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Phocas Business Intelligence vs. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Phocas Business Intelligence

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/APhocas helps users discover data and provides results in real time.  It is designed for non-technical users and delivers a simple yet powerful analytical capability that quickly turns data into a chart, graph or map.  It brings up data on local, regional or global sales, inventory, forecasts, prices, profit margins, budgets and more. Phocas, based in the United Kingdom, is a business intelligence firm with offices in…N/A

    SSIS

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a data integration solution.N/A
    Pricing
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPhocas has built its business model on exceeding customer expectations. We’ve operated on a subscription basis from the start and in the words of Phocas Group chairman and co-founder Paul Magee: ‘That puts the onus on us to perform’. And we like that. In fact, our whole company ecosystem is built around that ‘light bulb moment’ when customers achieve a breakthrough by seeing their business through fresh eyes.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    Considered Both Products
    Phocas
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    84%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    9.0
    4 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Customizable dashboards9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    9.6
    4 Ratings
    18% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    9.3
    4 Ratings
    12% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to PDF10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling9.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    8.3
    4 Ratings
    4% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics8.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    9.9
    4 Ratings
    15% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.93 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    9.5
    3 Ratings
    21% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.0
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings9.056 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings5.043 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    6.8
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Simple transformations00 Ratings8.956 Ratings
    Complex transformations00 Ratings4.755 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.5
    54 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Data model creation00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Metadata management00 Ratings6.035 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow00 Ratings7.145 Ratings
    Collaboration00 Ratings9.140 Ratings
    Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.451 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of Phocas Business Intelligence and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Phocas Business Intelligence
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    5.4
    43 Ratings
    40% below category average
    Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings6.238 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings4.638 Ratings
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    Score8.1 out of 10
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    Score10 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (56 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Phocas Business IntelligenceSSIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Phocas
    If you would like your data in one place with easy access, this is the software for you. You can have data from multiple systems and bring it into one view so that you have a quick and easily visible dashboard for the data you wish to see.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As I mentioned earlier SQL Server Integration Services is suitable if you want to manage data from different applications. It really helps in fetching the data and generating reports. Its automation make it very easy and time efficient. It works well with large database as well. But it doesn't work well with real time data, it will take some time to gather the real time data. I would not recommend using it in a real time/fast-paced environment.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Phocas
    • Custom reports are simple to create.
    • The ability to manage users and their dashboards is solid.
    • Easy to navigate web interface makes the software accessible from anywhere.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Standard ETL use cases for daily loads
    • Loading incoming data from Vendors which is placed on FTP and adding them to the SQL Warehouse
    • Creating outgoing data files and writing them to Vendor FTPs
    • Easy Active Directory integration for seamless connections to SQL Server
    • CI/CD by hosting the code on visualstudio.com
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Phocas
    • Phocas needs to make it easier to connect to different types of databases.
    • The data in Phocas needs to be updated faster in some cases.
    • It needs to provide functions to create better charts and graphs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Connection managers for online data sources can be tricky to configure.
    • Performance tuning is an art form and trialing different data flow task options can be cumbersome. SSIS can do a better job of providing performance data including historical for monitoring.
    • Mapping destination using OLE DB command is difficult as destination columns are unnamed.
    • Excel or flat file connections are limited by version and type.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Phocas
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Some features should be revised or improved, some tools (using it with Visual Studio) of the toolbox should be less schematic and somewhat more flexible. Using for example, the CSV data import is still very old-fashioned and if the data format changes it requires a bit of manual labor to accept the new data structure
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Phocas
    It is a very user-friendly product and is easy to understand. You can get your data from just a quick click and the dashboard loads. You can take the data and drill down easy to find what you are looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SSIS is a great tool for most ETL needs. It has the 90% (or more) use cases covered and even in many of the use cases where it is not ideal SSIS can be extended via a .NET language to do the job well in a supportable way for almost any performance workload.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Phocas
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Integration Services performance is dependent directly upon the resources provided to the system. In our environment, we allocated 6 nodes of 4 CPUs, 64GB each, running in parallel. Unfortunately, we had to ramp-up to such a robust environment to get the performance to where we needed it. Most of the reports are completed in a reasonable timeframe. However, in the case of slow running reports, it is often difficult if not impossible to cancel the report without killing the report instance or stopping the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Phocas
    Support is responsive. You log a call and they will respond quickly and resolve your issues. We have only had great experiences with the support team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The support, when necessary, is excellent. But beyond that, it is very rarely necessary because the user community is so large, vibrant and knowledgable, a simple Google query or forum question can answer almost everything you want to know. You can also get prewritten script tasks with a variety of functionality that saves a lot of time.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Phocas
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The implementation may be different in each case, it is important to properly analyze all the existing infrastructure to understand the kind of work needed, the type of software used and the compatibility between these, the features that you want to exploit, to understand what is possible and which ones require integration with third-party tools
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Phocas
    Phocas is easy to use for end users and can be used on desktops, laptops, and phones.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I think SQL Server Integration Services is better suited for on-premises data movement and ADF is more suited for the cloud. Though ADF has more connectors, SQL Server Integration Services is more robust and has better functionality just because it has been around much longer
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Phocas
    • It has given our business a view on data
    • We can access it from anywhere
    • You can have multiple dashboards for different information
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Without this, we would have to manually update a spreadsheet of our SQL Server inventory
    • We would also have poor alerting; if an instance was down we wouldn't know until it was reported by a user
    • We only have one other person who uses SQL Server Integration Services , he's the expert. It would fall to me without him and I would not enjoy being responsible for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Phocas Business Intelligence Screenshots

    Screenshot of Phocas Dashboard on iPadScreenshot of Phocas Dashboard on Laptop