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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Excel4apps

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AExcel4apps is a business intelligence software offering from Excel4apps.N/A

    Pentaho

    Score6 out of 10
    N/APentaho is a suite of open source business intelligence and analytics products, now offered and supported by Hitachi Data Systems since the June 2015 acquisition.N/A
    Pricing
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Considered Both Products
    Excel4apps
    No answer on this topic
    Hitachi Vantara
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    Features
    Excel4appsPentaho
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    6.3
    4 Ratings
    26% below category average
    Pentaho
    9.0
    20 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports5.43 Ratings8.618 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards6.13 Ratings9.918 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.44 Ratings8.718 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    7.6
    4 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Pentaho
    8.7
    19 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Drill-down analysis7.54 Ratings7.618 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities9.24 Ratings8.319 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages6.52 Ratings9.312 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration7.14 Ratings9.717 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    6.4
    3 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Pentaho
    9.7
    20 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Publish to Web6.73 Ratings9.618 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.22 Ratings9.819 Ratings
    Report Versioning5.83 Ratings9.713 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling6.23 Ratings9.917 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers5.02 Ratings9.310 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    6.7
    2 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Pentaho
    8.1
    17 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.02 Ratings7.916 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.02 Ratings8.216 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.02 Ratings8.314 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    8.1
    3 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Pentaho
    9.1
    20 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.03 Ratings9.320 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.02 Ratings9.619 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.23 Ratings9.918 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)7.22 Ratings7.610 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    7.8
    1 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Pentaho
    8.3
    11 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access9.01 Ratings9.710 Ratings
    Mobile Application8.01 Ratings6.97 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.01 Ratings8.711 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Excel4apps and Pentaho
    Feature
    Excel4apps
    3.4
    2 Ratings
    78% below category average
    Pentaho
    8.6
    10 Ratings
    11% above category average
    REST API1.01 Ratings8.310 Ratings
    Javascript API5.72 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    iFrames1.01 Ratings7.39 Ratings
    Java API5.92 Ratings8.79 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)2.01 Ratings8.910 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)5.01 Ratings9.610 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (31 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    9.3
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    9.3
    (7 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.4
    (16 ratings)
    Data Sources
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (16 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Excel4appsPentaho
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Excel4apps
    We have to calculate most all Lab / Pilot / Proposals sizing and results. The automated calculations in [Excel4apps] is awesome, as once you are familiar with them, it is easy to quickly implement them when needed.
    Incentivized
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    Hitachi Vantara
    Pentaho is very well suited to perform data extraction & data mining from various cloud storage & transform that data using various available data models. However, the software struggles when it comes to visualizing the extracted data in an appealing manner & can be difficult for end-users to get an understanding of data tables created using those models.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Excel4apps
    • Easy to install and maintain. After the initial installation, there is little involvement by the technical administrators.
    • Cloning production to a test environment does not require any additional setups unlike Oracle EBS which does.
    • Loading data and reporting on this data is handled via EXCEL spreadsheets which is the "language" of our financial users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hitachi Vantara
    • Integrate and synchronize with big data easily
    • Import data from any sources and different databases
    • Managing data in on-premise, hybrid and cloud environments.
    • Compatibility and flexibility of the platform with any type of scenario and any business or industry
    • Various tools in the software suite to transformation of data
    • Simple interface appearance and creative UI graphics
    Read full review
    Cons
    Excel4apps
    • It is possible but difficult to retrieve data or set criteria from different module into a single report or retrieve. If it is more user friendly instead of having to create a complex formula to retrieve the data, this function will be utilized more often.
    • It will be nice to have visual (graphs, etc.) report template available
    • It is helpful if we can retrieve data for a range of date, instead of just YTD, PTD etc. and multi-year data all at once for comparison too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hitachi Vantara
    • I think the relative obscurity of the tool is a downside, not as many developers, consultants or peers you can tap into.
    • Lack of a solid user community held us back, looking at Power BI and Qlik, they have huge user communities that help each other out. Would have liked that here.
    • Smaller company means smaller sales force, and the lack of a local presence made it hard to only interact online with the account rep. Other companies have someone local who often stops by with pre-sales developers to just pitch in free of charge when they have time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Excel4apps
    No answers on this topic
    Hitachi Vantara
    I will use Pentaho until I find a better tool with a better, easier to use report designer client. For now, Pentaho has been the most powerful reporting tool for our clients because of its ability to connect to Odoo, integrate in Odoo (reports are accessible in Odoo) and the flexibility in report design and parameter integration
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Excel4apps
    I am not a power user of Excel. So I find Exel4apps a friendlier version of the things that I could do on Excel and making it easier with a magic wand.
    Incentivized
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    Hitachi Vantara
    The Pentaho tools are designed so you can start playing around on your own. Of course, you will need guidance at some point, but the training teams are good at guiding new users, and the online documentation is usually pretty up-to-date.
    Some of the tools, such as the Pentaho Data Integration tool and the Pentaho Server, are pretty self-explanatory. The other tools maybe are not so quickly and obvious to use, but again, with some documentation and some customer support, you can find your way around them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Excel4apps
    I have not needed support yet
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hitachi Vantara
    They were responsive to our questions when we raised issues. They gave us workarounds when required. They were quite knowledgeable when it came to issue analysis and providing fixes. They were forthright in informing us if a bug was not due for release soon.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Excel4apps
    No answers on this topic
    Hitachi Vantara
    Course Taken: DI1000 Pentaho Data Integration Fundamentals Setup A week before your class started, the instructor will start sending out class material and lab setup instructions. This is helpful so that you understand how the environment is laid out and can start reviewing the content. Ultimately it saved about a 1/2 day trying to setup with 10 other people online which was great! The Course The 3-day course was laid out like many other technical classes with 15-30 minutes instruction and 15-60 minutes of lab exercises. The instructor was very knowledgeable with the functionality from version to version and answered questions as we went along. I was amazed at some of the functionality that was available that I was not using at the time and quickly implemented changes to many existing transformations and jobs. The novice users seemed to catch on quickly and more experienced users explained how some of the functionality was used in their home environments. Towards the end there was enough time so that we were able to ask very directed questions about our own environments. Overall, I really found the class to be informative and deliver enough information to be dangerous. My skills improved and I was able to design better and efficient transformations for the HIE. Course Description: https://training.pentaho.com/instructor-led-training/pentaho-data-integration-fundamentals-di1000
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Excel4apps
    No answers on this topic
    Hitachi Vantara
    Get the right people in before starting implementation. Start small and build as you go approach is time consuming and involves lot of rework. Evangalize within the organization the capabilities and limitations equally so that correct delivery expectations are set. Set expectations with the Customer that the tool cannot replace proprietary software in terms of stability/usability and that timelines could change given the new ness of the product.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Excel4apps
    Excel4apps is more user friendly and can retrieve data much easier and in a nicer format than Jaspersoft. Qlik Sense is useful and have more visual reporting and dashboard. However, it is usually used for higher level of analyses and review. Yardi is used for specific purpose, which is different than Excel4apps. Excel4apps can pull all the financial data from Oracle, including billing and collections.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hitachi Vantara
    Since the Pentaho platform offers a range of broad functionality across data preparation and advanced analytics, it also can be easily integrated to support many data sources and machine-learning frameworks. Based on that fact, we selected Pentaho to be used in our internal department. It also supports many of our BI use cases as required by company management or the business user. Last but not least, the Pentaho license is cheaper than their competitor.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Excel4apps
    • Increase team transparency
    • Increased reporting
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hitachi Vantara
    • Pentaho has improved our overall business process.
    • Pentaho has helped the Managers and Directors to analyze the numbers going up and down from time to time.
    • We have a started a big project using Pentaho that is going to include all the business processes in the organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots