy.

As an IT person, you have to create the model: define the attributes and the metrics. Once you have done that, if a user wants to create a grid report he must drag attributes and metrics and drop them in the grid area.

This user has to know the business a bit because he must combine attributes and metrics that make sense.

Another way of working is to create a big grid report with multiple attributes and metrics. A user can easily remove the attributes and metrics that he does not need and remove them from the grid. He then can save the report is his "my report" folder if he use it often.

For example, as retail company, we created a "big" grid report with sales and stock by articles, shop, sales persons, year and month. The sales period is part of the filter. If a user want the sales per shop and years, he just has to remove from the grid the attributes and metrics that he does not need. Same thing if he wants sales per users. For us, it simplifies our life because one report replaced eight existing reports in our system.

Now, the the reports are made by someone from the business that asks sometimes (but not often) for IT support.

If you only want simple grid reports, almost anyone can make them. If you want advanced reports (dashboard, pixel perfect documents) the user must follow a training.