Business Intelligence Software Gartner Magic Quadrant – At first glance, the big winners appear to be Microsoft Power BI and Tableau, while others are lagging behind – especially IBM, which has traditionally been the leader. However, as usual with Gartner’s findings, look beyond the quadrant and you’ll see a much different picture. And it’s one that we at Analytics have been promoting for some time.
The way the quadrant is arranged provides a quick, visual guide to the best business intelligence tools. Rise to the top right corner and the world will think your product is innovative, comprehensive, good value and easy to use.
Business Intelligence Software Gartner Magic Quadrant
But for us, the quadrant is wrong. Although treated in the wider world as a product guide, it is as much an assessment of the state of the supplier competition – each ranked against the other on a range of measures that have as much to do with a company’s reputation or image. as only solution do.
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As such, the quadrant should never be taken as a guide to what the ‘best’ software is, which is a subjective view that can only be answered, individually, through a deeper understanding of what each vendor offers.
For that deeper understanding you should look ‘under the hood’. At the end of the day, only one question matters, and Gartner can’t fully answer it:
We tend to position Power BI as the best product to get started with BI – Gartner seems to support this.
This is supported by the desktop environment familiar to all Office 365 users. This helps general adoption in business. Add to this the wide range of native data connectivity options and it’s easy to see why Gartner rated Ease of Getting Started so highly.
Microsoft Positioned As A Leader In The Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant For Analytics And Business Intelligence Platforms
More than that, even though it’s packed with features, the methodology is straightforward, making it easy for non-specialists to get great insights right from the start. Drag a few data items into the workspace and Power BI will do the rest, creating a chart or table, whichever is most appropriate. For your money, sure.
The combination of the two is the main attraction for most users – a familiar interface with a range of powerful features all easily accessible.
One drawback cited by Gartner is the functional gap between on-premise and cloud versions. This is the problem. Although Microsoft is pushing features into the local version, it has ways to catch up. However, it’s so powerful even without those features that many users simply wouldn’t notice.
Perhaps the main thing to consider is that, once the automatic functionality is out of the way, Power BI requires an understanding of its backend language, DAX. This is a very powerful language and definitely worth holding onto as the results can be rewarding. So, in a way, the increased complexity is a positive point because it allows growth from basic to extremely complex analytics. But it is something to keep in mind.
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In short, if you want the solution that is easiest to implement, especially for new users of analytics, with almost immediate, powerful results, but with some enterprise limitations (backed by the financial power of Microsoft for future development), choose Power BI – if possible, the full-featured version in to the cloud.
Our opinion is that Tableau is relatively easy to use, even for beginners, but is more intuitive at the next level of complexity.
Its well-designed user interface is smooth and clear – in many ways superior to Power BI, but lacking the ease of familiarity based on Office 365. However, although it looks simple, it is very powerful, providing very powerful insights to both beginners and experienced analysts. The reporting engine provides visually appealing, dynamic results without any programming knowledge.
But that almost counts as read for a modern BI tool. Tableau’s ace up its sleeve, however, is at the next level. A good example is the ability to create calculations within a table, which is relatively simple in Tableau (and complex in Power BI).
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Connectivity and data management is also clean and efficient. Out of the box are multiple source links that you simply push to get data. It’s really easy to use.
Not only that, but there is a large community of enthusiastic users offering support, pre-built solutions and more that can give any report a great starting point.
However, caution is advised if scalability is a requirement. While it has some cloud capabilities, it is not a cloud native solution. This means that there are limitations to deployment and development (although prior knowledge and good planning means that neither has caused any particular problems for any of our clients).
We’ve found Tableau to be best suited for clients where reporting or analytics are more mature and the current reporting tool (often Excel) has reached its limitations. Moving to the next level requires more complex and – most importantly – more dynamic reporting, and Tableau is ideal.
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If you want a visually appealing powerful alternative, without the data connectivity and dissemination issues that plague you, Tableau could be your next step on the analytics journey.
So far, Gartner is pretty accurate in its findings. It doesn’t go far enough to say where the solutions fit best, but it’s generally spot on. What cannot be resolved is with IBM.
IBM reacted strongly to the report. Quite right. The link above shows some of the real issues with Gartner.
We have been working with IBM Cognos for many years and it has long been our choice where a robust analytics function needs to be taken to the next level. During that time, it has continuously developed, which is why we were surprised by its positioning in the quadrant.
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Our fundamental disagreement is the focus placed on the way IBM is perceived and the effectiveness of their marketing – neither of which affects whether the product is appropriate or best suited for your business. It is wrong to ‘discount’ a product for anything other than its merits.
The most powerful analytics tool, enterprise-level data extraction capabilities, superior report calculations and unmatched report dissemination features.
In the past, it could be argued that its reporting was not as ‘pretty’ as, say, Tableau. It looked old fashioned. Now things have changed though. IBM has put a lot of effort into improving the interface with Cognos Analytics. This allows new users to come on stream, but importantly, allows IBM’s very large existing customer base to remain.
With any embedded solution, it’s important to have confidence that it’s being developed and updated. This is happening, so if you already have Cognos, then an improved, simpler user interface opens up analytics to a wider audience within your organization – and in turn, there’s no need to look elsewhere.
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The way we position Cognos Analytics hasn’t changed. If nothing else, the UI improvements made it a strong deployment option over Power BI and Tableau.
For the best organization at the mid-level and business level – and especially if your business is growing – IBM Cognos Analytics is the perfect solution.
Each of the products in the quadrant is a good piece of software. Analytics primarily focuses on the three above because they provide a good range of capabilities with a broad set of use cases.
With a choice of available solutions, the consultant’s job is initially to assess which one is the best fit. This can only be done with a deep understanding of what each has to offer, their strengths and their relative weaknesses.
Power Bi: Market Leader In Gartner’s Magic Quadrant For Analytics & Business Intelligence
Unlike many business partners, we can realistically do it. We have experience with all three and can attract completed projects from a wide range of clients, large, medium and small.
To summarize, we say that the Gartner quadrant is important, but it should only be part of the decision-making process. Much more weight should be given to expert judgment of best fit, long-term scalability and actual cost of ownership.
Need help making a decision? Contact the team today. We have years of expertise with the above platforms and will ensure you make the right choice of platform for your needs.
Analytics – Jan 28, 2021 7 Things We Learned About Analytics in 2020 No doubt, 2020 turned the world upside down. Some businesses have thrived, all have faced unprecedented challenges, and some Read MoreMicrosoft remains “up and to the right” in Gartner’s new Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, while key competitors have actually moved down and to the left. We spoke with Microsoft’s Amir Netz, the “father” of Power BI, to get his insight into the product’s success.
Gartner Critical Capabilities For Analytics & Bi Platforms
The new Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) is out, and Microsoft is back in the “Leaders” quadrant (see image above). In fact, according to Microsoft, this is its 14th year in a row as a leader in BI. Although Microsoft is in almost the same place as last year, its closest competitors have actually lost ground. The thought point fell into the visionary quadrant. Qlik, while there is
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