Overview of BI Tools for Data Analytics
Click on one of the names to learn more about the BI tools you want to know more about. Or consult the Business Intelligence & Analytics Guide™ 2023 for an objective comparison of all these parties to quickly decide on the best BI tool for your organization. The list is in order of popularity. Passionned Group is 100% independent, and therefore in no way affiliated with the vendors of the tools.
1. Microsoft BI & Analytics
The Business Analytics tools from the BI & Analytics vendor Microsoft focuses on the support of the following functionality:
- SQL
- business intelligence
- machine learning
- analytics
- reporting
- artificial intelligence
- BI
Microsoft serves the market with the following products, among others: Power BI, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft SQL Server (see the images below). We took a closer look at them. For more detailed information, consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 1: Power BI
Figuur 2: Microsoft Azure
Figuur 3: Microsoft SQL Server2. SAS BI & Analytics
SAS is widely known for its products SAS Viya, SAS Visual Analytics and Dataflux. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from SAS are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- forecasting
- data management
- visual analytics
- reporting
- business intelligence
- analysis
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 4: SAS Viya
Figuur 5: SAS Visual Analytics
Figuur 6: Dataflux3. SAP BI & Analytics
The Business Intelligence software solutions from the BI & Analytics vendor SAP focuses on the support of the following functionality:
- analytics
- business intelligence
- reporting
- analysis
- dashboards
- machine learning
- predictive analytics
SAP serves the market with the following products, among others: SAP HANA, SAP BusinessObjects and SAP Analytics (see the images below). We took a closer look at them. For more detailed information, consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 7: SAP HANA
Figuur 8: SAP BusinessObjects
Figuur 9: SAP Analytics4. Qlik BI & Analytics
Qlik is widely known for its products Qlik Sense, QlikView and Qlik Sense Enterprise. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from Qlik are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- geoanalytics
- data integration
- Windows
- reporting
- analytics platform
- data warehousing
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 10: Qlik Sense
Figuur 11: QlikView
Figuur 12: Qlik Sense Enterprise5. TIBCO BI & Analytics
TIBCO is widely known for its products TIBCO Spotfire, TIBCO Data Science and TIBCO Data Virtualization. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from TIBCO are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- streaming
- Application Programming Interface
- MDM
- real-time
- data science
- data virtualization
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 13: TIBCO Data Science Figuur 14: TIBCO Data Virtualization
Figuur 15: TIBCO Analytics6. IBM BI & Analytics
IBM is widely known for its products Cognos Analytics, IBM SPSS and IBM Watson. Take a look at the images below. The Business Intelligence tools from IBM are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- analysis
- real-time
- reporting
- business intelligence
- Microsoft Excel
- natural language processing
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 16: Cognos Analytics
Figuur 17: IBM SPSS
Figuur 18: IBM Infosphere7. Oracle BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Oracle are Oracle Database, Oracle Analytics and OBIEE. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The BI software tools from Oracle can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- analytics
- big data
- business intelligence
- SQL
- data quality
- R
- reporting
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 19: OBIEE
Figuur 20: Oracle Data Integrator
Figuur 21: Oracle Essbase8. Tableau BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Tableau are Tableau Server, Tableau Desktop and Tableau Online. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The Business Intelligence software solutions from Tableau can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- analytics
- Application Programming Interface
- data management
- business intelligence
- analysis
- dashboards
- API
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 22: Tableau Server
Figuur 23: Tableau Desktop
Figuur 24: Tableau Online9. Pyramid Analytics BI & Analytics
Pyramid Analytics is widely known for its products Pyramid Analytics, Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform and Pyramid Data Science Workbench. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The Business Intelligence tools from Pyramid Analytics are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- decision intelligence
- business analytics
- data science
- business intelligence
- analysis
- AI
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 25: Pyramid Analytics
Figuur 26: Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform
Figuur 27: Pyramid Data Science Workbench10. Alteryx BI & Analytics
Alteryx is widely known for its products Alteryx Designer, Alteryx Server and Alteryx Analytics. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from Alteryx are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- AI
- generative AI
- machine learning
- data science
- analysis
- Application Programming Interface
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 28: Alteryx Designer
Figuur 29: Alteryx Server
Figuur 30: Alteryx Analytics11. MicroStrategy BI & Analytics
MicroStrategy is widely known for its products MicroStrategy Web, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server and MicroStrategy Analytics. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from MicroStrategy are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- reporting
- business intelligence
- Hadoop Distributed File System
- Hadoop Gateway
- report
- Application Programming Interface
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 31: MicroStrategy Web
Figuur 32: MicroStrategy Analytics
Figuur 33: Hyperintelligence12. Sisense BI & Analytics
Sisense is widely known for its products Elasticube, Elasticube Manager and Sisense Analytics. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The Business Intelligence tools from Sisense are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- dashboards
- BI
- Application Programming Interface
- dashboard
- business intelligence
- REST APIs
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 34: Sisense Analytics
Figuur 35: Sisense ElastiCube
Figuur 36: Sisense Blox13. Zoho BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Zoho are Zoho Analytics, Zia and Zoho Databridge. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The BI software tools from Zoho can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- analytics
- CRM
- business intelligence
- reporting
- SQL
- artificial intelligence
- dashboards
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 37: Zoho Analytics
Figuur 38: Zia
Figuur 39: Zoho Databridge14. Domo BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Domo are Domo Platform, Domo Business Cloud and Domo Data Science. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The Business Intelligence software solutions from Domo can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- business intelligence
- data science
- analytics
- dashboards
- real-time
- machine learning
- BI
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 40: Domo Platform
Figuur 41: Domo Data Science
Figuur 42: Domo Data Visualization15. InetSoft BI & Analytics
InetSoft is widely known for its products InetSoft Style Intelligence, InetSoft Business Intelligence and InetSoft Data Intelligence. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from InetSoft are strong in the following areas, among others:
- business intelligence
- reporting
- dashboards
- analytics
- BI
- dashboard
- report
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 43: InetSoft Style Intelligence
Figuur 44: InetSoft Data Intelligence
Figuur 45: InetSoft Data Cleansing16. Yellowfin BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Yellowfin are Yellowfin Signals, Yellowfin Suite and Yellowfin Dashboards. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The Business Intelligence software solutions from Yellowfin can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- dashboards
- reporting
- business intelligence
- analytics
- BI
- analysis
- data preparation
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 46: Yellowfin Signals
Figuur 47: Yellowfin Suite
Figuur 48: Yellowfin Dashboards17. Looker BI & Analytics
Looker is widely known for its products LookML, Looker Studio and Looker API. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The Business Intelligence tools from Looker are strong in the following areas, among others:
- dashboards
- analytics
- Application Programming Interface
- business intelligence
- API
- dashboard
- reporting
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 49: Looker API
Figuur 50: Looker Blocks
Figuur 51: Looker Data Analytics18. ThoughtSpot BI & Analytics
ThoughtSpot is widely known for its products SpotIQ, ThoughtSpot Embrace and ThoughtSpot DataFlow. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from ThoughtSpot are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- analysis
- artificial intelligence
- data warehousing
- Teradata
- AI
- algorithms
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 52: ThoughtSpot DataFlow
Figuur 53: ThoughtSpot mobile
Figuur 54: ThoughtSpot Business Intelligence19. Infor BI & Analytics
Infor is widely known for its products Infor Birst, Infor Coleman and Infor BI. Take a look at the images below. The Business Intelligence tools from Infor are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- reporting
- business intelligence
- dashboards
- BI
- artificial intelligence
- data lakes
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 55: Infor Birst
Figuur 56: Infor Coleman
Figuur 57: Infor BI20. DataRobot BI & Analytics
DataRobot is widely known for its products DataRobot Artificial Intelligence, DataRobot Core and DataRobot platform. The company is 100% specialized in BI & Analytics. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from DataRobot are strong in the following areas, among others:
- artificial intelligence
- machine learning
- AI
- data scientists
- data science
- cloud platform
- automated machine learning
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 58: DataRobot Artificial Intelligence
Figuur 59: DataRobot platform
Figuur 60: DataRobot AutoML21. GoodData BI & Analytics
As far as we have been able to ascertain, GoodData currently has only one primary product: GoodData Platform. Take a look at the screen shots below. The BI tools from GoodData are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- dashboards
- business intelligence
- data visualization
- bar charts
- PostgreSQL
- insurance
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 61: GoodData Platform
Figuur 62: GoodData Platform
Figuur 63: GoodData Platform22. Hitachi BI & Analytics
Hitachi is widely known for its products Pentaho Data Integration, Pentaho Business Analytics and Hitachi Content Platform. Take a look at the images below. The BI tools from Hitachi are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- data integration
- reporting
- business intelligence
- big data
- dashboards
- video analytics
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 64: Pentaho Data Integration
Figuur 65: Pentaho Big Data
Figuur 66: Lumada Edge Intelligence23. Dundas BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Dundas are Dundas BI, Dundas Data Visualization and Dundas Dashboard. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The BI software tools from Dundas can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- business intelligence
- data visualization
- dashboards
- BI
- analytics
- reporting
- dashboard
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 67: Dundas BI
Figuur 68: Dundas Data Visualization
Figuur 69: Dundas Dashboard24. insightssoftware BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company insightssoftware are Logi Info, Logi Composer and Logi Report Server. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The BI software tools from insightssoftware can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- analytics
- report
- reporting
- dashboards
- predictive analytics
- analytics platform
- embedded analytics
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 70: Logi Report Designer
Figuur 71: Logi Report Designer
Figuur 72: Logi Report Designer25. datapine BI & Analytics
As far as we have been able to ascertain, datapine currently has only one primary product: datapine BI. Take a look at the screen shots below. The Business Analytics tools from datapine are strong in the following areas, among others:
- analytics
- business intelligence
- reporting
- dashboards
- KPI
- BI
- analysis
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 73: datapine BI
Figuur 74: datapine BI
Figuur 75: datapine BI26. Incorta BI & Analytics
The most well-known products in the area of BI & Analytics of the company Incorta are Incorta Analytics,Incorta analyzer. We analyzed and evaluated these BI & Analytics products in depth and meticulously. The Business Intelligence software solutions from Incorta can be characterized by good support on the following topics:
- analytics
- analytics platform
- reporting
- dashboards
- data analytics
- business intelligence
- real-time
You can delve deeper into our independent research: consult the 100% vendor neutral BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 76: Incorta analyzer
Figuur 77: Incorta analyzer
Figuur 78: Incorta analyzer27. Wyn Enterprise BI & Analytics
As far as we have been able to ascertain, Wyn Enterprise currently has only one primary product: Wyn Enterprise. Take a look at the screen shots below. The Business Intelligence software solutions from Wyn Enterprise are strong in the following areas, among others:
- business intelligence
- reporting
- dashboards
- BI
- embedded business intelligence
- analytics
- area chart
Delve into our independent research here and consult our BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023.
Figuur 79: Wyn Enterprise Business Intelligence
Figuur 80: Wyn Enterprise Business Intelligence
Figuur 81: Wyn Enterprise Business IntelligenceWhat can you expect from Business Intelligence tools?
Business intelligence tools provide organizations with reliable management information and refined insights to improve decision-making and collaboration. These tools provide the means for efficient reporting, in-depth analysis of (large amounts of) data, statistics, analysis and dashboards of the relevant KPIs.
The 7 benefits of Business Intelligence tools:
- Provide clear insight into all your business data, external data and big data analytics
- Ensure pure visualization and availability of management information
- Provide insight into how processes run or go wrong
- Empower users to improve their business processes
- When used, improve the overall performance of the organization
- Offer perfect support for performance management/decision making
- Easy monitoring and clear reporting thanks to intelligent dashboards
Wide range of tools for Business Analytics
In the Netherlands alone, there are more than 20 different BI tools available. They were once developed by mega brands such as Microsoft, Cognos or SAP Business Objects. In addition, there are numerous smaller software developers worldwide who have also built very good business intelligence tools that are suitable for specific industries or different types of BI applications. Not for nothing is the adage: “different tools for different purposes”. Think of parties like Qlik or Tableau Software. Despite the wide choice, finding and selecting the right Business Intelligence tool is often a laborious task. It is quite a job.
BI & Analytics Guide™ 2023. If you need help choosing the right BI or data science tool for you, the BI & Analytics Guide can help you to quickly arrive at a shortlist and make a final selection.Excel is known as “the most abused BI tool.”
Selecting the wrong tool can have considerable impact on your organization. Companies that are not successful often have a problem with their information infrastructure. The BI tools they are using are not efficiently extracting the desired management information. Excel is the most obvious example and is not known as the most abused BI tool for nothing.
How do you make a good choice that fits your organization?
- Define the most important BI tool selection criteria: IT needs and user requirements.
- With this list you contact the vendors for the answers (RFI)
- Analyze all data from the different Business Intelligence vendors
- Start a proof of concept and choose the solution that best fits your requirements
You can skip steps 1 through 3 completely when you purchase our independent BI research. We take care of all the difficult and time consuming preliminary work. You save a lot of valuable time.
Let us help you with your BI tool choice
We know from experience that selecting the right software is a labor-intensive process. We have been helping organizations through this process for more than 15 years, including our powerful assessment tool: the Business Intelligence & Analytics Guide and independent BI consulting.
What do our customers say?
The Passionned Group’s Business Intelligence & Analytics survey was immediately useful in selecting the right BI tool for our company.
Richard Silverstein
Sweet & Maxwell Group
The 250+ functionalities of Business Intelligence software
Business Intelligence tools come in many different shapes and flavors. Some have excellent reporting functionality and others are great for dashboarding. Others run only on the Windows platform. In our research we compare all these tools on 250+ criteria that are important for achieving the best results with business analytics. So then you don’t need to do this research.
BI tools linked to the decision making process
The Business Intelligence architecture will not be able to produce good results if we cannot link tools to it. This blog provides an overview of the most important Business Intelligence tools (BI Tools) in relation to the decision-making cycle. It also describes the purposes, the features and the workings of these tools.
The decision making process
Each Business Intelligence tool plays a supporting role in one or more phases of the decision-making cycle. The decision-making cycle comprises of the following phases, which can be supported by the following tools (see figure below):
Figure 1: Phases in the decision-making process
1. Collecting information using dashboards and reports
The decision-making cycle starts with gathering the right information: ‘scanning’ the environment (or the internal organization) in order to see if a problem exists. Mainly dashboards and reports are used for this purpose. This first phase should be seen as a ‘wake-up’ moment during which any current or potential deviation from the desired situation is a decision problem. In order to qualify or trace something as a problem, the first phase should – in principle – include (or be preceded by) a process in which we identify our organizational objectives.
2. Designing and analyzing using interactive analysis and data mining
Once a problem is discovered, we know where the issue resides but we do not yet know its exact location or its whys and wherefores. For example: the customer satisfaction indicator on the dashboard flashes. Subsequently, we will want to find out what causes this. We may, for example, use interactive analysis ‘on-the-fly’ to split out customer satisfaction per region, per account manager and, if necessary, per product group.
OLAP
We might also use interactive analysis (OLAP) in order to easily compare the number of complaints with the customer satisfaction in the same region and period. By doing this, we gain insight into the reasons why customers are less satisfied – a recently launched product exhibiting start-up problems, to name a random example. We use data mining – discovering ‘hidden’ relationships – to gain insight into characteristics that are a determining factor for more complex issues such as fraud. In such cases, interactive analysis is not sufficient because we generally lack the required detail data. In addition, the complexity associated with discovering such (causal) relationships is simply a bridge too far for interactive analysis.
Very crucial for strategic decision making
“This phase in the decision-making process seems to be crucial for strategic decision-making, because it is during this phase that we determine our entire course in terms of decision-making.” (Mintzberg, 2004). It is thus important to apply these tools well and to adjust the organization accordingly. This also means that an effective working relationship should arise between managers and analysts so that the intuition and the authority of the managers can go together with the analytical brain of the analyst and with the methods and functionalities available to him (or her).
3. Selecting and implementing using ad hoc query, what-if and forecasting
Once we have established the cause of a problem and we have mapped the (causal) relationships, we can take action – in consultation with managers and stakeholders. Ad hoc query (‘ad hoc’ querying of data sets) can support this. We may for example use ad hoc query to create a detailed set of customers whom did not place any orders in the last month, based on the results of the interactive analysis. Subsequently, we can write a letter to the selected customers in which we emphasize the benefits of doing business with us and include some interesting offers. We use ‘what-if’ and forecasting in order to calculate actions in advance. In this way, we gain insight into the impact of our actions before we actually implement them.
4. Evaluating using dashboards and reports
Once we addressed a certain problem by taking action, we use either a dashboard or reports in order to assess whether the problem has indeed been resolved. It may be that the problem reflects a key success factor of the organization, which we did not know about yet. If this is the case, we can place the key success factor – including the associated KPI – on the dashboard or in the report so to permanently evaluate it. In this way, it becomes an integral part of the organization’s management model.
Separate components that are hardly related
Relatively many organizations still appear to regard the above-mentioned tools as separate components that are hardly related. For Business Intelligence to be effective, it is however, of the utmost importance that the tools can work together very closely so creating a solid and smoothly operating entity. Users should ideally be able to both use and apply the tools more or less unwittingly in their daily activities. Metadata, web technology and a proper architecture play an important role in achieving this.
Increase the coherence between the BI tools
Additionally, the suppliers of BI tools undertake actions – based on the integral needs expressed by users – to increase the coherence between different tools. Portals are a typical example of this development. However, we cannot start celebrating yet: practice shows that when it comes to integration of different tools within the portal, there is still a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, it also still happens that certain functionalities are present in the desktop version , but have not yet been implemented in the web version.
Need help choosing the right business intelligence tool?
If you need help in the process of selecting the right Business Analytics tool for your company, please feel free to contact us for an appointment or more information.
About Passionned Group
Passionned Group is the specialist in designing and implementing Business Intelligence tools and Data Science. Our passionate BI consultants help large and small organizations transform into an intelligent organization. Every other year we organize the Dutch BI & Data Science Award©, the election of the smartest organization in the Netherlands.
