by I would tell you about the 6 top Business Intelligence Applications you should know. Business Intelligence is simply an industry term and it refers the the processes involved in transforming data (normally from different sources, both structured and unstructured) into useful information.This information can then be visualized and used for making business decisions.
I have decided to explain some details in separate articles.
1. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite
This is a suite of a number of tools that SAP says will “support your growth with a centralized platform for visualization and reporting”.
This is a tool-suite developed and maintained by SAP as an Enterprise BI suite. Features of SAP BO BI Suite includes
- Reporting and Analysis
- Analytics Application
- Data Visualization
- Integration with Office Applications
- Integration with SAP Ecosystem
Other features of SAP BO BI Suite according to SAP includes on-premise deployment, real-time business intelligence, improved user autonomy and simplified/personalized information consumption.
Pros: Very robust and feature-rich
Cons: As with other SAP products, it is highly proprietary. Beside, in terms of cost is mainly for enterprises of considerable size
2. Power BI
Just like the Microsoft BI, Power BI is also provided by Microsoft as a business analytics tool. It provides easy to use and interactive visualization. This makes it one of the most easy-to-learn BI tool. Can be used to create custom reports and dashboards.
I would recommed Power BI for beginner data analysts.
Some components of PowerBI includes:
- Power BI Desktop – a -desktop application for Windows PCs
- Power BI Service – a cloud Software as a Service tool
- Power BI Mobile Apps – for mobile devices: Aandroi, Windows and iOS
- Power BI Gateway – used to integrate external data channels and fetch data. Allows for exporting of data as well
3. Tableau
The Tableau BI tool is developed and Tableau Software Inc. which is a subsidiary of Salesforce.
Tableau allows you to query a variaty of data stores including cloud databases, relational database, online analytical processing cubes and spreadsheets. It allows generation of graph-type data visualization. It can also be used for extraction, storage and retrieval from in-memory data storage engines.
- Tableau products included the following:
- Tableau Server
- Tables Desktop
- Tableau Prep Builder
- Tableau Vizable
4. Microsoft Business Intelligence
This is also a tool-suite provided by Microsoft. It consists of three components:
- Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services(SSRS)
- Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services(SSIS)
- Microsoft SQL Server Analytics Services(SSAS)
This tools supports ETL (Extract, Transform and Load). This means that data is taken from a variety of sources, then analysis is performed on the data, and then finally stored in the target database.
From the database, reports can then be generated from the data.
Pros: Very feature rich. Integration with Microsoft products. Easy to learn for developers.
Cons: Steep learning curve. May be a bit complicated for new analysts.
5. Informatica
This is the name of the software company that provides a set of Business Intelligence Tools.
Some of its products and services includes:
- Enterprise Data Management
- Data Integration
- Information Life Cycle Management
Other products includes cloud computing integration, b2b data exchanges, data replication, data visualization and master data management.
From a white paper I just read, Informatica works integrates with Tableau to provide a more tailored data analytics and insight.
6. IBM Cognos BI
IBM Cognos BI is a web-based integrated business intelligence tool-suite developed by IBM. Toolset includes analytics, reporting, scorecarding and event-monitoring.
Components of IBM Cognos BI includes the following:
- Query Studio – used for creating simple and customizable queries and reports.
- Report Studio – specifically for creating management reports.
- Cognos Connection – serves as a web portal for IBM Cognos BI
- Analysis Studio – allows users to analyze large and multidimensional data sources
- Event Studio – used for creating notification about events within an enterprise
Conclusion
I would be writing separate articles on each of this applications. For now, I would like to thank you for reading.
I am very happy when reading this blog post because the blog post was written in good manner and write on a good topic. Thanks for sharing valuable information.
Thanks for sharing such an informational blog which will, surely be a big help to the small medium enterprise so that they can choose the best suited tool for their business.
One such enterprise is toolowl. The company is powered by intelligence of few experienced, inexperienced, trained, untrained, laymen, domain experts, and business/technology acquainted people or experts. They all work as a team to identify key performance indicators for a particular tool from Individual’s as well as Business’ point of view. This brainstorming is then translated into a distilled methodology for review framework. Teams do hands-on, research on the tool/domain and record their inferences in the form of reviews that help you make your choice!
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Thank you Kindson