Compare BI Software: Top Business Intelligence Tools in 2017

Khoa Quach
NIFTIT SharePoint Blog
4 min readJun 19, 2017

Companies use BI software to gain insights from their data — transforming data into reportable data sets and visualizations. But which is the best BI software out there? What makes it the best one? And is the best BI software also the right one for your business? Comparing BI software is no easy task especially since there are so many business intelligence tools on the market. We’ve listed some of the best business intelligence tools that you might want to check out.

Domo: Best for Connecting Data

domo Business Intelligence (BI) combines a powerful backend that sits on top of and connects into any existing system where data lives, including those for customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, human resources and financials, as well as any data repository or current reporting system.

User Experience

Easy to connect multiple data sources through APIs. For reporting, Domo offers powerful visualizations and drill paths. It also has the flexibility of filters to allow different users to see the data that interests them.

However users mentioned that the web interface is quite slow, as well as the forecast value option. Many requested Domo to develop a web app to fix the problem. It also lacks advanced analytical capabilities for power users.

Business Value

Domo’s personalized data permissions enables them to pull together a sleek reports for their customers and give them instant access on the fly. Domo also enables users to explore new insights in real time, providing decision makers with the ability to understand the data that’s important to them. Overall, it’s a robust easy-to-use platform on which you can consolidate data sets to get the most out of your reporting.

Tableau Server: Best for Non-Technical Users

tableau server is a business intelligence application that provides browser-based analytics anyone can learn and use.

User Experience

Users love their experience on Tableau mobile apps, both apple and android. They also commend the range of reporting options that exists on the platform. Tableau offers clean and interactive data visualizations that can be embedded to website. Its advanced analytics has way more usability and functionality than excel to manage large quantity of data. And finally, Tableau is easy to set up and get familiar with for users of any level.

Its ability to manage large quantity of data comes with a downside. Tableau is often slow when running a report. Its interface, though is easy to use, is quite clunky.

Business Value

Many users highly recommend tableau because it is easy to use for first time users to connect data and create reports that are scalable for users from different technical backgrounds. It allows users to be more agile in sharing data, analysis, and reporting across organizations. However, its performance on large data sets can be slow.

Microstrategy: Best for Advanced Analytics

microstrategy provides a high performance, scalable Business Intelligence platform delivering insight with interactive dashboards and superior analytics.

User Experience

Users commend Microstrategy’s ability to read majority data sources, from simplest flat files to the most complex databases and online data sets. It’s also great for technical users as they can add their own java code to enhance end user experience. Additionally its mobile app provide excellent key usage and functionality.

While it’s great for technical users, Microstrategy is not user friendly for end users. Non-technical users will need a lot of training to configure advanced dashboard and filters.

Business Value

Microstrategy offers powerful forecast and predictive analytics. It provides an extensive library of native analytical functions and scoring algorithms, along with an SDK to integrate with 3rd-party and open source statistical and data mining products. Overall, it’s a great tool for advanced users, while non-technical users will need training to fully understand the tool.

[read more: power bi and tableau — a comparison]

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Khoa Quach
NIFTIT SharePoint Blog

CEO+Co-founder NIFTIT, Upteamist / MCP in SharePoint, Office 365/ Guest speaker/ top 5 Quora technical blogger. http://niftit.com/ and https://www.upteamist.com