TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM DataStage

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AIBM® DataStage® is a data integration tool that helps users to design, develop and run jobs that move and transform data. At its core, the DataStage tool supports extract, transform and load (ETL) and extract, load and transform (ELT) patterns. A basic version of the software is available for on-premises deployment, and the cloud-based DataStage for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data offers automated integration capabilities in a hybrid or multicloud environment.N/A

    Infor Birst

    Score6.5 out of 10
    N/AInfor Birst offers multi-tenant cloud BI for deployment in a public or private cloud, or on-premises. It provides an in-memory columnar data store and a BI layer comprising a reporting engine, predictive analytics tools, mobile native apps, dashboards, discovery tools, and an open client interface.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Infor
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.7
    11 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Infor Birst
    -
    Ratings
    Connect to traditional data sources7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL7.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.6
    11 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Infor Birst
    -
    Ratings
    Simple transformations8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Complex transformations7.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    7.2
    11 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Infor Birst
    -
    Ratings
    Data model creation7.18 Ratings00 Ratings
    Metadata management5.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow7.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration7.411 Ratings00 Ratings
    Testing and debugging6.711 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    5.3
    10 Ratings
    42% below category average
    Infor Birst
    -
    Ratings
    Integration with data quality tools5.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools5.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    7.4
    77 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings7.068 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.077 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.159 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    7.0
    78 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.078 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.077 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.068 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    8.0
    75 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.052 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.067 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings7.28 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings9.066 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    6.9
    72 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.072 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.058 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings5.833 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    8.3
    72 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.070 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.068 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.069 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM DataStage and Infor Birst
    Feature
    IBM DataStage
    -
    Ratings
    Infor Birst
    5.0
    54 Ratings
    43% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings3.034 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings3.042 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Small Businesses
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Likelihood to Recommend
    5.8
    (11 ratings)
    7.5
    (99 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (35 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.1
    (6 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.5
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    6.0
    (19 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.3
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (24 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (76 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM DataStageInfor Birst
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    DataStage is somewhat outdated for an ETL. I guess that's what makes it a bit lagged behind its competitors. It can be used for data processing, sure, but its performance seems to be lagging behind or quite slow given the server it is running from. I won’t depend on this application if it's handling a lot of mission-critical banking and business data.
    Read full review
    Infor
    Infor Birst OEM and embedded analytics are well suited for advanced analytics and business intelligence. It has flexible deployment features and a lot of configuration ability with low code - no coding ability. Ability to ingest data from multiple live data sources. Source data from multiple sources can be segregated into multiple sections based on business criteria. Easily searchable business terms (metadata) across all enterprise analytic content.
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • Connect to multiple types of data-sources including Oracle, Teradata, Snowflake, SQl Server.
    • Powerful tool to load large volumes of data.
    • Transformation stages allow us to reduce the amount of code needed to create ETL scripts.
    • Allow us to synchronize and refresh data as much as needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    • End-to-end solution, from raw source data, ETL, warehousing and reporting, Birst is able to do everything we need in one package instead of needing to develop and maintain multiple technologies
    • Intuitive report development. The drag and drop creation of reports is simple. More complicated queries are easy to generate.
    • Very user-friendly and interactive. A lot of nice features are available both for developers and end users to streamline the process of preparing and consuming data
    • Rich API which allows us to programmatically interact with Birst
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • Technical support is a key area IBM should improve for this product. Sometimes our case is assigned to a support engineer and he has no idea of the product or services.
    • Provide custom reports for datastage jobs and performance such as job history reports, warning messages or error messages.
    • Make it fully compatible with Oracle and users can direct use of Oracle ODBC drivers instead of Data Direct driver. Same for SQL server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    • Birst prices are fairly expensive. License plus cost of users can add up pretty quickly
    • Depending on the size of data, rendering of reports can take a little bit. Need faster processing of data
    • Takes a little time to understand how to build reports, not the most intuitive UI
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    We have been able to overcome any of the drawbacks we've found with Birst easily and it has fulfilled almost all of our analytic needs to date. Having seen their roadmap it would be highly unlikely we would move away from this platform any time soon. You simply can't beat the functionality that Birst provides for the price and the things I see coming out of the company solidify that our decision to choose Birst was the best possible choice. We have never regretted the decision.
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    Because it is robust, and it is being continuously improved. DS is one of the most used and recognized tools in the market. Large companies have implemented it in the first instance to develop their DW, but finding the advantages it has, they could use it for other types of projects such as migrations, application feeding, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    I would like to see additional usability put into the ETL scripting. Recently, Birst added a nice function reference inline to formula creation which has kept me from having to return to documentation so much. The same in ETL would be very beneficial. The interface problems related to the Flex framework are being addressed in a rewrite to HTML 5, but for now they are still a hindrance to a higher usability rating.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    We frequently experience -103 errors due to us using the Live Connect functionality, which does not seem to handle even minor interruptions in connectivity, and treats all future connection attempts or data requests as errors, even if the issue does not exist any longer
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    It could load thousands of records in seconds. But in the Parallel version, you need to understand how to particionate the data. If you use the algorithms erroneously, or the functionalities that it gives for the parsing of data, the performance can fall drastically, even with few records. It is necessary to have people with experience to be able to determine which algorithm to use and understand why.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    Everything runs very fast and smoothly. The only process that I wish was faster would be processing the data after uploading new data or making changes to the existing data model. It can take 15-20 minutes (roughly) to upload and process new data once you start getting into 10's of millions of rows. Given my experience with how long it takes me to pull the same data using SQL Server Management Studio, I don't think Birst is unreasonably slow - but for me to give a higher rating, I would want it to be unreasonably fast
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    IBM offers different levels of support but in my experience being and IBM shop helps to get direct support from more knowledgeable technicians from IBM. Not sure on the cost of having this kind of support, but I know there's also general support and community blogs and websites on the Internet make it easy to troubleshoot issues whenever there's need for that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    • Poor turnaround time
    • Low response rate when the problem at hand are large
    • Lack of infrastructural knowledge when it comes to scaling solutions
    • Lack of inter team work noticed
    • Most of the tickets are open for a long period of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    I have attended two different training sessions. The first one was my initial training on the system. It was well paced, clear and concise. If there were questions that were not able to be answered by the instructor, he took down the question and actually followed up and provided us a response quickly. The second session was specific to the dashboard and report design components. This training was very good though there were some attendants who had little or no experience and their questions slowed the class.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    Although I found the online resources helpful, a lack of appropriate examples for certain tasks key to report creation and advanced modeling make the online training/documentation less than perfect. For an inexperienced BI professional, the online training would not enable a streamlined launch of the product.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    Have clean data! Birst flexibility allows - Start small, then introduce functionality and complexity along the way. If you try to present all the functionality [bells and whistles] and wow them, but bad data is uncovered, the end user blames the new application and turns away.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    With effective capabilities and easy to manipulate the features and easy to produce accurate data analytics and the Cloud services Automation, this IBM platform is more reliable and easy to document management. The features on this platform are equipped with excellent big data management and easy to provide accurate data analytics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Infor
    Birst was better than Domo for our needs because we could get in and tinker with it. Our impression of Domo was that it had a lot of connectors and ready to go reports, but it made too many assumptions about applications we use. We customize too much to use a "ready to go" solution like that. When we looked at Tableau, we liked its visualization capabilities, but it wasn't going to help us do the extractions, ETL, and warehousing of data. It may have come some distance since then.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Infor
    we can see that loading a lot of data can cause a noticable slow down in performance. Birst support indicated that they don't really consider anything less than 30 seconds to be an issue, but that is not the case for our customers, so we have had to change some of implementation to address this
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • It’s hard to say at this point, it delivers, but not quite as I expected. It takes a lot of resources to manage and sort this out (manpower, financial).
    • Definitely, I don’t have the exact numbers, but given the data it processes, it is A LOT. So props to the developer of this application.
    • Again, based on my experience, I’d choose other ETL apps if there is one that's more user-friendly.
    Read full review
    Infor
    • Being a manufacturing company we tend to lag behind technologically. But having all the data for different ERP systems in one place has been an eye opener for the executives. It has lessened the need to convert some legacy ERP systems.
    • Having such a simple reporting tool is a great asset to some of our sites that have traditionally had trouble gathering data from AS400 systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Infor Birst Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot