Top 5 BI Tools: Business Intelligence Software Guide
ScienceSoft BI consultants help businesses choose optimal platforms for business intelligence solutions since 2005.
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What Is BI Solutions?
Business intelligence (BI) solutions serve to retrieve, process, analyze and report data for making informed business decisions. BI solution key features are integration of multiple data sources, AI-driven data prep and analysis, controlled data access, scheduled & ad-hoc reporting, interactive visualization.
Features to Look For in a Robust BI Platform
General features
- Cloud and on-premises deployment.
- Personal and team workspaces.
- Collaborating on and sharing analytics results.
Data ingestion
- Structured and unstructured data.
- Big data.
- Operational data.
- Streaming data.
- Self-service data ingestion.
Data management
- Self-service data preparation.
- Pre-built ETL.
- Support of complex data models.
Reporting and visualization
- Interactive dashboards.
- Pre-built and customizable visuals.
- Scheduled and ad-hoc reporting.
- Embedded reporting.
- Mobile-optimized reporting.
- Geospatial data mapping.
- Data storytelling.
Analytics
- Online Analytical Processing (OLAP).
- Data mining.
- Predictive analytics.
- Automated insights based on ML and AI.
- Real-time data analysis.
Security
- Report-level security.
- Workspace-level security.
- Row-level security.
- Flexible authentication options.
- Application activity auditing.
Top 5 BI Tools on the Market
Power BI
ScienceSoft recommends
Description
Number one on the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI platforms and the leader among enterprise BI platforms in the Forrester Wave.
features
Pre-built connectors with 100+ data sources, support for DAX, Power Query, SQL, R and Python, big data, self-service data preparation and analysis, rich visuals and advanced security capabilities, AI-powered data modeling using AutoML, Cognitive Services, and Azure Machine Learning (for Power BI Premium).
DEMO: Watch our Power BI demo.
Pricing
- Power BI Desktop – free.
- Power BI Pro – $9.99/user/month.
- Power BI Premium –$4,995/dedicated cloud storage and compute resources/month with annual subscription.
Tableau
Description
Tableau is recognized as a Leader in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms.
Features
Native connectors to 75+ data sources, support for ‘no-code’ data queries, predictive analytics, a wide range of visualizations, interactive reports and dashboards, collaboration and sharing insights, robust security.
Pricing
- Tableau Creator – $70/user/month.
- Tableau Explorer – $35/$42*/user/month.
- Tableau Viewer – $12/$15*/user/month.
* - depending on the product deployment model.
SQL Server Reporting Services
Description
An on-premises set of tools and services for creating, deploying and managing mobile and paginated reports.
Features
Regular and on-demand reports based on data retrieved from relational, multidimensional and XML-based data sources, automated alerts on vital business events, content access from a web browser, mobile devices, or email, content access control.
Pricing
Included in SQL Server license:
- Enterprise edition - $13,748.
- Standard – Client Access License - $209.
- Standard – per core - $3,586.
- Standard – server - $899.
Qlik
Description
One of the leading BI platforms with strong ML and AI capabilities according to Gartner and Forrester.
FEATURES
Broad data connectivity (including big data streams, file-based data, on-premises or cloud data), advanced data preparation, associative analytics engine, suggested insights, natural language interaction, self-service visual data discovery capabilities, mobile and embedded analytics, deployment flexibility (on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud).
Pricing
- Qlik Sense Business – $30/user/month.
- Qlick Sense Enterprise SaaS from $40/user/month to $100/user group/month.
- Qlik Sense Enterprise Client-Managed from $35/user/month to $95/user group/month.
- QlikView Pricing is by request.
MicroStrategy
Description
Highest scores for Enterprise Analytics and Embedded Analytics according to Gartner's 2020 Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms report.
Features
HyperIntelligence (embedded BI), heterogeneous data access, a library of interactive visuals, self-service data preparation, predictive analytics and R modeling, real-time reports and dashboards, mobile analytics and reporting.
Pricing
Not available publicly.
Bring Business Analytics to Your Company with ScienceSoft
As a vendor with 18 years of experience in BI consulting and hands-on practice, we know how to ensure maximum ROI from your BI investments.
BI consulting
We help firms to:
- Define business objectives and elicit the requirements for a BI solution.
- Draw up a BI solution’s architecture.
- Outline the optimal technology stack.
- Establish data quality program and security procedures.
- Design implementation and user adoption strategies.
BI implementation
Our team:
- Defines BI software configurations.
- Delivers PoC for complex projects.
- Integrates BI software systems with the required data sources, sets up ETL processes, OLAP cubes, etc.
- Runs QA.
- Provides user training and support, if required.
About ScienceSoft
Since 1989, ScienceSoft has been providing a full range of data analytics services. We advise our customers on the BI platform implementation and offer a full cycle of relevant services, including BI as a service, BI consulting and support. If you need assistance with BI-related issues, explore our BI services offering. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified, we rely on a mature quality management system and guarantee cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers’ data security.