What are BI tools?

Microsoft Power BI

IN Blue Dynamic we have a weakness for tools from the microsoft family and BI tools are no exception. Microsoft Power BI is behind us the most comprehensive toolkit for enterprise BI solutions. It is an integrated tool for interactive visualization and data analysis that offers very wide possibilities for data collection, creation of dashboards and reports, and thanks to its cloud-based Power BI Service, gives you the ability to share information throughout the organization.

BI tools such as Microsoft Power BI allows (among other things):

Easily analyze data from multiple sources
Advanced Interactive Visualization
Share data and output across the company
Connecting with tools Office and MS Teams
Gaining control of company processes
Data security and management of access permissions to corporate data

If you have been working with tools from the workshop for years Microsoft, typically Microsoft Word or Excel, environment Microsoft Power BI will be pleasantly friendly for you. It is built in the same way as other MS products. And it's not just about feeling. A big plus is the easy integration with MS Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc. Importing data from Excel and then exporting visualizations to PowerPoint is easy peasy.

Tableau

Tableau lets you create interactive and attractive visualizationsthat are very user friendly. When creating visualizations, Tableau is a very dynamic tool. It is also handy when sharing data — you can collaborate with colleagues to analyze data, leave comments, etc.

Both Tableau and MS Power BI help you present data in different ways, on both platforms you can with visualizations work and create interactive dashboards. Both tools draw data from a variety of channels and sources — typically MS Excel, CSV, Salesforce, etc. At first glance, the two platforms are similar — they give you the opportunity to have all the relevant data nicely at hand.

Microsoft Power BI was developed by Microsoft. If you use Office, it will be easier for you to integrate into your work environment.

SAS Viya

In addition to the two mentioned giants that roll the popularity rankings of BI tools, we have selected other representatives. One of them is Rugged SAS Viya. Although its interface is not exactly the most elegant, it is a tool worth mentioning. We'll tell you why right away.

The application is equipped a very rich library of visualizations divided into several categories. Although it is a tool developed back in the 1970s, it is quite flexible. When creating reports, you will appreciate the ability to use “drag-and-drop” without the need for additional configuration. You can customize axis labels, chart colors, backgrounds, transparency of visualizations, etc. When working with SAS Viya, one feels more like working in a graphic editor (which, therefore, already remembers something).

Despite the “tons” of automation options that will make it easier for you to create reports and personalize your instrument panels, we have to mention a few flies. A rather outdated interface we would expect from a tool with such a history. We are harder to forgive relatively slow loading and that the tool has so many features that it is rather hard to befriend him.

IBM Cognos Analytics

IBM Cognos Analytics is another very good tool for automatic generation of data visualizations. In our review, we selected him for Advanced AI functionality. No matter what you're working on at IBM Cognos Analytics, it's there for you intelligent assistantwho is responsive, helps with almost anything and speaks to you very naturally.

This assistant will even help you with the creation of graphs. Just describe to him what data you are going to present within the chart and you will get a menu of options. And the “artificial intelligence” of this assistant goes a little further. If you are interested, it will also offer predictive analysis that takes into account a variety of algorithms, including seasonality.