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Birst is a versatile business intelligence tool that caters to multiple departments across organizations. Users from Sales, Finance, …
Starting at $30,000 Per 20 Users Per Year
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What is Infor Birst?
Infor 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,…
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Popular Features
- Drill-down analysis (78)8.080%
- Customizable dashboards (77)8.080%
- Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.) (72)8.080%
- Formatting capabilities (77)7.070%
Pricing
Basic License
$30,000
On Premise
Per 20 Users Per Year
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://bit.ly/2n6VznO
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Extending Analytics in CloudSuite Distribution - Demo
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Analytics Anytime, Anywhere - Birst Mobile Demo
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Automated Data Refinement in Infor Birst - Demo
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Best Practices For Increasing Adoption of Analytics - Demo
YouTube
Infor Birst How-To Series – Connecting to Databases
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Product Details
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- Tech Details
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What is Infor Birst?
Infor Birst is a BI product that enables a single view of data and eliminate data silos. Additionally, decentralized teams and individual users can augment this shared analytic fabric with their own local data, without compromising data governance. This consistency comes from a unified semantic layer, which maintains common definitions and key metrics, no matter where users sit.
Birst achieves Networked BI through a 2-tier architecture that aligns back-end enterprise data with line-of-business or local, edge data. Birst’s Automated Data Refinement extracts data from any source (data stores, applications, warehouses, big data, and unstructured external sources) into a unified semantic layer. The result is a consistent view that enables users with self-service analytics through dashboards, reporting, visual discovery, mobile tools, and predictive analytics. Birst Open Client Interface also offers integration with Tableau, Excel and R.
Birst goes to market in two primary ways:
- Direct, for enterprises using Birst for analytics on internal data to drive improved business outcomes
- Embedded, for all size companies who offer data (analytics) products, by embedding and white-labeling Birst capabilities into their products
Birst’s product is packaged in 3 available formats:
- Platform and per-user fee
- By Department or Business Unit
- By end-customer (for embedded scenarios)
Infor Birst Features
BI Platform Features
- Supported: Administration via Windows App
- Supported: Administration via MacOS App
- Supported: Administration via Web Interface
- Supported: Live Connection to External Data
- Supported: Snapshot of External Data
- Supported: In-memory data model
- Supported: OLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
- Supported: ROLAP (SQL-layer querying)
- Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
- Supported: Data warehouse / dictionary layer
- Supported: ETL Capability
- Supported: ETL Scheduler
Supported Data Sources Features
- Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
- Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
- Supported: Oracle
- Supported: MS SQL Server
- Supported: IBM DB2
- Supported: Postgres
- Supported: MySQL
- Supported: ODBC
- Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
- Supported: Hortonworks Hadoop
- Supported: EMC Greenplum
- Supported: IBM Netezza
- Supported: HP Vertica
- Supported: ParAccel
- Supported: SAP Hana
- Supported: Teradata
- Supported: Salesforce
- Supported: SAP
- Supported: Google Analytics
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to Web
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
- Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Mobile Application
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Infor Birst Screenshots
Infor Birst Videos
Infor Birst Competitors
Infor Birst Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Mac |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
| Supported Countries | All |
| Supported Languages | Arabic, English, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Spanish |
Infor Birst Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Infor 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.
Alteryx, InsideSales.com / XANT Predictive Pipeline (discontinued), and Datameer are common alternatives for Infor Birst.
Reviewers rate Report Delivery Scheduling and Multi-User Support (named login) highest, with a score of 9.
The most common users of Infor Birst are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Reviews and Ratings
(186)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Birst is a versatile business intelligence tool that caters to multiple departments across organizations. Users from Sales, Finance, Accounting, and HR departments rely on Birst to establish a single source of truth and move away from individual definitions of data. Zalora, for example, utilizes Birst as their primary tool for self-service data needs, including data extraction for operational purposes and simple ad-hoc analysis. The fulfillment center employs Birst to track item or product level KPIs, while the marketing teams make use of Birst Live data and dashboards to monitor campaign sales and discounts. Birst integrates with various data sources like Google Analytics, event tracking, operational data, and sales data through a separate data warehouse. By distributing reports and dashboards across the company for viewing, Birst serves as an enterprise-wide BI visualization and distribution platform that supports different revenue models while providing reporting automation, visualization, and distribution capabilities. Furthermore, Birst is embedded into cloud-based software provided to customers, enabling the monitoring of software utilization and tracking of marketing campaigns. Salesforce users benefit from BIRST Dashboards integrated into Salesforce pages as it provides sales analytics and pipeline tracking. The time-to-delivery advantage offered by Birst was one of the reasons it was chosen by many organizations. It allows for simple gathering of company-wide data streams without the need for manual data warehouse construction or report building. With Birst's robust features, it is used across various industries and departments such as SCM & Operations teams, Sales teams, partners, finance, marketing, product management, clinical data analysis in hospitals, education institutions for measuring performance effectiveness and much more. Overall, Birst fulfills a wide range of use cases and enables businesses to analyze data effectively and gain valuable insights to drive informed decision-making throughout the organization.
Highly versatile and user-friendly: Users have found Birst to be a highly versatile and user-friendly business intelligence tool. They appreciate the intuitive user interface, which makes tasks easy to perform. Many reviewers have mentioned that even users with limited technical skills can quickly navigate the platform and start using its features effectively.
Knowledgeable and proactive support: Many users highly value the knowledgeable and proactive support provided by Birst. The support team is responsive and helpful in providing excellent guidance. Reviewers have expressed satisfaction with their interactions with the support team, highlighting their expertise in resolving issues promptly.
Customizable user interface: Users appreciate the customizable user interface of Birst, which allows them to tailor the platform to their changing business needs. The flexibility of the interface is seen as a major advantage by several reviewers who mention being able to personalize dashboards, reports, and visualizations according to their specific requirements.
Confusing User Interface: Users have found the user interface of Birst to be perplexing and not user-friendly. Some reviewers have mentioned that it has a steep learning curve and lacks proper organization and categorization of custom expressions.
Lack of Support from Technical Team: Several users expressed frustration with the lack of support from Birst's technical team. They reported difficulties in reaching them over the phone and dissatisfaction with their insistence on scheduling calls even after submitting detailed tickets.
Difficult Data Modeling Process: Users encountered challenges with data modeling in Birst, especially for those who were new to the platform. The ETL tools were described as inadequate, leading some users to rely on alternative platforms for data warehousing.
Users commonly recommend Birst for its intuitive and effective business intelligence and data analysis capabilities. They attribute Birst as a comprehensive solution with a low total cost of ownership. Additionally, users suggest Birst for its cloud-based central BI solutions, emphasizing their focus on security and scalability. Another frequently mentioned recommendation is Birst's top-notch visualization capabilities, making it an ideal choice for organizations seeking advanced data visualization tools. Users also find Birst to be highly capable and user-friendly, highlighting its excellent analytics and AI capabilities.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(51-75 of 96)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
- Intuitive navigation. Fast and clean interactive output.
- Back-end incremental updates out of the box. This feature alone is huge.
- Role playing time dimensions are extremely easy to set up. No sweat.
- Back-end administration is very capable, but rustic, rough on the edges. Just a little improvement here (mainly UI) will make a huge difference.
- Having two reporting authoring tools is a little strange, but after all they do have different use-cases, so not terrible.
February 28, 2017
Nerd Crush.
- The way Birst simplifies and integrates the ETL with the creation of the star schema is the biggest strength in my opinion. I didn't find any competition that was even close.
- The all-in-one cloud solution is a huge plus as well. Because they have the back end and front end in one solution they have a huge incentive to see that the customer's projects succeed. The overhead for managing multiple products or disaster recovery for a data warehouse has the potential to be a huge headache.
- The pre-built Salesforce.com connection/ETL/DataModel was another big deal for us. This probably took 6 months off of our timeline. Also, being able to look at the code for how they did it continues to be a boon to my learning curve.
- The user interface for the administration and development could use a face-lift. Although I believe this is happening very soon.
- As a small implementation we've had some issues finding a suitable outside partner for consultation.
February 01, 2017
Agility is the name of the game
- End-to-end S/PaaS BI platform: ELT, data warehouse repository, semantic layer, reporting. Using the UI, command window or web service calls we can create, clone, refresh all or any part of the platform. This means we can manage the environment with greater agility, smaller team size and no need for specific DBA, Sys Admin, etc. type skills. The team can focus on their core competency as BI specialists.
- The automated semantic layer, created as you add data sources and map them to facts/dimensions, allows us to be more agile than typical on-premise solutions, or former on-premise solutions that have been ported to the "cloud", and so we are able to greatly reduce the time-to-value for the customer. This in turn, leads to better user engagement and support.
- Birst's Networked BI functionality allows us to define dimensions/facts in one subject area (Birst language: Space) and reuse them in others. This feature means we do not need to create a large centralized warehouse, nor involve DBAs to create database specific links across schemas/databases (the feature is a simple configuration). Development time on subsequent subject areas can be greatly reduced whenever you can reuse existing dimensions/facts.
- The new release of Birst 6 allows business users to create their own sandbox environment in which they can import and analyze their own datasets, linking this to already curated (IT managed) information from the Birst subject areas (spaces). Once they have generated information that has value to a broader audience, this can then easily/quickly be linked back into the curated subject areas.
- User administration could be greatly improved. Most user administration tasks (creation, security assignments, etc.) are singular i.e., one action at a time. If you want to batch these activities up, it is up to you to have scripts or create your own mini app to do this.
- ELT development is still using old Flash technology and still requires a lot of coding. It would be nice to have a GUI approach to defining load and transformation processes.
- There is a need for supporting multi-developer teams e.g. ability to lock objects being worked on, check-in/out, version control, etc.
January 19, 2017
Great for technical Data analists!
- Combining multiple data sources
- ETL and reporting functionality
- Very simple mobile support (Tablet and Smartphone)
- Better GUI when scripting
- Fix bugs in the software much faster
- Have some kind of version control
November 18, 2016
Cloud Analytics the Pioneer
- Agility and speed to deploy a datamart or data warehouse very quickly.
- Drill down and drill through capability from summary to detail level data.
- Easy Integration with Salesforce.com.
- More visibility into the backend, troubleshooting still has a large split still between support and professional services.
- Improved multideveloper support (check-in and check-out capability).
- Better versioning of metadata.
July 28, 2016
Birst: Even brightest solutions cast shadows
- Dashboard design are pretty easy
- Predefined Geo-Reports (maps) for US Zip Codes.
- BirstConnect could be more assisted.
- Visualization limits (ie rows shown) cannot be modified.
- Lack of advanced security configuration to compose advanced security architectures.
July 19, 2016
Plug and Play BI Tool
- Birst has inbuilt application connectors for most common purposes - ERP/CRM etc.
- It comes as a single suite module from ETL to reporting and dashboards.
- The most important is Birst is a cloud based BI and can be accessed from anywhere anytime from mobiles/iPods/tablets and PCs.
- Have to provide functions to apply color palettes and themes based on individual users/clients
July 06, 2016
1 year of Birst
- The Visualizer, is really easy for the end user
- The creation of Virtual Cubes
- The Data enrichment and cleaning
- Long learning curve, an uncommon paradigm
- Long time to process many lines of data (10kk) data
- Usability needs to get better
May 24, 2016
Long time Birst Customer - Still Happy!
- We have data in so many disparate places/sources. Birst allowed us to aggregate all the data together fairly easily so output was unified, consistent and accurate.
- The development tools in Birst allow us to easily adjust, change and create new reports and dashboards quickly. Sales is an 'in the moment' business - we need in the moment data and we get that with Birst.
- Their customer support is top tier. We've been a client for a very long time and still get the same attention and support that we did when they were a much smaller company. And really - no matter the value of product, if you don't have good support from the company, it's about worthless.
- The new upgrade process is a bit clunky and takes a considerable amount of time.
- They've apparently stopped supporting the use of fixed width delimited flat files. That may be a bit of a problem for us in the future - still trying to work through it with them.
- Cloud based platform means lower cost and faster development.
- The visualizer tool is great for quickly producing visually stunning reports out of the box.
- Birst can build your BI warehouse for you which allows more time for designer and delivering reports.
- The layout tools in designer are hard to use if you try to modify the layout after you have already added content to the report.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- The integration of all the elements of a BI platform into a single tool is a big advantage. All the components are tightly coupled (ETL, business layer, report creation, dashboards), and that makes it easier to manage.
- The fact that it is based on a cloud platform makes deployment amazingly simple. The appliance version can be run on AWS, which gives access to all the capabilities of the Amazon platform.
- The move towards HTML5 is very effective, the reports and dashboards look good and are based on responsive design.
- Coming from a traditional data warehousing background, the data modeling in Birst is difficult to understand. The use of hierarchies, measures, "targeting" of fields needs some time to get used to.
- The transition from the Flash-based tools to the HTML5 tools has not been smooth, and some features still only exist into the Flash tools.
- Maps are not working well at all. It is possible to use the Geo Maps and Bing Maps in the Flash-based tools, but only Bing Maps in HTML5 tools. This is very limiting, and the features available for formatting, adding bubbles and labels, positioning etc. are weak.
May 01, 2016
Flexible end-to-end solution
- Automated Data Warehouse
- Single interface for admin, design, and consumption
- Reports/dashboards are dynamic and aware of model navigation
- UI is slowly getting sexy, but didn't start there
- Modelling is limited to single user. Waiting for multiuser concurrency in this area.
April 13, 2016
A BI tool that actually delivers!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Dashboard presentation and updates. Allows the user to "run" varying reports and see data based on comprehensive prompts. Reduces the time necessary to run "more" reports. Saves time, improves accuracy and consistency in reviewing data.
- Designing reports. Simple reports take minutes yet offer extreme flexibility when used within the dashboard. Reduces response time to internal and external clients.
- Data Management. The process to setup and manage data requires planning and accuracy. Because of this, data is stable.
- Copying Dashboard Prompts (filters). While the product has very flexible prompts and the ability to add them readily, you can not copy prompts from one dashboard page to another. You have to either copy the dashboard or manually add the prompts.
- User Management: The system provides a robust set of security layers for data, users, etc. For user security, the process requires more screens than it appears to need.
April 13, 2016
New User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Great development team
- Great management team
- Great service plan
- Don't know of any yet.
February 04, 2016
Base jump into BI cloud
- Deployment time was fast.
- Since it is on the cloud, my users get 100% availability. and I do not have to take care of it.
- The BI front-End is very flexible. we get great looking reports and dashboards.
- Good mobile device integration. (Apple).
- No future integration with google mobile androids.
- Missing some deep metadata analysis of report consumption by end users.
December 23, 2015
Birst Analytics
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Very easy to quickly iterate
- Great support team
- Wonderful user community
- Part of the old Flash based components need to be updated
October 01, 2015
Birsting with BI Success
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Single solution, integrated end to end [ETL, database, Administration, Design, Dashboards presentation].
- Very stable application - uptime is great, software upgrades seamless.
- Administration Tools: users, groups, security, customization very intuitive.
- Quick start.
- Pace of introduction of new features.
- Community sharing portal is an excellent resource of Knowledge Base documentation, and discussions of challenges/resolutions by other customers.
- Community is also used to submit ideas and enhancement requests, so that voting raises top recommendations, Birst listens and responds.
- Birst defines their success as achieved by our success.
- Ability to find things in Think Tank Community, need a better way to keep similar topics grouped, inconsistent tags.
- Community: assumption that this is the first place for answers to issues; which causes time extension for resolution of business challenge.
- Training: need some freebee's like single topic Lunch & Learn webinars
September 30, 2015
Pre-implementation assessment and expectations.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- We will begin training on Birst next week and begin Blueprint the following week.
- Birst Support will be our SI on the project.
- Expect the major advantage will be one source of the Truth and getting organization to understand visualization.
- Majority of our users are in China. We need to ensure that the speed is acceptable so the users do not get discouraged about the application.
- Importing Excel data and combining it with data in the Master Space will be very powerful and hopefully will be rolled out soon.
September 30, 2015
Dazed and confused Newbie
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Data Modeling
- User Interface
- Mid-level training resources
September 30, 2015
Onward and upward
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- We use the cloud edition and have grown to appreciate this aspect of the product. Not having to maintain the BI infrastructure has allowed us to focus on our core business.
- We utilize the live access feature to deliver real time operations reporting to our exec and sales teams.
- Support to export to a native excel pivot table is highly desirable.
- The pivot control in the designer is very difficult to use. There needs to be better way to reorder the measures and dimensions.
August 19, 2015
We've never looked back
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Implementation was incredibly quick and easy. I did the full implementation in-house with some help from our Birst support team. No internal engineering support needed.
- Vast customization capabilities. Due to the nature of the Birst Cloud Data Warehouse, it can handle just about any and all data sources. Scripting in the warehouse is quite robust allowing for better integration across source systems, data quality and consistency.
- Support is great. Without any internal support from engineering, I rely heavily on Birst support when things start acting up or I just have some simple how-to questions. They are always very prompt and helpful and have great knowledge of the product.
- They're still using some flash components in the product although I'm told they will be replaced with HTML5 versions soon.
- Advanced statistical analysis (i.e. Bayesian) requires separate systems. It would be great to see Birst implement some R functions to allow more flexibility in this regard.
June 05, 2015
Gave it our best shot!
- Easy model development
- Good visuals
- Solid blending capabilities
- Difficult setup
- Not "Land and Expand" model. Must be organizationally committed.
June 05, 2015
Got Birst?
- User friendly interface - easy to adapt to and start creating valuable reports
- Birst's Customer Success Team - always responds to emails in a timely manner. This is really important to new customers, and Birst has a great, intelligent, and hard working CSM assigned to every customer
- Think Tank - this is a great tool for immediate help and feedback. You can always expect someone in the Birst family to help assist you with any of your needs
- More features in Visualizer would be great. I am currently using designer to complete most of my reports
- A better Geo Map - The Birst standard geo map is not as robust and most of their chart options. A geo map with zip code capabilities would be a great feature
- Faster data processing
June 02, 2015
Birst
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Cloud based
- Ease of use
- Drill down on dashboards
- Data modeling is not user friendly
- Lack of support
- Interface freeze from time to time
May 12, 2015
Birstastic!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Data visualization that is consumer friendly.
- Listening to their customer base.
- Effective prioritization of roadmap
- More focus on the developer experience.
- Flexibility for automated event notification and customization