ibi WebFOCUS vs. Microsoft BI (MSBI)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ibi WebFOCUS
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
The ibi™ WebFOCUS® product is an enterprise business intelligence and analytics solution equipped with data management, visual discovery, predictive analytics, and visualizations. Combining these capabilities and data science in one unified containerized platform, the WebFOCUS® solution can be used to make data-driven decisions across the enterprise and provide reports, dashboards, and customer-facing applications at scale.N/A
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.
$9.99
per user/per month
Pricing
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Power BI Pro
$9.99
per user/per month
Power BI Premium
4,995
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Considered Both Products
ibi WebFOCUS

No answer on this topic

Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
OBIEE, Cognos, and Business Objects. Microsoft BI provided ETL, basic reporting, and cubes for analytics at a reasonable price.
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
7.7
11 Ratings
6% below category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.6
49 Ratings
5% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.06 Ratings9.042 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.011 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.011 Ratings8.947 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
9.3
13 Ratings
14% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.7
49 Ratings
7% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.013 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Formatting capabilities10.013 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.08 Ratings8.939 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration10.012 Ratings8.949 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
8.2
11 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
48 Ratings
6% above category average
Publish to Web10.09 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.09 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Report Versioning6.010 Ratings8.940 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling10.011 Ratings8.943 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.03 Ratings8.924 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
6.3
10 Ratings
25% below category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
48 Ratings
10% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.08 Ratings8.947 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.09 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.07 Ratings8.942 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
9.0
11 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
49 Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.011 Ratings8.946 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model10.011 Ratings8.943 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.011 Ratings8.946 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.04 Ratings8.928 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
5.9
11 Ratings
30% below category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.5
39 Ratings
6% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.011 Ratings8.036 Ratings
Mobile Application3.32 Ratings8.027 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.08 Ratings9.936 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
ibi WebFOCUS
8.6
3 Ratings
8% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
21 Ratings
10% above category average
REST API10.01 Ratings8.919 Ratings
Javascript API8.02 Ratings8.919 Ratings
iFrames8.02 Ratings8.918 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.03 Ratings8.918 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.01 Ratings8.017 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings8.917 Ratings
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ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(16 ratings)
8.7
(73 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(5 ratings)
8.0
(25 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(3 ratings)
8.9
(14 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(3 ratings)
8.9
(15 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(3 ratings)
Online Training
6.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
ibi WebFOCUSMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
IBI (Information Builders)
I would less recommend it because it looks like IBI is receding a bit from the European market. I would not be certain for future support. Knowledge in the market in western Europe is limited Functional wise the application suits almost all situations. I would for sure recommend it purely based on its capabilities
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Microsoft
Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
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Pros
IBI (Information Builders)
  • One thing that has always been good at WebFOCUS is how they interact with the customer on items. They take suggestions and implement them. In addition technical support is timely and very detailed.
  • I think they keep up with and lead in implementing new technologies in the BI space. One case of this are the ability for user to create their own easy dashboard using the green plus buttons. Also the ability to link d3 into and have the ability to implement new types of graphs is nice.
  • I have been to a spoke at one of their user conferences and they are worth going to. In addition to all of the great seminars the interaction you get with vendors and other users is key in the growth of your knowledge. I've learned so much for my time at these conferences.
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Microsoft
  • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
  • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
  • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
  • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
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Cons
IBI (Information Builders)
  • The newest versions of WebFOCUS have an unnecessarily complicated security layout that makes configuration difficult to accomplish without bringing in the vendor for installs.
  • This software tries to cover too many bases allowing you to switch from writing code manually to creating reports using only GUI tools. This sometimes complicates screens and functionality where the two methods don't always work well together. -though its nice to have the choice.
  • The sales force is not as top notch as many software companies
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Microsoft
  • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
  • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
  • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
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Likelihood to Renew
IBI (Information Builders)
This software is deeply engrained with my organization and has become a tool that would not easily be replaced without spending more money and resources to get the same results. License cost is comparable to other report writing tools and the capabilities are greater than the competition without having to buy multiple apps to do the same thing.
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Microsoft
Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
IBI (Information Builders)
Best BI tool/product I have used. The others don't compare overall. Some can look fancier, but when you actually use them with large data and data from numerous systems/sources that is where most of the competition falls away. I also don't like downtime. I have basically none for a large user base with WebFocus. Even SAP Crystal Reports went down for 4 days once - 4 days because the admin password got locked out due to a glitch and we had zero reports for 4 days. WebFocus has never had more than a few minutes of downtime. It's like a tank that just keeps rolling. There is no other choice for reliable BI.
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Microsoft
The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
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Reliability and Availability
IBI (Information Builders)
Tracking availability formally for almost two years and we are at 99.8%
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Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
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Performance
IBI (Information Builders)
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
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Support Rating
IBI (Information Builders)
They have extremely knowledgeable techs that I have worked with over the years. Some have actually become really good friends of mine. I see them often at local user groups and when we show them how we are using their tools to save millions of dollars throughout the company
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Microsoft
While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
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In-Person Training
IBI (Information Builders)
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
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Online Training
IBI (Information Builders)
It's hit and miss, the last class was overcrowded and people were having trouble connecting which took up much of the time. Instructors vary
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Microsoft
I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
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Implementation Rating
IBI (Information Builders)
Plan ahead on what data will be accessible and the type of security required on the database and if you will want to use security that is built into the software. It is worth consulting with the vendor on what your plan is and how they recommend you proceed in order to get results you are happy with.
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Microsoft
We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
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Alternatives Considered
IBI (Information Builders)
Webfocus handles the side of our business that is involved with our catalogs. Our catalogs is a huge revenue driver for us and this tool has been extremely useful with planning feature catalogs. Tableau is used more for marketing and merchandising purchases since we can filter data based on website sales.
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Microsoft
We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
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Return on Investment
IBI (Information Builders)
  • We are not yet a success story. Though we've been implementing WebFOCUS for over a year, we have very few products in our Production portal. Of course, this is not all the responsibility of Information Builders, but we were ill-advised by our 'training coordinator' in our training of staff and coming up to speed with the tools has been very slow.
  • Once skilled analysts and professional IT staff achieve a grasp of the products, they are able to very quickly create polished and well-received products.
  • The DW/BI project has helped us to establish standards and protocols of communication that will allow us to more quickly meet knowledge transfer requirements
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Microsoft
  • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
  • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
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ScreenShots