Incorta is a business intelligence software offering from Incorta.
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Looker
Score 8.2 out of 10
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Looker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.
The best aspect of Incorta is the ability to retain fidelity to raw data sources. Incorta does not require an ETL process or pre-aggregation to get results. Another great feature is the Business Schema. The ability to present data in localized business language is key to citizen development. The solution is a complete platform from ingestion to presentation. There is no need for additional products to provide high-performing dashboards. It is worth repeating that no ETL is required. If you need high-speed ingestion and presentation of millions of rows of data while retaining access to the raw data, Incorta is the right platform.
Quick dashboards from Google Sheets - Easier to do the graphs than in Google Sheets - Operational dashboards to be used in the day-to-day work - It is good both for retrospective data and to do a pulse check of the current status - Better for not giant amounts of data and not multiple data sources. - If you need a lot of graphs to be displayed on the same page, it can be a bit glitchy during configuration (then the use works fine).
Filtering - you can filter across different dimensions and metrics to get a more specific "cut" of data
Refreshing - data automatically ingests into Looker which allows reports to be updated and backfilled in real time
Conditional Reporting - you can leverage Looker's reporting features to flag when a given metric or KPI falls below or above a specified threshold. For example, if you had a daily sales benchmark in a SAAS organization, you could use Looker to flag whenever daily sales falls above or below the benchmark
Looker is less graphical or pictorial which makes it less attractive
Consumes a lot of memory when there are multiple rows and columns, impacts performance too
At times when we download huge chunks of raw data from Looker dashbords, the time taken to prepare the file is enormous - The user fails to understand if Looker has frozen or if the data is getting prepared in the background for downloading. In turn, user ends up triggering multiple downloads
We've been very happy with Looker so far, and all teams in the organization are starting to see its value, and use it on a frequent basis. It has quickly become our accessible "source of truth" for all data/metrics.
Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
I have interacted with support on many occasions. They are professional and knowledgeable and have solved every issue and asked every question or directed me to the appropriate resource who can.
Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
Each of the other solutions required an ETL to prepare data for ingestion and presentation. Our requirements were for no ELT. Attempting to use raw data sources with both of the other solutions did not provide the performance required (or in the case of Tableau, never finished.) Incorta provides the capability to utilize citizen developers. The other solutions required technical skills beyond the average citizen developer.
Looker is an off-the-shelf, free tool for Google business users. Other than the internal cost of time to build, we had no costs to set up what we needed to do. Knowledge sharing internally and using templates greatly reduced this cost, making the overall cost very low.
Allowing others to self-serve their own analytics and connect it to Looker simply and easily has helped unblock the central data team so they can instead focus on validated dashboards whilst stakeholders manage their day-to-day analysis themselves. Countless engineering hours have been freed up by not having to manage every user permission for each BI tool; we have a BYOBI approach; Bring Your Own BI
Creation and management of a semantic layer (LookML =Looker Modeling Language ) allows peoples sandboxes and production databases to become clutter free. Minor adjustments, conditional fields, and even some modelling can all be done in LookML which doesn't need oversight or governance from the central data team.
LookML, specifying drilldown fields and their sub-queries, as well as generally creating dynamic parameters with Liquid are all great features, but can have a steep learning curve. it may take some time to understand how to create this middle layer correctly, or even pose a risk of inheriting complex code from another source which can be unmaintainable if it becomes too big. Some level of governance is recommended if Looker is used by a large number of editors.
