business intelligence tools power bi for sale

Choosing tools geared towards business analytics instead of business intelligence will work for you if you’d like to: Visualise the future performance of your organisation.

Power BI is a range of software services, apps, and connectors that work in conjunction to turn unrelated data sources into insights that are cohesive, interactive, and visually immersive. The data may be a collection of cloud-based data warehouses, on-premise hybrid data warehouses, or an Excel spreadsheet. The Power BI tool allows easy connection to the data sources; it also allows the visualization and identification of what is important, and share that with anyone.

The way to use Power BI depends on one’s role in a project or team. People may use Power BI differently according to preference. Power BI can be very flexible for users in this way.

For instance, Power BI can be used for viewing reports and dashboards. It can also be used for number-crunching and generating, publishing, and viewing business reports. A sales professional can use the Power BI phone app to monitor progress on sales quotas and drill into the details of a new sales lead.

Power BI developers may use Power BI APIs to push data into data sets or embed reports and dashboards into custom applications. It is also possible to create a new visual according to one’s ideas and share it with others. One may also implement each element of Power BI at different times depending on the end goal of a project.

As you can see, the usage of the Power BI tool can vary depending on the feature or service that works best for the situation. For example, Power BI Desktop helps in creating reports and statistics, monitoring the progress of manufacturing in a real-time dashboard in the Power BI service, viewing inventory, etc. Based on a Power BI data set, one can also create a paginated report of mailable invoices.

Power BI is a cloud-based BI service that was released by Microsoft in 2014. It uses years of experience in SQL Server, Access, MS Excel, etc. It enables businesses to clean and transform data into meaningful insights by thoroughly analyzing the data.

Power BI has a very easy-to-use interface. Even without prior knowledge and experience in programming, one can use Power BI. Its inbuilt intelligence allows one to choose attributes for reports by suggesting the best reporting element.

Here is an example of how easy is Power BI. After choosing the right data source, when opting for sales and category, the tool will identify the column chart on its own. Similarly, for sales and location, it will pull out the map chart automatically.

The user interface (UI) in Power BI is very simple and easily connects to the data source. On selecting the data source, a simple drag and drop allows the selection of attributes for the report.

Additionally, QA makes it extremely convenient and easy for one to have their written questions answered by Power BI through values or graphs based on the question asked. For example, a question like “What was this year’s revenue by month?” will return a graph showcasing the monthly revenue.

Power BI was built based on the founding platform of MS Excel and follows a similar approach for designing reports. Excel is a widely used software around the world, which makes Power BI easy to pick up as well. Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database served as the foundation for

Power BI comes with options that make it really easy to collaborate. Users can collaborate with others to compile interactive reports and dashboards in app workspaces.One can even publish them to a larger audience. Sharing these dashboards or reports with a smaller audience is even possible over the mobile app with Power BI.

The reports can be printed by the user as well as exported in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. The reports and dashboards can be published to public websites and anyone in the world can access and interact with them.

Power BI Desktop is available for free and the user can create simple or complex reports and dashboards. Not only that, but the pro licenses of Power BI are quite affordable at US$10 per month). For a larger audience, Power BI has a premium option allowing customization of cost based on usage.

Power BI comes with a wide array of connectors for data sources like MySQL database, SQL Server database, Oracle database, IBM Informix, Microsoft Excel, IBM DB2 database, MailChimp, Facebook, GitHub, IBM Netezza, PostgreSQL database, SAP HANA, Sybase database, Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Analysis services database, Azure Blob Storage, Salesforce, and many more.

Visualization:Microsoft’s SDK in Power BI contains a huge library to create custom visualizations. This allows the users to customize the UI as per their requirements.

Data shaping:Power BI’s Query Editor tool is very flexible and comes with a ton of features. It is self-documenting and offers the opportunity to go deeper in the DAX language for data modeling.

Data modeling:The data modeling options offered by Power BI are very efficient. It is derived from experiences in SQL database and Cube technology, and this makes Power BI a powerful solution.

If you look at the Gartner Magic Quadrant again, you will see that there are quite a lot of competitors of Power BI such as IBM Watson Analytics, Google Analytics, Sisense, and ZOHO reports to name a few; but, Power BI stands tall in the market mainly because of its ease of use and prompt help available from Microsoft.

Ultimately, Power BI is able to drive better decision-making in businesses through its ability to provide insights in visually impressive and interactive reports. It established a data-driven culture with BI for everyone. Additionally, it keeps the data secure and includes end-to-end encryption and sensitivity labeling as well as provides real-time access monitoring.

We’ve researched the best business intelligence software according to user popularity and major features. Compare the top BI tools in the chart below, and read on to learn more about how these data analytics tools can improve your enterprise outcomes. For a custom set of recommendations of the best BI software for your company, try our Product Selection Tool at the top of the page.

Business intelligence (BI) software is a set of business analytics solutions used by companies to retrieve, analyze, and transform data into useful business insights, usually within easy-to-read visualization like charts, graphs, and dashboards. Examples of the best BI tools include data visualization, data warehouses, interactive dashboards, and BI reporting tools. In contrast to competitive intelligence that analyzes data from outside sources, a BI solution pulls internal data that the business produces into an analytics platform for deep insights into how different parts of the business affect one another.

As big data — the tendency for companies to collect, store, and mine their business data — has gained in prominence, so has the popularity of BI software. Companies generate, track, and compile business data at a scale never before seen. And the ability to integrate cloud software directly with proprietary systems has further driven the need to combine multiple data sources and take advantage of data preparation tools. But all this data is nothing if we can’t make sense of it and use it to improve business outcomes.

Business intelligence has traditionally taken the form of quarterly or yearly reports that report on a defined set of key performance indicators (KPIs), but today’s BI reporting software is backed by data analytics tools that work continuously and at light speed. These insights can help a company choose a course of action in a matter of minutes.

BI software interprets a sea of quantifiable customer and business actions and returns queries based on patterns in the data. BI comes in many forms and spans many different types of technology. This business intelligence tools comparison of software vendors breaks down the three major stages data must go through to provide business intelligence, and provides considerations for purchasing BI tools for different sized businesses.

Business intelligence tools and platforms come in several forms for varying business needs. Companies looking to provide data services to business users will find self service BI software will meet the needs of most of their users. Data visualization tools are helpful for teams that are dipping their toes into data analytics but may not have lots of extra development resources available. Data warehousing tools provide the underlying infrastructure that can house and cleanse data before serving it up through visualizations. And BI tools provide end-to-end dashboard tools to store, cleanse, visualize, and publish data.

Some business intelligence platforms pull data for analysis directly from the source applications via a native API connection or webhook. Other business intelligence tools require the use of a cloud data storage system to aggregate diverse data sets in a common location. Small businesses, single departments, or individual users may find that a native connection works well, but large corporations, enterprise companies, and companies that generate large data sets will need a more comprehensive business intelligence setup.

Regardless of whether businesses choose to store their data in a data warehouse, a cloud database, an on-premise server, or run queries on the source system, data analysis and the resulting insights make the field appealing to business users. Data analytics tools vary in terms of complexity, but the general method of combining large amounts of normalized data to identify patterns remains consistent across business intelligence platforms.

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of BI, advanced analytics features like predictive and prescriptive analytics function as a subset of data mining. The tools use existing data sets and algorithmic models to help companies make better business decisions.

Unstructured data can’t be stored in neatly categorized sets of similarly-formatted data rows or columns, which makes it impossible for traditional data mining software to analyze. However, this data is often crucial to understanding business outcomes. With so much data in unstructured form, text analytics should be a key consideration when researching the best business intelligence tools.

Natural language processing (NLP) software, also known as text analytics software, combs large sets of unstructured data to find hidden patterns. NLP is particularly interesting for businesses that work with social media. Using the right software mix of data ingestion and AI, a business can set up rules to track keywords or phrases — a business’s name, for example — to find patterns in how customers use that language. Natural language processing tools also measure customer sentiment, provide actionable insight into lifetime customer value, and learn customer trends that can inform future product lines.

For example, a supply chain’s data metrics can include location, SKU, date of purchase, salesperson, and expiration date. OLAP tools can provide the analysts with a clear picture of any combination of these metrics. That provides analysts with the power to surface insights that would otherwise be hidden within two or three-dimensional spreadsheets.

Not every business user needs full access to everything available in the dashboard. Most employees only need access to a dashboard of their most important metrics. It gives at-a-glance access to a range of predefined visualizations. While each company can define its own dashboards based on custom business needs, some possible dashboard tools provide:

Some BI solutions also offer interactive dashboard tools where business users can manipulate the data visualizations, dig for a more detailed view, and zoom out for more context.

BI applications promise to clarify data analytics tools for the most non-technical of employees, which has driven the demand for embedded BI. These features let companies build data visualizations within their cloud BI software, and dynamically serve those visualizations to internal and external customers within company apps.

Visualizations, reports, and dashboards that are embedded in a company webpage or cloud app save companies thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars they would otherwise use to build BI reporting tools and analytics dashboards from scratch to track business performance. These tools now give business users access to custom, plug-and-play visualizations, greatly speeding the time to market.

QlikView business intelligence from Qlik is a powerful tool trusted by huge corporations such as Cisco, Raymond James, and KitchenAid, and it’s easy to see why. User-friendly interfaces and flexible customization make the tool an ideal self-service BI for your team to use, and users report excellent customer support and training.

Best suited for enterprise-level businesses, Birst offers a user-friendly experience for both developers and end-users, including a complete API that allows you to integrate other tools and automate simple tasks. Birst also provides both governance and agility in its platform, allowing for centralized, controlled data while also letting you source data from multiple points across your business.

Standout feature: Birst is one of the only BI tools that offers governance and agility in one platform, giving companies the power to keep a single source of truth for data while remaining nimble.

Looker is another bi tool that’s grown in popularity in recent years. The tool offers easy and attractive reporting, but unlike many other BI tools, Looker updates dashboards regularly, providing you with the most up-to-date information in real time.

As a pioneer among business intelligence tools, MicroStrategy was one of the first BI tools to be picked up by large corporations after McDonald’s signed a $10 million contract with the company in 1992. The tool continues to deliver today, offering fast and comprehensive reporting tools and best-in-class security features.

While it is best known as one of the top business intelligence tools on the market, BOARD also offers performance management, analytics, and data discovery solutions all in one platform. Combine its all-in-one approach to business intelligence with clear data visualization tools, and it’s easy to see why BOARD is among our top picks for business intelligence solutions.

Consistently recognized as one of the best BI solutions around, Microsoft Power BI offers flexible plans for businesses of all sizes and integrates with your Microsoft office tools such as Excel. In addition to sourcing data from a variety of cloud and on-premise sources, Power BI can also collect data from IoT devices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are computing trends that have touched nearly every corner of the technology industry because of their abilities to spot patterns and learn from existing data. BI in particular is ripe for the growth of ML products because the tools thrive in high data-density environments. AI and ML algorithms can be used on existing data to learn, predict, and better forecast for businesses.

Cloud computing — and the databases that it produces — give companies thousands of daily data points to train machine learning algorithms. Companies that use BI will find that data integration between AI tools and their cloud data warehouses is often the logical next step.

In-memory database processing utilizes RAM instead of disk or hard drive processing in order to read information. Accessing information in this manner increases the application performance exponentially. The increasing power of RAM in our cloud or on-premise computing environments coupled with the demand for more agile systems means this software has a large stake in the future of BI. Dramatic drops in memory prices are making it a more popular option than running data analysis through multidimensional databases and cubes.

More and more, BI users aren’t IT staff; they’re employees with a standard amount of technological savvy that want to harness the power of cloud BI to get a competitive advantage.

Comparing all the features these tools offer side by side can be a daunting task, but we can help you shave hours off your software search. Contact us today or fill out the form at the top of the page to start the process. We’ll send you a set of recommendations that fit your feature requirements and data needs.

However, many of these data points exist in isolation and require the best BI tools to connect the dots together. This is what business intelligence represents: the ability to not just look at a specific detail of business operations, but tie in key information from each angle into an overall whole.

Software behemoth, Microsoft, also plays in the business intelligence tool space, and their offering is Microsoft Power BI. They even have a Microsoft Business Applications Summit that features their Power BI, and not surprisingly other Microsoft business applications. Unlike some of their competition that take a totally web-based portal approach, Power BI also offers downloadable software, so you can run your analytics either in the cloud or via a reporting server.

Zoho Analytics is the business intelligence tool from the folks that have plenty of experience with web-based business tools, namely the venerable Zoho Office. Zoho Reports is a robust solution, that can integrate data from a variety of files, including Microsoft Office documents, URL feeds, and databases, such as MySQL, along with applications, of course from Zoho, but also outside their ecosystem including data from the cloud from Box, DropBox, Google Drive and other applications (for example Salesforce, Quickbooks and Google Analytics).

We"ve only scratched the surface when it comes to BI, as there are many providers in the market. However, the caveat is always that a software platform is only as good as its programmers, and data always needs to be the best quality - too many managers presume that processes and workflows are being correctly followed when they may not be and therefore undermine analyzes. Additionally, while there are comprehensive BI tools available there are also ones that focus on particular areas, such as sales or distribution, in order to provide more detailed and focused insights:

Transforming your business into an insight-driven operation starts with a modern business intelligence tool, and choosing the right tool is critical for success. Not all BI tools are created equal. To make the right choice, organizations must consider how business intelligence will drive value, which users will be doing the driving, and the full spectrum of costs associated with deploying the solution.

Before getting into feature/function discussions, make sure you’re considering business intelligence tools that offer a solid foundation to support data-driven digital transformation. At the core of this foundation is intuitive data access, robust governance, and broad deployment options. An effective BI tools comparison process will help you gauge the ability of any solution to effectively democratize data and drive data literacy throughout your business.

Just like a handyman needs a toolbox equipped with hammers, nails, and screwdrivers, individuals pursuing careers in business intelligence (BI) must be familiar with certain software tools. Business intelligence involves the functions, strategies, and tools companies use to collect, process, and analyze data.

Business intelligence tools can identify new opportunities for businesses to improve return on investment (ROI) and competitive advantage based on insights found. These tools are used across all departments, industries, and business users, so consider exploring one to accelerate your career.

Business intelligence tools collect, process, and analyze large amounts of structured and unstructured data from both internal and external systems. Data sources might include documents, images, email, videos, journals, books, social media posts, files, and more. BI tools find this information through queries, which can present the data in user-friendly formats such as reports, dashboards, charts, and graphs.

The tools can perform functions such as data mining, data visualization, performance management, analytics, reporting, text mining, predictive analytics, and much more. As a result, employees can harness this information to make better decisions based on predictions, market trends, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Centralized data:All of your data, in one place. Companies collect data from numerous databases, portals, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and more. To make sense of it all, you’ll need business intelligence tools to pool the data together and deliver certain types of views (issues, trends, analytics) based on your queries or what you want to know.

Make predictions:With access to so much data from the past and present, employees can make evidence-based decisions. Predictive analytics and forecasting enable users to generate insights based on a product or service’s performance history. If a business condition changes, the intelligent tools can automatically figure out the anomalies and you’ll be able to react to disruptions as they arise.

Automatic reports:Instead of inputting data manually into Excel spreadsheets or toggling between different tools, many BI tools are automated. If you need a report on a product over a specific period of time, the tool will generate that for you. If that information is significant and you want to add it to a presentation, you can create an interactive visualizations and download any charts or graphs you may need.

Reduces business costs:BI tools can do so much, from analyzing consumer behavior and sales forecasting to real-time process monitoring, that analyzing, planning, and reporting processes are way more efficient and accurate than ever before. In fact, more than 50 percent of BI tools users reported that these benefits helped them reduce costs and increase revenue [1].

Today, there are dozens of BI tools available. To determine the top five, these were the most commonly cited among ten websites that ranked the best BI tools. These five BI tools are not ranked in any particular order.

One of the most popular BI tools is Power BI, offered by leading software giant Microsoft. This tool is downloadable software, so you can choose to run analytics either on the cloud or in a reporting server. Syncing with sources such as Facebook, Oracle, and more, generate reports and dashboards in minutes with this interactive tool. It comes with built-in AI capabilities, Excel integration, and data connectors, and offers end-to-end data encryption and real-time access monitoring.

Learn Power BI with Coursera: In just two hours, you can learn the basics of Power BI Desktop with this guided project. You’ll load and transform data to create interactive reports and dashboards.

QlikSense is a BI tool that emphasizes a self-service approach, meaning that it supports a wide range of analytics use cases, from guided apps and dashboards to custom and embedded analytics. It offers a user-friendly interface optimized for touchscreens, sophisticated AI, and high-performance cloud platforms. Its associative exploration capability, Search & Conversational Analytics, allows users to ask questions and uncover actionable insights, which helps increase data literacy for those new to using BI tools.

Dundas BI is a browser-based BI tool that’s been around for 25 years. Like Tableau, Dundas BI features a drag and drop function that allows users to analyze data on their own, without involving their IT team. The tool is known for its simplicity and flexibility through interactive dashboards, reports, and visual analytics. Since its inception as a data visualization tool in 1992, it has evolved into an end-to-end analytics platform that is able to compete with the new BI tools available today.

Sisense is a user-friendly BI tool that focuses on being simplified and streamlined. With this tool, you can export data from sources like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and more. Its in-chip technology allows for faster data processing compared to other tools. Key features include the ability to embed white label analytics, meaning a company can fully customize the services to its needs. Like others, it has a drag-and-drop feature. Sisense allows you to share reports and dashboards with your team members as well as externally.

Other popular BI tools include: Zoho Analytics, Oracle BI, SAS Visual Analytics, Domo, Datapine, Yellowfin BI, Looker, SAP Business Objects, Clear Analytics, Board, MicroStrategy, IBM Cognos Analytics, Tibco Spotfire, BIRT, Intercom, Google Data Studio, and HubSpot.

You can get familiar with one or more BI tools by learning independently or on the job. Many top companies use them, so you can benefit from listing the most common ones in the skills section of your resume if it makes sense for the role and industry in which you’re applying. Hiring managers may specifically keep an eye out for applicants who have experience with specific BI tools, especially if it is referenced in the job description.

Dive into Business Intelligence Concepts, Tools, and Applications to learn how to work with large data sets using MicroStrategy’s Online Analytical Processing and Visualization capabilities to create visualizations and dashboards. These skills can be used to support strategic decision-making across any business sector.

Fortunately, there are dozens of reporting tools for marketers that help collect data from different sources, crunch it effectively, and deliver helpful analyses and insights.

Reporting tools should also make your job as a marketer easier. Having the ability to efficiently create attractive, action-oriented, and readable reports is key to ensuring the results of your work are clear for your entire team. This is exactly where business intelligence (BI) reporting tools come in handy — below, we"ll cover 17 options.

Solid reporting tools should give you the above metrics — but greattools should give you even more. And you"ll need those metrics and data if you"re part of the 75% of marketerswho report ROI from marketing campaigns. Let"s dive into 17 BI reporting tool options.

As important as it is to have your marketing analytics at your fingertips, knowing how you use your time is just as important for maximizing marketing output. Calendar’s clear and simple reporting tools give you helpful reports on what your agenda looks like and what you can do to make it better.

Raven Tools offers SEO analysis, social media engagement, funnel performance tracking, and competitor comparison. Whether it’s big-picture analyses, like domain authority, or small-scale comparisons of site functionality, Raven Tools lets you stay on top of how you’re faring in competitive spaces. Additionally, the drag-and-drop editor and report generator make creating custom, professional-grade marketing reports easier.

As important as it is for reporting tools to effectively take in and analyze data, they also need to produce readable reports. Klipfolio is great for making sure your reports can be read and accessed with ease across various technologies as well as via the tool"s dashboard that update in real-time.

Mixpanel is a tracking and reporting tool with powerful analytics features that provide insight into trends like engagement and count. It tracks how people engage with certain products over time and how different features influence user behavior with graphs. If you’re interested in keeping track of how a certain site or product is performing, it can be a valuable tool for reporting on that kind of information, too.

Although Intercom is a messaging platform first and foremost, it also delivers an in-depth view of a company’s customer base. Through integrations with over 100 marketing tools, Intercom lets marketers track, segment, and identify similarities between their customers. One of the best use cases for Intercom’s BI features is account-based marketing and messaging.

G2 is the go-to website for stacking up software tools against one another. G2 gives detailed analyses and charts for every category of marketing software and explains important factors such as strengths and weaknesses, features, pricing, customer reviews, and more. G2 will also often include screenshots and videos of the tools in use.

Microsoft Power BI integrates business intelligence data directly into reports for you. The tool can scale with your business as you grow and boasts a built-in AI feature that offers custom data metrics. You also have a display of visualizations you can choose from to pair with your insights. Lastly, use Power BI to query your data and edit it without affecting other programs you use.

With Datapine, you have access to reporting tools that communicate KPIs on a single dashboard. Easy access to real-time, accurate metrics saves you time and keeps your team on the same page. If you don"t have much technical experience, you won"t have to worry — Datapine is easy to navigate and makes data analysis straightforward. The platform also integrates with a number of tools so you can customize your data from other sources, too.

Personalize the KPIs on your reports further with the drag-and-drop dashboard builder. Additionally, Datapine gives you access to a global performance filter and predictive analysis (since Datapine is AI-powered, it combs through data for you and suggests improvements). Datapine also lets you export dashboards by email, URL, or with an embed code.

Grow.com is a business intelligence tool that brings together all of your data, from multiple sources, and compiles them into insights, reports, and dashboards. Rather than needing multiple tools to store your data, Grow.com removes the need for third-party data warehouses — it organizes data from disparate sources so your most important data is always easily accessible and you won"t have to spend time sifting through your various tools and reports to surface the information you need.

Marketers use data daily — that"s why it"s crucial you have data that"s relevant, well-organized, and provides the information you need to hit your goals. Business intelligence reporting tools make this process easier and more effective. So, determine which features you need most out of your BI tool and get started analyzing, sharing, and applying your data.

There’s a broad spectrum of business intelligence (BI) tools out there, from highly technical and powerful platforms to user-friendly and lightweight dashboard builders. Choosing the right one depends on where your business is today, where you want it to end up, who needs access to the data, your tech stack, and so on.

Microsoft’s Power BI is a business intelligence tool whose main differentiator is the fact that it sits within the larger Microsoft ecosystem, integrating with Excel, Azure, Access, and more. While these integrations are a plus for many, Power BI has proven to be difficult for some to learn—and it has some unique quirks.

It’s not the easiest business intelligence tool to set up and maintain, so teams with little capacity to spare may want to look elsewhere. Once set up, it has a reputation for being more malleable than other massive business intelligence tools. One user on Quora used this comparison: Tableau is like iOS, while Power BI is like Android. The result is good modeling functionality that, again, requires some expertise to set up and utilize.

If you’re fully fluent in Excel, you won’t have to work too hard to understand Power BI. As Alainia Conrad of SelectHub says, “Users with experience in [Excel] will be able to adapt to [Power BI].”

Users of Power BI tend to praise its ability to handle the flow of data as well as its modeling capabilities. In their comparison between Power BI and Tableau, user Grovbolle on Reddit says, “Power BI is very strong on the data modeling and infrastructure, a bit less on visualization.”

Power BI has a steep learning curve, and it requires expert knowledge to set up. “You need to work with an IT person to interface Power BI with existing systems,” says Shreshthi Mehta in her TrustRadius review. On G2, Xinito L. says, “This is not an application for amateurs.”

It also has some quirks that’ll cost you time, as the good people of Reddit are quick to point out in r/PowerBI. Here is the top-rated post of all time in that community:

Jason Harris at Panoply explains it this way: “While [Chartio] may not have all the functionality that your data analysts are looking for, it’s well suited to business users.” On G2, one executive in financial services says, “[Chartio] has relatively fewer features than the other primary tools out there, like Tableau. I think in part, that’s what enables it to be user-friendly, so it’s a trade-off rather than a downside.”

Looker is a powerful tool for modeling data using its proprietary language, LookerML, that has limited visualization capabilities and data inputs. Google Cloud Platform acquired it in 2019, moving it into the Google walled garden, which means it may get combined with Google Data Studio in the near future,as explained in-depth here.

LookML provides a powerful modeling layer that some veterans enjoy. On Reddit,user rlaxx1 says, “The modeling layer allows you to basically turn SQL into object-oriented code.”

Google Data Studio has perhaps the lowest bar of entry for the business intelligence tools listed here. But it lacks deeper data functionality, relying on other Google services like BigQuery to fill in the gaps.

Tableau Desktop is the standalone data visualization tool from Tableau, a legacy giant among other business intelligence tools. Tableau was one of the first BI tools to lower the bar for entry into data visualization but still remains out of reach for the average business user due to its older feature set designed for large, expert data teams.

It’s very flexible in how you manipulate and use data, making it a powerful data visualization tool. One Capterra reviewer says, “The quality and variety of graphics that can be created with Tableau is vast, and that’s the best part of it.”

While Tableau has some very good legacy BI features, like visualization, it lacks some important features other business intelligence tools have innovated that have become fairly commonplace. Tristan Handy, CEO & founder of Fishtown Analytics, puts it this way: “Tableau, for all its impressive visualization capabilities, can’t really deal with production data: its drag-and-drop capabilities just don’t allow users to express the complicated business logic that is required in real-world BI.”

In particular, Domo targets the busy executive with its mobile-first philosophy and its segmentation tools by team. It’s good for large companies looking for data distribution over data analysis that can afford the sticker price and the time spent to get Domo’s system fully up and running.

Its laser focus on dashboard tools makes it a lifesaver for some, but a major pain for those looking todive deep into data. For companies with a solid data infrastructure already in place, it may be a good fit to help business users visualize data, but it’s not for those who need a tool dedicated to data.

It can also leave behind power users, as Peter Weinberg of Panoply says: “Advanced SQL users may find it tricky to learn the SQL-but-not-quite style data interface, but it’s not designed for them.”

All the business intelligence tools listed here have some form of a free trial, so it’s easy to dive in and try them out. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but we encourage you to try out as many as you can. We guarantee one will feel much more natural to your business than the others.

BI platforms also offer data visualization tools, which convert data into charts or graphs, as well as presenting to any key stakeholders or decision-makers.

Historically, business intelligence tools were based on a traditional business intelligence model. This was a top-down approach where business intelligence was driven by the IT organization and most, if not all, analytics questions were answered through static reports. This meant that if someone had a follow-up question about the report they received, their request would go to the bottom of the reporting queue and they would have to start the process over again. This led to slow, frustrating reporting cycles, and people weren’t able to leverage current data to make decisions.

Traditional business intelligence is still a common approach for regular reporting and answering static queries. However, modern business intelligence is interactive and approachable. While IT departments are still an important part of managing access to data, multiple levels of users can customize dashboards and create reports on little notice. With the proper software, users are empowered to visualize data and answer their own questions.

Reports and dashboards across devices:Dynamic visuals are organized into interactive reports and dashboards, similar to other tools in our lists, and you can access them also on mobile and tablet devices (both Android and iOS).

Integration with other applications:You can integrate SAS with Microsoft Office applications such as PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint or Excel with their Office Analytics solution which enables you to view your results directly in Microsoft Office Suite.

SAP BusinessObjects is a business intelligence platform designed for comprehensive reporting, analysis, and data visualization. They provide Office integrations with Excel and PowerPoint where you can create live presentations and hybrid analytics that connects to their on-premises and cloud SAP systems. They’re focused on business categories such as CRM and customer experience, ERP and digital core, HR, and people engagement, digital supply chain, and many more. To be accurate, more than 170M users leverage SAP across the world, making it one of the largest software suppliers in the world. On Capterra, the company obtained a review of 4.2 stars, while in G2Crowd 3.8 stars with over 400 reviews, confirming its well-established place in the market since 1972.

Self-service, role-based dashboards:Analytics applications and data visualization are focused on self-service capabilities, similar to other tools, where you can build your own role-based dashboards and applications to assess risks, for example.

Integration with Office:By using Microsoft Excel with SAP, you can analyze larger volumes of data, and embed analytics in PowerPoint, making this solution easily integrated with Office.

Domo is a business intelligence software comprised of multiple systems that are featured in this platform, starting with connecting the data and finishing with extending data with pre-built and custom apps from the Domo Appstore. You can use Domo also for your data lakes, warehouses, and ETL tools, alongside R or Python scripts to prepare data for predictive modeling. Similar to other tools, you can connect the data across your enterprise, utilize their machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities while enabling users to explore the data on their own. With a firm 4.2 stars rating on Capterra and an even better 4.4 in G2Crowd, this BI application is also recommended by many users across the world, even though the company is one of the younger on our list – founded in 2011.

Numerous pre-built cloud connectors:Data integration works similarly to other tools, as mentioned; you can connect to more than 1000 pre-built cloud connectors, on-premise with Domo Workbench, file upload such as Excel or Google Docs, proprietary systems, and federated connectors that will enable you to query the data where it’s hosted.

Magic ETL feature:Data transformation tools will enable you to prepare your data with a drag-and-drop Magic ETL, as Domo calls it, without the need to learn SQL.

Mr. Roboto as an AI engine:Predictive analysis is powered with Mr. Roboto, Domo’s AI engine, which enables data scientists to create predictive models and utilize artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and other AI technologies that alert and notify about changes in KPIs, for example.

Oracle Business Intelligence is a portfolio of technology and applications with a focus on providing end-to-end solutions to help businesses optimize their performance and empower them to make faster and more informed mobile-enabled decision-making. Oracle has 4.2 stars rating on Capterra and a 4.0 in G2Crowd, and they offer a wide ray of features for data management such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, integrated array of querying, reporting, mobile analytics, among others. Since its foundation in 1977 Oracle’s mission has been to provide businesses with the tools to efficiently manage their data in a comprehensive and agile way.

We continue our BI tools list with Zoho Analytics. Although the company offers many products ranging from CRM, bundles, and apps, here we focus on their BI and analytics solutions as the most relevant for our topic. With more than 500 integrations for your business apps, more than 10 000 customers worldwide, and a strong 4.3 stars rating on Capterra and 4.2 on G2Crowd, this is one of the business intelligence reporting tools worth taking into consideration.

Blending and visualizing data:Similar to other tools on our list, their most prominent features focus on blending data from multiple sources, and visualizing them through reports and dashboards via their drag-and-drop designer. But not only, as you can also feed data from their online storage service Zoho Docs.

Intelligent assistant Zia:If you’re looking for artificial intelligence-powered analytics, Zoho has created Zia, an intelligent assistant that you can ask questions in form of natural language, and you will immediately receive the answer in the form of reports and KPI widgets. Zia is based on natural language processing and machine learning technologies to help the user search for data faster.

MicroStrategy is an enterprise business analytics software and mobility platform focused on hyperintelligence, federated analytics, and cloud solutions. Their mobile dossiers enable users to build interactive books of analytics that render on iOS or Android devices, with the possibility to extend the MicroStrategy content into their apps by using Xcode or JavaScript. You can download a sample app, MicroStrategy Mobile, or the Library app where you will enable you to deploy analytics on-the-go. Both Capterra and G2Crowd reviewers rate this tool with 4.2 stars, hence, this is one of our examples of business analytics tools having strong references on the BI market.

Federated analytics:It provides a common data glossary, no matter the tools you use, built on an enterprise semantic graph that indexes all the disparate data systems and enables visualizations of the same data.

Integration with voice technology:Powered by natural language processing and machine learning, you can also integrate voice technology and chatbots such as Alexa or Google Home.

The next tool on the list is Dundas BI. With a 4.5 rating in Capterra and 4.4 in G2Crowd, this business intelligence platform aims to make the entire analytics process more simple and flexible via interactive dashboards, reports, and visual analytics. The Software was founded in 1992 as a solution for data visualizations with the name of Dundas. In 2015, after many recognitions in the visualization industry, the tool mutated to Dundas BI an end-to-end analytics platform that empowers every level of user to visualize and analyze data with features such as report generation, ad hoc queries, data discovery, among others.

GoodData is a business analytics software that provides the tools for data ingestion, storage, analytic queries, visualizations, and application integration. You can embed their analytics into your website, desktop, or mobile application or create dashboards and reports for your daily activities, without the need to obtain a Ph.D., as stated on their website. Also, one of the younger software solutions on our list, founded in 2007, GoodData received a stable 4.3 stars review on Capterra paired to a 4.0 on G2Crowd positioning them as one of the great tools to manage your business.

A modular data pipeline:They also offer a modular data pipeline for fast data integration with an on-premise or cloud warehouse, no matter if the data is structured, semi-structured or unstructured. You can also use tools such as SQL, Python, R or Ruby for flexible data processing.

QlikView is one of the BI applications offered by Qlik as part of its data analytics platform focused on rapid development and guided analytics applications and dashboards. It’s built on an Associative Engine that allows data discovery without the need to use query-based tools, eliminating the risk of data loss and inaccurate results. With a decent rating of 4.3 stars on Capterra and 4.1 on G2Crowd, users are quite satisfied with this product and its features, making it one of the top BI tools on our list.

Developer’s platform:Various tools and resources are provided for developers, such as the Qlik Branch Community, the Qlik Knowledge Hub, the Qlik Branch Playground (which they announced soon to be retired) and the Qlik Core documentation.

Yellowfin signals via smartphone:Benefit from the automated detection of trends and anomalies in your data thanks to the Yellowfin signals, which are based on powerful, AI-controlled algorithms and enable immediate, personalized notifications directly to your smartphone.

Big data is all around us and steadily increasing with each year. By utilizing BI and business analytics tools, you stand to reap great rewards – your data management will become more cohesive, stable, agile, and predictable with numerous features that these tools have on offer. We aimed to help you consider the best tools on the market, and we hope we have provided an extensive review of each product that will inspire you to start exploring business intelligence tools and find a perfect fit for your company or department.

To help you process and remember all the information you just received, below we provide you with a visual summary of our 14 best business intelligence tools for 2022.

BI is an ever-growing technology dominating all businesses across the world. BI services are very much successful in ensuringa personalized experience to the customers. BI Services are widely diversified and businesses are leveraging the potential of this technology. One such technology is Power BI which helps to make complex business decisions.

Power BI is a new cloud-based Business Intelligence service provided by Microsoft and derived from its years of experience in relational databases like Access, SQL server etc. It is a business intelligence platform that allows businesses to clean and completely transform data into meaningful data. It thoroughly analyzes data and shares powerful insights.

Microsoft is positioned in the leaders’ quadrant in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms 2018 edition which makes it the top player in the market. As per the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Power BI is considered as a go-to platform based on its vision of completeness and ability to execute BI solutions.

Power BI has very simple and easy to use Interface. No programming experience is required to use Power BI.It has inbuilt intelligence which helps you to select attributes for your reports by suggesting the best reporting element.

Among other features, QA is where you can write a question and Power BI will return a result with value or graph depending on the question. E.g. “What was this year’s revenue by month” generates a graph for you displayinga month-wise revenue.

Power BI is developed on the founding platform of Excel and it follows a similar approach to design a report. Microsoft Excelis globally accepted and widely used software which makes Power BI easy to learn.

Data modeling is purely derived on the fundamentals of Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database. Hence users/programmers can very easily adopt the data modeling of Power BI.

Power BI comes with easy to collaborate options. The user can collaborate with co-workers to create interactive reports and dashboards in “app” workspaces. The user can compile dashboards and reports into apps and can publish them to a larger audience. Sharing dashboards or reports with a small audience is facilitated even over the Mobile App with Power BI.

The user can print the report and can export it in the form of PowerPoint Presentation. They can even publish reports and dashboards to public websites where anyone in the world can view and interact with it.

Power BI desktop is free and the user can develop reports and dashboards that are easy and complex. The pro licenses of Power BI are within the affordable range (USD 10 per month). For a larger audience, Power BI has a premium option which allows you to customize costing based on your audience usage.

Power BI comes with a wide range of connectors for data sources like Microsoft Excel, SQL Server database, MySQL database, Oracle database, IBM DB2 database, IBM Netezza, IBM Informix, PostgreSQL database, Sybase database, SAP Hana, Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data warehouse, Azure Analysis services database, Azure Blob Storage, MailChimp, Facebook, GitHub, Salesforce and many more.

Microsoft has opened up the visualization SDK in Power BI. It has a huge library for custom visualization. Use this functionality, the users can customize the UI as per their need.

Power BI offers a tool called Query Editor which is very flexible and powerful with tons of features. The most important aspect is that it is self-documenting. It also offers you an opportunity to go deeper inside the DAX language.

Any BI solution is strong if the BI model is well-developed. Power BI comes with very efficient data modeling options based on their experience of SQL database and Cube technology.

There are many more competitors of Power BI which offer similar features, like ZOHO Reports, IBM Watson Analytics, Sisense, Google Analytics to name a few. But Power BI stands tall in the market, mainly based on the easy of use and prompt Microsoft Help available for the tool.

Clarion has been working with our clients to formulate seamless BI solutions based on Power-BI and Cloud Analytics among a few. In case you are in doubt on the right BI tool for your organization and are looking for an implementation partner, feel free to reach out to us at

- [Narrator] Power BI is a very useful tool. If you"re interested in conducting deep analysis into your sales trends, then you"ll probably need to connect to multiple data sources at some point. Power BI"s data modeling feature allows you to connect, combine, then analyze multiple data sources. So here"s an example of when you"re going to need to combine multiple data sources. In this example, we have sales data and we have location code here but you"ll notice that there is no column for state. That column exists in a separate tab, called location information. And in this example, we"re going to act as if each one of these tabs are a separate data source. Here"s a peak at Power BI"s interface. There are three main tabs that you need to know about. The first tab is a reports tab where you can visualize your data. The second tab is the data tab where you can connect to each individual data source. As you can see, I"ve…

Business Intelligence comprises technologies, applications, tools, and practices that help organizations to analyze and integrate data to deliver more significant and insightful business data. Data-driven business choices taken by staff and managers. It is possible just because of BI. Business Intelligence (BI) helps businesses to get greater opportunities and detect inefficient processes besides cost-cutting, all of which can prompt better business forecasts and growth. In other words, BI helps to increase sales. It likewise has a significant impact on sales and can help business organizations to increase their sales and revenue over other competitors.

A BI tool like Microsoft Power BI can make your sales team’s job of understanding their customer base a lot easier and empower them to gather, unify, and visualize their info all in one place. Assuming you are thinking about BI to engage your outreach group.

Business intelligence solutions like Power BI make it easier to track important metrics like win rates, revenue, discounts, and YTD revenue maps through interactive intelligent dashboards that are not difficult to set up. The dashboards are invigorating with the most recent information consequently, and that implies you’ll continuously approach the most forward-thinking data when you want it.

Using BI efficiently will help your business to expand its customer preservation rates, generate higher revenues from sales campaigns, and help keep your sales analytics current. As sales drive business growth, a BI tool such as Power BI can be one of the most acute investments you make. Whether for a large enterprise or a small business, business intelligence can give your sales team the competitive edge it needs to get ahead.

If you have a keen interest in learning more about how a BI solution like Microsoft Power BI can help your organization, reach out to the MetaOption team. We are a Microsoft Power BI Partner and can help you get started with Power BI.