[KNIME Analytics] is greatly suited for repetitive tasks one has to perform in excel as it automates these mundane tasks. [KNIME Analytics] is also well suited for creating a seamless connection with other BI tools to enable hands-free file sharing. [KNIME Analytics] has improvements to make on the overall User interface, its data visualization package and advanced level of AI-related tasks such as text mining,
It's a great tool to merge actual data analysis (which Lumira doesn't do that well) with visualization (which Lumira does well) - so it can be seen as Lumira for data analysts. However, a lot of the 'predictive' side is hidden/black box which can be frustrating for those analysts, so you could argue it is too complex for casual users, but too 'black box' for analysts.
It doesn't require you to have a Ph.D. to build models!
You can use it to address a very large and wide dataset without worrying about sampling.
Automation is in the product DNA. You can prepare your data, ingest it into the "Kernel", then get insights about what was found, decide to publish it and schedule scoring tasks or model refresh in the same product.
Since it is relatively new, there has not developed a vast previously asked/frequently asked questions library that comes up when you google an issue you come across with. This will happen only in time, and as the community grows. Because of the same reason, the community is not big. Consequently, it is possible not to receive good, fast responses to asked questions in community hubs and forums.
The documentation provides an explanation about what features are available but not necessarily what's happening behind the scenes. On the other side, the "community" has grown since the acquisition and most questions are properly addressed by SAP folks. Since the "product maintenance" mode announcement was made, there wasn't much new content published except on the Smart Predict side (which is built by the SAP Predictive Analytics team)
Alteryx : allows for generally "data" knowledgeable workers to easily implement and develop a data model in an automated fashion. The collaboration tools built in also make is easy for members to share work, best practices, and custom modules
Alteryx is not cloud based solution where as KNIME Analytics has that
Alteryx was selected due to better user interface and better in data analytics
We have typically used Spotfire for data analysis but decided to move to SAP Business Objects due to its innate connection with SAP. I found Lumira to be good for visualizations but it is not meant for data analysis. Therefore, we have introduced Predictive Analytics to see if it can fill that gap. So far, it's been far less intuitive than Spotfire to get started, and as far as I am aware so far, it does not bring many additional capabilities. I do, however, like that it utilizes the Lumira look/feel and integrates very well.
It is suited for data mining or machine learning work but If we're looking for advanced stat methods such as mixed effects linear/logistics models, that needs to be run through an R node.
Thinking of our peers with an advanced visualization techniques requirement, it is a lagging product.
