QlikView Reviews

In-memory processing and ETL function are the most valuable features of the product to me.

Because data is automatically extracted from the database, users can see the operating data and charts in real-time.

I would like to see them add a powerful map and improve statistic functions.

I have used this solution for three years.

I have encountered scalability issues. Users get slower report response time when there are a lot of chart expressions.

Technical support is OK.

Initial setup was straightforward. QlikView is an excellent product.

We implemented using a vendor team.

The license price is expensive for us.

Generally speaking, QlikView is suitable for under mid-range scale company.

The strongest characteristics of the product are its ease of use and its data discovery and exploration capabilities:

• Ease of use, as it is very intuitive, as long as its back end data model is well designed, providing its end users with a high level of autonomy and the developers with a very intuitive and complete set of tools.
• Data discovery and exploration, thanks to its in-memory data association capabilities that provide a fast and easy way to relate and explore data.

As a consultant, QlikView has helped me deliver high-value BI solutions to my customers, consistently exceeding their expectations and creating new opportunities for my firm.

It could be more mobile friendly, as some of its features don’t work properly on mobile devices or do not provide the best user experience to our customers who would like to extend their access to data. A Cortana/Siri-like feature or advanced analytical capabilities for users with advanced scripting and statistical skills would also extend its usage in the organizations where I operate.

I have been working with QlikView for about 4 years.

I still find some fine tuning issues when scaling up in concurrent usage or data volumes.

Strong customer service, not as strong on the technical part, and the community is still a bit underdeveloped.

I’ve also worked with other main market solutions like Microsoft, or Tableau, but over the last few years, QlikView has evolved considerably, especially when they completed it’s offering with Qlik Sense 2. Although it is not as versatile as the Microsoft solutions, it is stronger in ease of use and development when compared to Power BI for example. It’s licensing costs when compared to Tableau are also a differentiating factor.

It was extremely simple and straightforward to implement.

We do our own implementations without the need for a high level of involvement from the QlikTech vendor team. Our main advice is that a good understanding of how tabular models work when designing the data model, and a good understanding of the full QlikView offering specifically in terms of ETL, are fundamental for a good QlikView implementation project.

BI implementation projects using QlikView are normally faster to execute and faster to get the customer to perceive its value. However, it makes sense to start with a smaller investment specifically on QlikView licensing, as modeling the data and implementing the ETL part is still the biggest bottleneck. It doesn’t make any sense doing a big investment in user licensing, when the real use of QlikView still depends on getting the data to make sense.

Make sure you have your data straight - think like Kimball, but act like Inmon - before moving to QlikView.

It is possible to work with a large amount of data without affecting the performance.

It improved development, because we could just put our data into it and start working, even with datasets with millions of records. Its high speed has also improved my organization.

It would be great if this software had better transforming tools. We can do a lot of heavy work with scripts, but sometimes that gets really messy.

I mean that it would be very good to have a graphic tool to manipulate the data.
I work with IBM Modeler, and I love how easy it is to transform data in it. I think QlikView could implement a graphical interface to manipulate date, just like Modeler. I also think thats way off the scope of QlikView, but I am just thinking how great it would be to have such tool built in.

I have used it for four years.

I haven’t found any problem with deployment, stability or scalability yet.

Technical support is very good. Every question I had, there was someone to help me.

I started working in my actual job because of this software, so I didn´t have the opportunity to choose it. However, I can see it´s great software, and I´d surely choose it.

There wasn´t any problem with the setup, it was very easy (much easier then Oracle OBIEE).

When I got access to it, it was already implemented. I just upgraded one time, without any kind of problem.

It works as a complete BI software solution for us. We can do complex scripting to build data models. We can make somewhat complex reports, even though it does not have the best capabilities as an ETL tool. It is not the best tool for complex reports. It also does not have the best visualizations, but it has a lot of features in one package, and that is its biggest selling point for us.

Performance is very fast. You can create dashboards for large sets of data and the dashboards are still quite responsive.

Creating dashboards takes a lot less time compared to other big vendor solutions.

In my current organization, we use QlikView and we love it. We feel that for us it still does the best job possible. We want to be able to create
beautiful visualizations like we could with Tableau, but we also know that the flexibility we have in QlikView is not possible in Tableau.

Also, as of now, we have IT-driven BI and self-service is not what we are focusing on. We don’t have separate tools for ETL jobs. We think for our purposes, QlikView is better.

In one word, QlikView has become dated now. Other vendors are providing equal or better solutions, especially for self-service, on-the-fly beautiful visualizations and ease of use.

QlikView is not moving as fast as the market trend. There are no big updates in their product that could make our life easier. As far as the useful functionalities, QlikView is the same as it was five years ago.

They did launch a new tool to compete with Tableau, Qlik Sense, which they are trying to push to customers, but it actually falls behind QlikView. (They know that, but they don’t want us to compare Qlik Sense to QlikView, saying they are two entirely different tools.) We still prefer QlikView compared to Qlik Sense. Qlik Sense is incomplete at best.

QlikView is your one-stop shop for all of your BI needs, and it performs well enough. With one tool, you can take raw data from your database/files and develop the complex analytic apps, which I think is the best thing going for QlikView. It’s very flexible and has matured itself well enough to be deployed organization-wide. The learning curve is definitely higher and you might need your apps developed by IT.

It is good for organizations that don't want to invest in multiple products.

The in-memory architecture and ETL function are the most valuable features of this product to us.

Data is automatically extracted from the database. Users can see the operating data and chart in real-time.

I would like to see them add powerful map and statistical functions.

We have used this solution for three years (starting with the BI project kick-off).

Dashboards’ response time is slow when the logic behind them are complex or when there are many dashboards in one QVD file.

It’s quite good and their response time is quick.

Districom, a QlikView partner and reseller, implemented the BI solution for us. Districom’s business consultancy is very strong but their technical support is somewhat in need of improvement.

The license cost is very high.

• The associative indexing engine that does away with the need to design and build OLAP cubes. Instead, it can integrate information from multiple sources in one data model that is easy to maintain, expand, and completely flexible to navigate (no pre-defined query paths).
• The out-of-the-box ETL capability that takes care of the necessary data transformations without having to rely on a separate product.

All information analysis, from casual one-shots to continuous tracking reports, is done with QlikView. This lets us see new patterns as they develop, enabling us to react quickly.

Currently, there is no SaaS licensing model.

The ETL tool could use some visual aids in addition to the wizards that help to build the code.

Visualization design is not drag-and-drop.

I have used it for 6.5 years.

I have not experienced any deployment, stability or scalability issues, except when the workload load exceeds the hardware capabilities, which is the result of poor sizing, poor development practices, or unanticipated growth.

Customer service is almost always spotless.

Tech support is efficient, but seldom necessary due to the very large and dynamic user community.

We did not previously use a different solution. Choosing it comes naturally because we resell Qlik.

Initial setup is as straightforward as client/server installations go. Complexity can arise when getting access to data sources or integrating with third-party security, for example.

We implemented it in house, because we have a Qlik consulting practice. My advice is to not overcomplicate the implementation with excessive design, because the data model can grow organically over time.

Historically, ROI is best-in class for this kind of solution. My advice is: If you have many users, use the large deal size to your advantage.

Join the Qlik Community, ask around if you have any questions, and hire certified consultants.

Take my rating in the context of a complete Business Intelligence platform: data acquisition, transformation, reporting, dashboards, visualization, analytics, collaboration, mobility, and so on.

The most valuable features of the product are its in-memory and ETL capabilities, especially the set analysis function.

We developed in a couple of days an application based on a timesheet application, in order to have a real-time vision of what we do in IT service. Before, there wasn't any system except some Excel manual spreadsheets.

We developed a QlikView prototype based on sales data to give easy and visual access to the data. It took minutes to be loaded, compared to the existing system of traditional cubes that required hours to be loaded... to give what? Reports without any interactivity.

QlikView should improve its front-end design and import the Qlik Sense design within.

I have been using it for two years.

We used the Nprinting extension. A great toot to create PDF reports, etc... However, the tool is not stable; installation was difficult before being able to use it.

I rate the level of customer service and technical support 8/10, efficient.

I previously used IBM Cognos, Tableau, MS, SAP BO... Personally, QlikView is the best when you talk about fast delivery and visualisation.

Initial setup was straightforward: half a day and your QlikView server is up and running.

I implemented it in-house, but I had QlikView experience.

QlikView is like a race boat, compared to other vendors who are king of Queen Elizabeth. ROI is never easy to measure but at the very least, you will definitely deliver something with added value to your customers within weeks.

Consider the ETL capabilites of the tool, not only the visualisation. And, of course, the performance!

Once you select any data on the dashboard, QlikView highlights the unavailable data in grey in order to show to users that those combinations don’t exist or aren’t possible.

Filters are not local. Once you filter something, the standard is to apply the filter to all tabs available in the dashboard.

They used to manage the business data through spreadsheets, now they have an automates process and a stable solution. It reduced to zero the time to prepare the data, avoiding operational issues and allowing them to put all the focus on business analysis.

Qlikview should have a connector or a specific product to allow people outside of the company or that don’t have a license to read/use the application (a kind of reader license). At least something really cheaper or free.

I have used QlikView for three years.

I have not yet encountered any issues with deployment, stability or scalability.

I rate technical support 8/10.

The time or effort to develop new stuff in QlikView is lower than other traditional tools as MicroStrategy, Cognos, etc. Besides that, we are changing our approach to a self-service BI.

The initial setup was straightforward. QlikView allows you to install it on regular desktops with 8 GB memory. After some time, we migrated QlikView to a server with 64 GB, due to the number of users and the amount of applications developed.

We implemented/developed with an in-house approach.

I would advise that the first implementation should be done through a vendor team in order to have better standards/best practices applied from the beginning. It would speed up the learning curve.

For this specific case, we didn’t calculate or estimate the ROI. Comparing QlikView to Tableau, I think that Tableau has a more attractive pricing/licensing approach than QlikView. I would recommend studying it before starting to acquire new licenses in QlikView due to the model of sales (Named Call and Document Call). The cost of new licenses could increase faster if you don’t have in mind the proper usage.

Qlikview has a huge community in the internet with a lot of examples, online course, etc. It will help a lot to test by yourself. I would recommend providing a POC among the tools to identify which of them would fulfill your needs better.

• In-memory performance – It allows slicing and dicing of a huge volume of data in the dashboard very fast if designed optimally.
• Scripting – It provides a flexible data-preparation layer, along with the ability for data integration from multiple data sources. This enables creating a reporting data model inside QlikView from a transactional system without impacting the performance of the transactional system, if designed correctly.

Overall, it enabled connecting the entire spectrum of data into a single dashboard in:

• Finance – connecting sub-ledger txn details all the way to GL
• Supply Chain

• Self-service capability is very limited, though it has been improved in QlikSense. However, it will require an additional license & server to set it up.
• Dashboard capabilities and features are not on par with Tableau, though the same has been attempted in QlikSense. However, Tableau still has better dashboard features.
• Real-time analysis with live connection (direct discovery) is very limited.
• The current version is missing a variety of connectors and they need to be procured separately.
• Not adaptive to display across various screen resolutions

I have used this solution for two years.

Initially, there was an issue with LDAP and SSO integration (a compatibility issue with an earlier version of SiteMinder).

Initial setup was non-clustered and we encountered performance issues. It resolved once we moved to better infrastructure in a clustered environment of QlikView.

Technical support is very geographically oriented, but isn’t truly 24X7.

Initial setup was not intuitive, but straightforward for a Qlik admin expert.

A vendor team implemented the solution.

I evaluated Tableau. However, we selected Qlikview because:

• Tableau’s current recommendation is to build dashboards directly on top of the reporting DB (for example – data mart or consumption layer) to avoid doing complex logic or transformation inside the tool and using a hybrid approach of live connection and extract. Tableau is currently not an extract-heavy tool. However, with the recent HyPer acquisition, we are expecting some changes.
• Incremental loading (updates and deletes) inside Tableau is a challenge, which can be achieved very easily in QlikView.
• Limitation in Tableau on # of columns and rows in table view

Evaluate visualization tools based on your organization need and appetite to spend on BI technologies overall (DB, etc.)

SQL scripting, as it provides me the fastest way to pull data into the system, since I’m more on the technical side.

It has made our processes for collecting and presenting data easier, especially with regard to old spreadsheet mentalities.

Their marketing department is heavy-handed, more so than it really needs to be. This can turn companies off when they get too aggressive. Their pricing structure doesn’t match their aggressiveness either, costing an end user $1500 for a web-based license.

I have been using QlikView for about 11 months.

Their set criteria is a mystery of legends. I still, after a year, need to pull up a wizard to type up a set expression. It’s not intuitive at all.

Technical support is very good, with an exceptional user base. I’m largely self-taught on Qlik because of their community and the breadth of their support on-line.

I previously used Microsoft BI tools, but as a company we were too far behind the curve to take advantage of their latest technology in the BI space. Upgrading to Office 2016 is not something a Fortune 500 company is going to do overnight.

The desktop component was straightforward. I didn’t set up the server component, so I can’t speak to the publishing.

An in-house team performed the implementation.

No definitive ROI, but an enterprise license would go a long way towards adaptability and acceptance.

QlikView and QlikSense are powerful tools that require IT and BI expertise to take full advantage of. True BI utilization is not just dragging fields and creating graphs. It requires deep knowledge of data utilization and visualization. Qlik can provide that, BUT at the cost of additional IT or BI expertise.