BI Tool Replacements, What Do You Recommend?

I may suggest Alteryx + one of the three {PowerBI, Tableau, Qlik}

1) BI tools are either are really bad at ETL (a lot of coding likle DAX or R or Qliks own language) or worse they don't even have the capability

2) Dynamic E-mailing and Scheduling exists in Alteryx,

3) Plus Alteryx is a full ETL tool that can do in-database and big data without coding #codefree

4) You can scrap web pages, read all sorts of data

5) It also has visual reporting and can output to top 3 BI tools natively...

6) What is best is with alteryx you can do AI, ML too... predictive analytics

7) You can do forecasting

8) Even you can do optimization, linear programming etc.

Alteryx + PowerBI is a really economic and game changing solution
Alteryx + Tableau you can create fancy graphics
Alteryx + Qlik if you are a retailer, sales dept. etc will benefit a lot from associative queries...

I'd explore Alteryx as the heavy loading ETL + Data Blending + Transformation + Analytics. This tool'll give you a very fast time to process the data (No matter the size of your data or Company).
For visualizations, you can explore Tableau, PowerBi, Qlik and see how they fit into your companies volumes (handling + overall costs).

As an SAP BW consultant company, we are working with frontend SAP BO tools.
Currently, Lumira software is the one we are using for dashboards and
reports.
But, we need to know about other tools like Poder BI, Pentaho, Tableau, just in case our clients prefer this tools instead.

Hello.
Based on your requirements, you might want to consider Qlik Sense with Qlik NPrinting.
You can download a free desktop Qlik Sense to try it out, but not Qlik Nprinting (as it needs to run in a server mode environment).

With Qlik Sense's data manager, you can do basic ETL, and definitely dynamic on-the-fly analysis & dashboard. For reporting, Qlik NPrinting allows re-using the visual objects on Qlik Sense app onto its reporting editor to create end to end generation & distribution of MS Office, HTLM and PDF reports on a scheduled basis.

Alternative to Qlik products, is Jedox which provides ETL, dashboard and report generation on Excel / MS office. Jedox is preferred over Qlik if you do not need the association capability of data modeling and analysis, as Jedox provides a hierarchical and cube based to data modeling and generation of dashboard. If you use lots of Excel for input and reporting, than Jedox can 'tied up' all those Excel workbooks into a single repository for real time update, control and manageability.

Hope the above helps.

There are many good BI tools available: IBM Cognos Analytics, SAP Business Objects, MS Power BI, Tabloux, ClikView, etc.

Cognos Analytics does the following requirements well:
- Dynamic Emailing (Users will only receive their own data from a report)
- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in email
- Dashboards for Management

However, NO Bi tool does ETL, or does it well. You need an ETL/ELT tool for that. IBM, SAP, and MS all have very good ETL tools that can support your needs. The questions should be:
- What is my TCO going to be (3-5 years)
- What skills can I leverage in-house?
- Where are the users of the reports and what's the best way for them to consume the information?
- How extensible is the technology?
- Can I use this BI and ETL tech in a SaaS mode?
- What is the upfront cost to me?
- What training is available?
- Is the tool UI zero footprint on developer's machines?
- Can reports be consumed on mobile devices or in web browsers (zero FP on consumer device)?
- Are skilled external resources (contractors) available in my area at reasonable cost?
- What support does the vendor provide?
- What data sources can the tool support?
- Will the tool run in my company's technology platform?
- Does my company's ICT dept have a tool already or if not what are its procurement rules and processes?
- Is this a shadow IT action or going through the company's ICT dept?
- If not supported internally by ICT, how will the business manage the tool?
- If the tool does not work with the company's current tech environment, what will be required for it to operate effectively?
- Can I run the tool on existing hardware or do I need additional server/s?
and many more ...

There are numerous tools you could take up.

I did this once for an Insurance Co I worked for and Cognos was selected. But other products such as QLIK are now competing strongly with Cognos. Cognos was chosen then for its budget fit, and functionality for a small-medium sized firm and it ticked the most boxes for that firm's requirements. It had its own ETL tool, but it doesn't now since IBM purchased it.

To be realistic these are the guidelines

1. Know your critical requirements - which you seem to indicate here that you know
2. Know your budget!!
3. Get vendors in to build one model (even if simplified) and build schedules to test emails that deliver data (bit of a challenge that one? security and report size are the first things that come to mind) within a set time frame e.g. 4-5 days. You need to have all data sources, model and reports defined for them (wouldn't a portal be more secure and controllable, where the user downloads their report data?)
4. Measure time spent by each vendor against what was delivered. A good test of a software product is to set a tight delivery time.
5. Look at product licenses and cost basis (CPU's, Data sources etc., annual support costs, which country support is available from. The main product I currently use either has support in USA or India. We use India but it does not come online until mid-day in Australian time).
6. Look at how much of the build required SQL scripts, procedures and scripts(.bat or .sh), the less the better. The less external calls the less issues!!
7. Look at ease of reporting over sources and publishing of reports internally and externally.
8. Look for performance monitoring built and automated alerting on set thresholds.
9. Look for built-in install of ODBC software, so much easier than having to install separately to the product.
10. Look for admin console that covers LDAP connectivity and automated LDAP refresh. Performance dashboard and common data source connection control.

Anyway, could go on with more but time to stop.

Informatica and Control M can deliver what you require, but I would not recommend using these products unless you have done a proper selection process and compared all products in the BI spectrum which is very competitive ... that is one factor favoring you when starting afresh.

They are many tools available in the market, we had an experience with Pentaho also, we also have SAP Analytic cloud, but seriously the best tool for analytics is QlikView.

It can be managed in-house, as fewer license issues, and dynamic results.

In case you need a modern platform that integrates Dynamic Emailing, Report Scheduling, Interactive Dashboarding, ETL capabilities with ease of use and time to solution take a look to BOARD www.board.com

Well i am late to the party you have some great tool selections and options described above.
I like sisense, i also like Tableau and Qliksense, i personally liked the comment that state insufficient information. you wish to scale, however no details.
As part of your deliberations consider the following not highlighted in other responses:
price of the tools. You are using cheaper tools than SAS, Cognos and SAP., probably tableau and Qlicksense. So what is the value obtained from the reports over and above what they get today.
Dynamic emailing may be bettere served through user self service and structuring the data.
What is the technical user capability now and on the scaled up use of the system for users, for data insightful users for business savvy users,
You haven't identified any analytic requirements over descriptive analytics from current tooling - do you need any analytic tooling.
What is the increase in ETL you are expecting
what are the new ETLs you are expecting
what are the key factors you are trying to scale - reporting, data upload, analysis, , operational reporting.

Assessing your data flows and performance flows and using powerBI as a more intuitive front end (as you have already invested in it) may satisfy all you need.

From what you’re looking for I’d recommend Qlik (either QlikView or Qlik Sense).

Qlik NPrinting for:
- Dynamic Emailing
- Report Scheduler

Qlik Sense/QlikView:
- the associative engine allows for dynamic modeling and querying
- has ETL capabilities
- highly interactive and customizable dashboards

Qlik Sense:
- responsive mobile design
- in the Cloud

QlikView:
- robust, interactive applications

They can go for Jasper as it allows them to do below.

1. Scheduling to users with data they need to their mail box
2. Easy to maintain
3. Less licensing cost

I’d suggest Cognos because it has the bursting capabilities which can generate a fraction of report data to different users according to their data right provided in a table, coupled with the event studio in Cognos, one can customize the email subject line and contents accordingly to a different recipient. If you use event studio then setup the schedule in event studio else use the report schedule.

In Cognos you can generate normal dashboard or dynamic dashboard, please google for the differences.

I do not suggest Tableau though it looks fancy because it does not have the Cognos dynamic report delivery function required.

I have been using SSIS as my ETL tool (which is free, come with Microsoft SQL server) for many years, so far I do not have any problem with it. I think one needs to at least know SQL query and have some basic script concepts in order to make full use of this tool.

Sorry. I do not know BIRT. I am familiar with other tools like BIRST, tableau though

I was a big fan of Microsoft Power Bi until I started getting deep into the analytics. I think Power BI is really good for small businesses who have never had a BI tool.

But, once I learned about Birst I was sold. I haven’t seen anything better. www.Birst.com

… a couple of thoughts.

For Dashboard for Management…Tableau and Tibco Spotfire are the two major players I’m aware of – I’ve worked in both – I believe Tableau may be winning the game – I’ve heard Cerner is a Tableau shop. Like most…a free 2-week trial is available at Tableau...dodon't know about Tibco Spotfire. I built a daily Spotfire dashboard that brought in ~800,000 each night – it was for a major hospital system in KC. The default screen was all (6) entities, all ~20 specialties…the user would click a radio button to filter in a particular entity and/or specialty – I think a series of SQL job ran and dumped the data into Spotfire – 3:00 in the morning, which I think gets to the ETL requirement – I was pretty much downstream from the ETL magic. I do think notifications were available to decision makers. I also think management could be emailed when reports were ready, and there was functionality for scheduling.

I spent about 18 months working in Spotfire compared to 3 months in Tableau…feel like I only scratched the surface with both…I also believe there are many different tools out there that might be good candidates…the Hadoop ecosystem has well over a 100 components that include the functionality specified…

I hope this helps…please let me know if there is any additional information I can provide.

Thanks

Rich

Hello:

Depending on your ERP system, I would recommend BIRST BI (www.Birst.com)

We currently have OBIEE but Birst was a very close second.

I think Birst would be the right solution assuming you are not a primarily Oracle shop.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

I have used Power BI and Qlik Sense. Qlik Sense has the edge in my opinion. Don't email static reports. Link the users to their specific reports and allow them to manipulate what they need for more insight.

We currently use Qlik Sense for dynamic dashboards and reporting as one of our primary BI tools. An add on product, NPrinting, allows for Dynamic and scheduled reporting delivery via email and centralized Newsstand site. There is a large number of different data connectors including subscriptions to Publically available Big Data sources. Go to www.qlik.com/us/ to obtain product info and a free evaluation of the product.

The product compares favorably to PowerBI and Tableau in features and pricing.

I know a couple of clients they start using BI open-source solutions, I can share with you the top replacement I had seen, BIRT, ClicData and JasperReports Server.

Recommending robust proven open-source tools
Dashboards For Management, Report scheduler, dynamic emailing I recommend SQL Power Wabit.
For ETL Capabilities I recommend Talend.

Any reporting or data analytics tool will do. The main questions are: what's the business requirement. Who is going to be the user for the system? How about data quality? Before you select a tool these questions need to be clear.

There are many tools in the market but you need to choose based on your requirements (like features, integration of existing tools, etc ). This impacts your architecture and cost. If you post your requirements we can suggest the best tool.

I think your company should use IBM Cognos or SAP Business Object. Both have got better features and can fulfil your requirements.

If you are looking for an embedded solution Exago BI could be a good choice offering visualizations, operational reporting and scheduling all within the same solution.

If any recruitment Michael.Lena@onlinetechsloution.com

Hi,

the closest solution with an architecture similar to the one used now is TIBCO's Jaspersoft. It embeds all the goodies of a reliable BI platform (robust ETL, dashboarding, Alerting etc.) and is even enhanced with Analytics capabilities.

I have been reading most of the previous posts and there seems that the commenters are urging towards the adoption of a pure Analytics tool, but this also requires a change in the mindset as well.

Start with Jaspersoft and you can lead a more focused team into advances analytics using TIBCO's Spotfire platform. It really excels, especially in large infrastructures.

Kind regards,

Andreas S. Maniatis, PhD
Commercial Manager
CyberStream LTD

Hello,

We use solutions for our customers such as Power BI, or Qlik.. any of these will fulfill your requirements.

There are comparison tables on the internet so you can choose according to your needs and cost.

ETL = Extract, Transform and Load. Extract from any database, Transform the Data to an understandable and useful format and then "either" load a database with the results or load the data into the actual software to use. QlikView does this along with all the many other wonderful things. You can load and transform data from anywhere and write to QVD's (data bases your name and store) to then be loaded into QVW's the client you use to analyze/chart/visualize the data. you can load and transform right in the QVW if you wish, and use the data immediately.

The beauty of using QVW's is you un-normalize the data so it's really easy for users to make charts and objects on the fly in QlikSense with normal field names and formatted data (like dates...).
It also allows you to have that QVD layer to add even more great info when loading into a QVW.

I keep reading that you need a separate ETL tool. you really don't unless you just need to spend more money.

Two visualisation platforms which might be useful investigating would be BI Office and Yellowfin.

These are both fantastic for not just collaboration, dashboarding and workflow within the business intelligence life cycle, but also quite good in allowing various other tools to be integrated so you have a fit for purpose suite of products.

Hello,
In my understanding, your company wants to acquire a more robust ETL, which offers technical support among other things. If so, In my opinion, I would suggest Oracle Data Integrator, and OBIEE 12c that includes Data Visualization which it is a very good visualizer. Some of our customers have them and we have worked with both tools (ODI and OBIEE 12c) very good and I can say that these tools are flexible and very helpful. But of course it depends on what you want and your budget.

Regards !

I have been working with Microsoft BI solutions for last 10 years so I will propose to move to Microsoft Stack in ETL and Warehousing and Power BI/Tableau for reports.

- Database
- SQL Server Azure - I will prefer Cloud version because of its scalabilty and in future if you want to expand storage then it is easier. Also Microsoft keeps your data mirrored therefore it is very less chance that your system will be offline.

- Dynamic Emailing (Users will only receive their own data from a report)

- first you need to define strategy whether you will create a Multidimensional SSAS cube or Tabular Cube. My personal suggestion is to move to SSAS Tabular since it worked with new technology Velocity and much faster in calculations and also you can define Row Level Security to limit your users to see only their data.

- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in email

- you can create SSRS Reports and Power BI Reports then schedule them to send data to users.

- ETL Capabilities

- SSIS (on premise or cloud) or Data Factory (for Cloud) - I will prefer SSIS since Data Factory still has some way to go.

- Dashboards for Management

- Power BI or Tableau

Hello,
If you have already build data warehouse then Tableau is perfect bi tool. Using Tableau Prep you can expand bi use cases to self service data preparation.
If you don't have DW than Qlik is good.

Currently we are not using any tool that cal do all of these things. MicroStrategy fits most of the requirements except for the ETL requirement. If they have another tool for ETl, I’d recommend MicroStrategy.

Any of the major BI platforms will do what you want.
My honest opinion is to look at your company’s vendors and pick one that has served you well in the past.
I have used Business Objects, Cognos, MS and Meta-Strategy in the past and they all have lots of unused capability in ALL the companies where I have seen them used. No place ever has the people to really take advantage of the capabilities of a high-end BI suite. If a company has a BI org with 10 people or 30 people, most will not be able to wring the most out of the tools.

I have consulted using all those tools listed above. They are all good. They are all complex. They are all much harder to learn well than the salesmen will tell you.

We are also looking into replacing our BI infrastructure. The main BI reporting tools we currently looking at are IBM Cognos and Yellowfin BI.

We did look at Power BI, however we discovered that Power BI has a reliance on imported data or cubes in order to retain full functionality. This is not optimal for us as importing data and setting up cubes raises serious questions about governance (for imported datasets) and also cube maintenance will be a pain point as we are a small BI team.

The alternative connection mode is called “Direct Query”. This is where Power Bi can directly connect to the database in real time. This is the connection mode we would prefer. However, Microsoft has severely limited functionality of Power BI when connection directly. Features such as quick insights, basic time intelligence capabilities and even DAX expressions have disabled. See this link: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-use-directquery for more information.

We’ve had to dismiss Power BI as a potential tool.

Hello,

For a Company of your size i would recommend enterprise tools.
these would be ;
- Cognos Analystics
- Microsoft SSIS, SSAS with PowerBI (be aware PowerBI is a specific dashboard tool.)
- Microstrategy

regards
Marcel Bergmans

I recommend you contact my colleague Tommy Dyhr, who is an expert in such front-end tools and with BI generally.

Tommy Dyhr:
tommy.dyhr@know-it-house.dk
Tel: +45 20 40 80 76

Go for Microsoft BI solution(SSIS,SSRS,SSAS). Low license cost and best solution for this requirement.

We use Qlik products for same reqirements. Qlikview or QlikSense for Reporting and NPrinting for E-Mail with dedicated Reports. Perfect for sheduling to groups or single User.
We use the solution since couple of years and are happy with.

The simplest solution is Microsoft Reporting Services. In addition, if PowerBI Report Server superset is used, PowerBI is included. Nothing comes for free

MicroStrategy is the best tool for report bursting, personalization and deliveries.
- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in emailMicrotrategy provides both event-based and time-based schedules. Best scalabilitiy feature- ETL CapabilitiesMicroStrategy is BI tool, for ETL purpose you can choose any products available on market. MicroStrategy works with all major ETL tools- Dashboards for ManagementMicrorStrategy-Best pixel perfect dashboards and documents for high-level managers.

I advise you to see the QlikView solution, I believe you are able to meet all of the requirements mentioned in your email. I hope I contributed, good luck!

Planning Analytics will provide the functionality you have specified. You can also incorporate Python code into it to create predictive analytics.

You need a very good architect to ensure you have a robust, scalable and future-proof model that can be maintained easily by anyone if you go down the Planning Analytics route. Be careful not to get a developer that wants a job for life through maintenance activities!!

Well if it were me and I was going to be looking at new tools for BI I'd look at Sisence, IBMs Cognos Analytics, Tableau, Looker, Domo or even Microsoft's Power BI.  I would not have normally included Tableau but they seem to be making a come back and investing in what users want for a change.  IBM is pretty much the best of the big guys and usually, theirs integrates better than most of the rest of the pack.
that's my 2 cents worth. 

Interesting one as I was a big fan of Kettle for ETL. Now with Pentaho being purchased, I don’t have a current open source favourite ETL tool. That said, here are my initial thoughts on your email.

Since leaving IBM in 2014 I have been teaching and doing contract work in my local area (all small to medium businesses).

I read the company is using Microsoft Power BI currently. They did not mention the RDBMS they are using. If they have MS SQL Server, which most of my clients here do have license for, I leveraged that licensing. The reporting, scheduling, and ETL capabilities of SQL Server has allowed for development of proper data marts for reporting (and subsequently scheduling and delivery). Integration of Power BI into a solution is quite easy in that environment for desktop analysis.

For my customer that is a non-Microsoft shop I was able to meet their needs using QlikSense. www.qlik.com/

That customer doesn’t require an ETL tool at this point. They are using PLSQL scripts to deliver the data to reporting tables.

Not sure that helps, but if I knew a bit more I may have other thoughts.

- Dynamic Emailing (Users will only receive their own data from a report)
This requirement is handled by many BI reporting tools, e.g. Cognos.
Reports can be tailored to a user's data access privileges. E-mail
distribution lists can be created for each report. URL links can be
included in the e-mails to direct people directly to the report.
- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in email
This requirement is handled by many BI reporting tools.
- ETL Capabilities
The choice of tool is largely dependent on the capabilities that are
needed. E.g. different sources and targets. On the big data platform, there is a movement towards using microdata services.
- Dashboards for Management
We are also currently utilizing Microsoft PowerBI for Management
Dashboards but we want to explore possible solutions.
Most BI reporting tools offer a BI dashboard to support things like news,
favorite reports, visualization of KPI updates through charts and widgets.
There is also the option to leverage an organization's enterprise portal.
The direction to take will largely depend on the client's high level
requirements.

Take a look at Sisense:: www.youtube.com/watch

We have the 4 items you listed as requirements out of the box, so instead of having to work with multiple tools, you get it all in one. Easiest way to find out is to take it for a spin yourself, so take advantage of our free trial: www.sisense.com/get/test-drive/

I will settle with Tableau it will over-deliver in all the features listed below in moderated data-heavy environment.

It will only struggle with ETL capabilities in a very large data environment. So, depending on your size, you need to complement this tool with ETL tool like Informatica.

Second to it is PowerBI

I have been working with Microsoft BI solutions for last 10 years so I will propose to move to Microsoft Stack in ETL and Warehousing and Power BI/Tableau for reports.

- Database
- SQL Server Azure - I will prefer Cloud version because of its scalability and in future, if you want to expand storage then it is easier. Also, Microsoft keeps your data mirrored therefore it is very less chance that your system will be offline.

- Dynamic Emailing (Users will only receive their own data from a report)

- first, you need to define strategy whether you will create a Multidimensional SSAS cube or Tabular Cube. My personal suggestion is to move to SSAS Tabular since it worked with new technology Velocity and much faster in calculations and also you can define Row Level Security to limit your users to see only their data.

- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in an email

- you can create SSRS Reports and Power BI Reports then schedule them to send data to users.

- ETL Capabilities

- SSIS (on-premise or cloud) or Data Factory (for Cloud) - I will prefer SSIS since Data Factory still has some way to go.

- Dashboards for Management

- Power BI or Tableau

Hello,

I would recommend IBM Cognos BI solutions, whilst it’s a comprehensive solution, the software offers user-defined roles, reporting where information and data can be drilled down into allowing you to really visualize your data. The solution also has an easy to use management console which can be accessed from
Any device. I would also recommend the experts at HAYNE, go through your needs and implement the solution as required by your business.

As an alternative and a close second, I would look at Tableau - offers all of the above yet has some additional capabilities around data visualization.

Hope this helps.

Based on the types of activities that you are looking to perform Dundas BI might be a good fit for you. I am not sure what ETL is though so you would want to check out Dundas BI’s capabilities for that on your own.

Dundas BI allows you to limit what information user’s see either based on the report itself or based off of data permissions. Dundas BI also allows you to set up scheduled or triggered e-mail notifications/reports. Triggered reports can be if the data has changed by a certain amount, if a certain threshold has been passed, etc. Using the permissions system built into Dundas BI it is very easy to create management dashboards that are only visible to the users you want to see them.

I can take up Issues in a Good Number of Technology Areas Viz. O.S, RDBMS, AI & ML, HCI, Pervasive Computing, S/W Engg, Languages, Algorithms etc.
I am superannuating this October'2018. Maybe I can associate in a Formal Capacity?

Are you in the EU/UK or the US?

I would 100% recommend Microsoft Power BI for the Management dashboards. For other daily reports, I would recommend SQL Server Reporting Services if they are already invested in Microsoft software since reporting services comes included with SQL server for free. And the dynamic emailing and scheduling can be handled by that.

I am recommending (i) Elastic Search (Highly Scalable) (ii) Logstash (DWH, ETL etc.) (iii) Kibana (Visualisation) (iv) R for Data Analysis in "Kibana"

It is an ultimate Platform.

Note: There is a Downside of "Kibana" i.e (a) a bit complex to develop scripts (b) Visualisations are NOT Very Attractive

On the Other side, I found "MetaBI" a very handy Dashboard tool for visualization without doing any programming.

Without a full understanding of the colleagues environment and specific requirements. off the top of my head if they want a scalable solution then I would recommend;

1. SAS Office Analytics with the Microsoft Office plugin for all ETL work (Enterprise Guide etc.) and
2. SAS Visual analytics for all the visualisation, management dashboards etc.

I would run this on SAS's Viya platform as Viya allows for all 3rd party models written in R or Python to be run on the Viya platform seamlessly (with all the data governance built in).

Most of our customers have gone this way from other platforms as the two products complement each other very well and the costs aren't high.

Hope this helps.

Regards

________________________________

Go for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA aka BI Apps)

Hi,

In my personal opinion, people advise based on their expertise in a specific tool which may or may not fit your requirements. All tools may help you in building your requirement in one or other way. If you don’t have expertise on any new tool you may not optimize it best which may run for longer run.

I would suggest keeping ETL and BI platform apart so that if one gets obsolete with the requirements you would just need to replace one where your cost plus efforts will be saved. Second, you would have difficulties getting top talents in the market specific to that tool.

Well for growing demands, you can explore “Sisense”, tableau. I don’t know the granular level of your requirements. You can choose SSIS/Informatica for ETL.

Yes, But after getting more information about their system and requirements.

Whilst I personally use Power BI myself I have recommended Tableau to many of my other clients before

I will suggest Qlikview tool. It will fulfill you all requirement. If you need further detail please connect with me.

Any answer will be influenced by a number of factors which are not included in the details supplied. So, taking my advice with a pinch of salt - and based on my 25 years experience, I would recommend Microsoft PowerBI. It’s hard to beat in terms of cost, you say you already have it on-site, and there is a ready pool of talent to hire in the market should you need to.

The latest version is a big improvement over early releases, so upgrade the platform first.

I recommend Qlik Sense w/ NPrinting

The question asked is very generic by any firm. There are so many tools out there in market, each tool satisfies these requirements in one way or other. If you want In-Memory capabilities for faster retrieval QlikView/Sense or Oracle Exalytics is an option; if you want flexible reporting OBIEE/Tableau/Power BI is an option; if requirements are very small with no self-service capabilities then consider MSBI. There are cloud based solutions also available like Oracle Analytic Cloud. I will recommend to take a little further deep dive in the requirement before considering about tools.

Note: Please note that BI tools are not ETL tools; some BI tools provides such capabilities but are very limited. If requirement is to have enterprise BI Reporting/Analytical solution then you need to look BI and ETL as 2 different components.

IBM cognos BI suite can definitely do this:
1. Dynamatic email: this is related to security module, which can be implemented at Framework Manager, transformer, even just at presentation layer - report studio;
2. Scheduling report: standard function in report studio, simple clicks;
3. ETL: depends on the requirement, pentaho kettle can cover general needs, IBM data stage is powerful, but also heavy;
4. Executive dashboard: MOLAP (ibm cognos transformer power cube) + Cognos BI are born for this with decent performance and slice/dice, drill capabilities in front of C level stakeholders;

I would take a look at IBM. They have a world class BI platform that allows for massive expansion into other tool sets. I find that data stage is a great too for ETL and the benefits of running a DW like DB2db is enterprise ready.

The best thing is to assess the firm. There are many good options - Microsoft BI Suite will give you return on investment. You will use SSIS for ETL, SSRS for dynamic reports, email rendition and scheduling. With small amount you can get a Power BI license that would provide dynamic dashboard as well.

SAP Business Object BI suite has good report delivery through email. Like Microsoft, email recipients need not to have account with the product, and you can still dynamically render reports.

QlikSense is another option but I am not a fan of Nprinting. You can get good ETL and dashboard but need to pay for Nprinting to render the reports via email

From my experience, Tableau is a good choice.

MicroStrategy is the best presentation layer.

First, as a disclosure, I work for Dundas Data Visualization.
Looking into your main requirements I would recommend including Dundas BI on your list of platforms to evaluate. Dundas BI offers built-in capabilities covering your main requirements. Here is some additional information on how Dundas BI can help you in regards to each one of your points:
“- Dynamic Emailing (Users will only receive their own data from a report)” - we call this report bursting where you can setup one job and have it delivered to many users via a personalized email with their own data: www.dundas.com/dundas-bi/features
“- Report Scheduler: Schedule times to send reports to users in email” – Dundas BI offers both a report scheduler to send reports on a pre-defined schedule but also alerting where reports can be sent to users based on certain data conditions: www.dundas.com/Support/learning/documentation/design-view/notifications-alerts
“- ETL Capabilities” – Dundas BI provides a reach visual interface where you can transform and prepare your data for analytics. This data prep can be done via pre-built transformations or by providing your own logic, SQL queries, Python or R scripts. The end result of your data models can be executed at real time against the data sources or stored into a memory engine or a warehouse database: www.dundas.com/dundas-bi/features
“- Dashboards for Management” – This one of the areas that Dundas is most known for: www.dundas.com/dundas-bi

Hi,

I can help you; however, can we have a phone call instead of exchanging info over email?

The priority needs to be on having a robust data platform that is both flexible and scalable. Decide on whether to go with an on-premise solution, cloud solution or a hybrid. Also, decide on whether to pay for software or go with open-source options. Put the foundations in place and the choice of BI tool will be easier once you have made these decisions.

We are using Qlikview and reviewing QlikSense now that you only need one license CAL for both

We really like Qlik
It is very scalable (can handle big data)
Qlik purchased Nprinting which is the automated emailing side
It also includes Publisher which automates the updates and bursting if you are posting reports to a web page environment
We do have management dashboards and so much more

We use it for all the integration between our cloud software/files, our ERP, our Spreadsheets stored anywhere and to create the missing field definitions that we would like in our files but aren’t in there. If this is true and this is filled in and this is material cost type, then … as the fieldnamewe’dlovetoknowabout
It uses SQL in the load scripts and in expressions in the charts with some specialty code Qlik uses to define things

You can visually display data with colors, pictures, as well as display URL links within charts for bringing up files and PDF drawings (in our case) associated with the data

You can keep it simple or go crazy and really transform the way your business runs.
We print Reports and bar code labels using the straight up reports inside Qlik (not in Nprinting)
And we make Excel and Entity reports in Nprinting. We use the Entity reports to create the CSV output for importing data to our Web/Cloud Software
All this is automated within Publisher and Nprinting.
You can email the reports or store them in networked output locations for general or specific use.

You can take desparate data and loop and join the data to determine what is selling best with what
It’s fantastic.

I have actually taken our ERP BOM table and looped to create multi-level BOM charts and Where Used’s, that you can search any level for particular parts or groups of parts.
It is amazing.

The only thing we haven’t tried yet are some of the write back packages available that you can add on to the software and edit/update records in your actual tables.
We feel that when Qlik feels the need to buy one of these companies out, they will perfect it within the software and then it will be something.

The software can be used with a client on your pc or by the web portal which will work on cell phones too. QlikSense can be used on anything.

So if I could recommend something that I know works… it is QlikView. QlikSense is more GUI .NET and still being developed
But since you have the ability to use both (just on separate servers) there really is no limitations.

So I give QlikView 5 Stars
Working with Qlik is a little different. Support to buy and talk about the software.. Communication with Qlik is ever evolving! The Left Hand / Right Hand problem.
I give them a 2 for Communication. I wish and want to give more…but they are just not sure what they are doing yet. They have a vision, they just need no non-sense execution.
Flat fees for Maintenance, simplified licensing and a Rep that last more than 2 months would be good.
The Solution Providers seem to all be pretty good. I have worked with 4 different ones and I liked them all.

The best part – the part Qlik has done to perfection – the Customer Portal for asking questions and figuring out how to do something.
There is nothing about Qlik you can’t figure out on your own with this Portal!
Nprinting documentation/questions are still quite weak – but I’m sure it will get better.

Since a private investor bought Qlik, the software pricing keeps going up. That needs to stabilize. They need to focus on the mid-market and below customers.
There are so many of us. We can’t afford gold plated software but we will use it and be loyal if it’s good. You will have to go to a Solutions Provider to buy the software.

So there is frustration with the company – but not the product. The product is fantastic.

Hi,
I 'd like to know which data infraestructure do you actually have/use, are you planning to move your DWH/DL/DM to another platform?.
Recommending Tools may be easy if you consider each product capabilities, for instance: I can tell you Alteryx + Tableau will provide what you need, but I can't tell if you are going to throw away lots of money spent, not only in licenses, but in the work, business rules developed and deployed, on previous platform, and in training/enablement of your staff.

Combination of SAP Data Services and SAP Business Objects and possibly a data visualization tool (SAP Lumira, Tableau, PowerBI) would meet your needs.

If you are looking to embed this solution within an application then Exago BI might be a good choice meeting most if not all of your requirements for one all you can eat price point which may be useful depending upon your definition of scaling (users, clients, etc.) www.exagoinc.com

If you are looking at a large scale of users within your company, then Qlikview, Tableau, Qliksense, Board would not be a right fit for you, as the scale up of the tool is quite challenging when you environment grows down the line, these tools are bit departmental and accommodate small group of users which will not affect the performance of the tool as well as functionality.

Traditional BI reporting tools are the best fit for you, but at the same time initial capital investment of these tools will be higher but can support your requirements depending on your current reporting needs it can also be customizable,

Microsoft & IBM Cognos are some of the best fit tools which i have seen over the last 15 years that not only offers BI solutions but it also provides heterogeneous tools like ETL, DB, OLAP, OLTP etc.,

SAP & Oracle are still suitable for this requirement, but the operational expenses for running these tools are bit higher and only enterprise customers can afford as they are not suitable for SMB & lower mid market companies...

There are several Channel partners for the above tools who can get your more discounts and sales play margins which can give you ease to breathe on your Capital investments. Always keep a reseller quote with you who can reduce the margins of these direct sellers..

Try Tableau

Have you considered Entrinsik Informer to easily blend data from different sources, cleanse it, create curated datasets, design dynamic dashboards, schedule reports and much more? entrinsik.com/informer/.

You can look at Sap Analytics Cloud solution. They will be able to generate dashboards as well as have access to the predictive analytic capabilities. They will be able to build Hana analytic views to access data directly from Hana. They can also export the data from Hana and consume it other applications.

I recommend Qlik Sense (Dashboards and ETL) and Qlik NPrinting (reporting and distribution)

If you search for an integrated, modern and easy to use platfrom with full enterprise capability please take a look to BOARD www.board.com

Yes – we have chosen DUNDAS BI. It fulfills all of these requirements.
Thanks, Peter

Hi,

Why don't you use Microsoft BI Stack, either on-prem or on the cloud. Can
handle all your requirements and integrates well with MS-Power BI. Easy to
find development pool and being Microsoft integrates well to SharePoint or
any other Microsoft tools you may be using.

I can help you with this as a consultant or as a solutions provider.

Best Regards,

Mukesh

Would echo a lot of the thoughts already put down already. However I would recommend you split your data management requirements from your reporting requirements, gives you a much greater scope of choice

My preference is a Microsoft SQL server based platform and then the most appropriate reporting layer above ... Reporting Services would handle a lot of the requirements you've mentioned

Take a look at Qlik Sense + NPrinting.

Moving out of the open source BI toolset to a product like Cognos or Business Objects can provide a richer feature set. However, it can be costly.

To move to a different BI toolset, look at the skillset and resources that support your business system ERP or CRM. The BI toolset should leverage similar skillset and resources.

Treat the BI system as an Add-on to the core business system. Then, the path to take becomes more obvious.

Tools are plentiful. Reference the Magic Quadrant usually represents a solid due diligence.

Thank you, Dave

It’s not a quick answer since there are probably a few questions I’d need to ask. Happy to go on a call with you if you’d like?

Data analytics and reporting projects is based on business needs. All ETL, BI or predictive analytics products have advantages and disadvantages. It's difficult to recommend a solution without understanding the business requirement. What's the business is looking to achieve. What kind of reports the business wants to run. Where is the data located (central, distributed, department server, etc). Conduct a short business assessment (2-3 weeks). Identify the gaps. Then match the available gaps with the tools.

Hi,
I think the answer depends on the budget. We have a lot of experience with
SAP BI that I think matches the needs of reporting schedule and dynamic emaling of this user but it could be an expensive solution. On the other hand, we don't usually have the SAP BI Data Services ETL tool, but it's much more popular Informatica PowerCenter

There is really only one possible answer that gives you all you want in terms of tech spec and functionality plus scaleable agile futureproofing. That is BOARD MIT. Why? In one toolkit you have all the planning, analytics and reporting you could possibly need. One unified environment. EPM integrated with BI. Get in touch.

It depends on what “scalable” means, and what reports they are trying to create.

Generally speaking, “scalable” means the back-end system that supports BI tool. The most scalable back-end system in the market, in my opinion, is Snowflake. We are replacing SQL Server with Snowflake as a back-end system for BI purpose, due to the quantity of data we have to support.

Hope this is helpful

I think you should look at OpenText Analytics – reasonable entry price and loads of capabilities for customized dashboards with complex analysis - without the need for a data scientist. Extremely scalable and offer report scheduler with dynamic emailing, ETL capabilities and most importantly the UI is for all levels of management.

Cheers

The key for me is understanding more about your "ETL Capabilities" requirements. Many BI tools have some degree of data cleansing/mashup capabilities but they are limited. Assuming you have "lite" ETL needs, I'd recommend MicroStrategy or the mix of Microsoft PowerBI + SSIS. The former covers any data sources and the latter would mean you'd be heading into more of a Microsoft eco-system to achieve maximum value from that integrated platform.

If you are willing to move away from Open Source then I would recommend Sisense as it meets your stated requirements and more:

You mentioned a more scalable solution. Sisense can handle a large number of rows of data, into the low billions for your largest fact table. It can also handle hundreds of concurrent users with low latency.

BIRT has strong embedding capabilities, Sisense is exceptionally strong in this area, you can embed in other applications using iframes or javascript. Sisense has hundreds of customers using them in this way including NASDAQ and Philips.

As a disclosure, I work for Sisense.

See www.sisense.com/

With Microsoft, you have the best tool.

Sure, we should be able to help you here.

Can you please suggest when can we have a quick discussion on this?
I would like to understand this requirement in little more details.

Please suggest your suitable time when can we have a quick call.

I’d recommend a tool that specializes in ETL vs an all in one (avoid vendor lock in, typically more reliable/flexible). Fivetran or Stitch are solid options. In terms of analytics, Looker can provide what you’re looking for. There are many others - just depends on how much manual work you want to do for setup/maintenance, and budget.

I'm assuming that by BIRT you mean this - www.eclipse.org/birt/

now for your requirements, BIRT/pentaho PDI should provide a solution for all of them. What's missing?

Hello,
Have they considered Information Builders? The 4 requirements you have listed below could be fulfilled.

Regards
Peter

I can recommend Yellowfin that meets your requirements of dynamic emailing, report scheduler, dashboards and even ETL capabilities.

www.yellowfinbi.com/

I’ve been using Microsoft SQL Server tools since 1993 so SQL Server Reporting Services for the reporting and SQL Server Integration Services for ETL.

Microsoft Power BI or Microsoft Excel for management dashboards is good in my view.

I’ve no recommendations for other products and it’s not obvious if a SQL Server-oriented solution is viable for your colleague but it should be scalable to meet processing performance goals for the listed requirements.

Thanks and Regards,

Oracle OBIEE would be my reccomendation

Hi,
Your company can use Cognos BI, QlikView