Altair Monarch vs. CaseWare IDEA

The product is especially useful when you have real-time and/or time series data to analyze. If you have more mundane, simpler requirements, other products might do the job you need for less money (there are even some decent open source visualization tools you can find.) I know the product is very widely used in capital markets applications to monitor and analyze risk and price and volume changes; if you're working in that area, I don't think there's a better tool to use.

Incentivized

One example of specific scenario in [CaseWare] IDEA is the ability to run samples separately and then based off of the results, compare and contrast the values recorded and easily discern if there are any variables or discrepancies within the data itself. Also, we can test journal entries with certain parameters to check the audit for any issues that may arise pertaining to the criteria. By testing, we are able to make sure the data is accurate and sufficient.

Incentivized

• Creating a basic model to extract data from a report is very easy.
• Advanced features like Calculated Fields and External Lookups allow you to augment the raw data.
• You can create a "project" to automate the data extraction. Combined with Datapump (a separate DW app), you can fully automate the process once the raw report is generated.

Incentivized

• Easy to understand and easy to use.
• Can use on large quantities of data and quickly analyze them.
• Uses logic that can be followed if one is an auditor. I, for example, could understand the logic in a number of samples, i.e how the number of samples thrown changes when risk changes from low to moderate in proportion taking in consideration the materiality.
• Other audit firms are using 2 software for the process that IDEA alone can do. So IDEA has a definite advantage here.
• Customizable by the company.

• Recently, we had some major sticker-shock when we wanted to upgrade Data Pump. It is an exceptional product, but when the price jumped from $6,000 to over $60,000, it was impossible to get the funds approved internally for the upgrade.
• We also paid for yearly maintenance contracts which included Professional Services, but rarely found those services beneficial. However, we did receive all software upgrades for Datapump as part of the contract which we found to be very beneficial. However, with the new pricing, that is not longer the case.

Incentivized

• Bit of a learning curve for the advanced features as a beginner.

Incentivized

Even though we do not utilize it on a daily basis, I do hope my current company renews it's license. If not, I intend to purchase myself.

Incentivized

I would rate it a 9 because I never really needed support on this but if I did, there was the necessary support given promptly.

Datawatch is very good value of money compared to QlikView; QlikView is really more of a BI tool and has a lot of functions that I didn't need. Datawatch is very strong in the real-time area where Tableau, Panorama, and Qlik don't do very well. If you need to set up a visual monitoring dashboard, Datawatch is the best product I've seen for that. if you want to do a lot of in depth statistical analysis of large databases, Tableau is probably a good option.

Incentivized

I have used Microstart and would definitely vote for IDEA because IDEA combines what Microstart does with the help of one/more softwares. Where Microstart just gives a number of samples, IDEA selects the number of samples based on materiality, risk, and other factors. It selects those samples from the population leaving out line items that are invalid/ zero. I would prefer using IDEA any day.

• Data Pump reduces complexity of report solutions by offering a standardized approach for organizing and scheduling
• 97% service level for past 5 years for all of our jobs going through Data Pump

Incentivized

• We were able to save time by over 200 billable hours over our last busy season cycle
• We saved roughly 12% on costs compared to the last program we used.

Incentivized