December 10, 2018
MicroStrategy Analytics Review: "MSTR Makes Data Analysis a Breeze"
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MicroStrategy Analytics is a platform for Business Intelligence (BI) and self-service analytics. It enables organizations worldwide to analyze the vast amounts of data stored across their enterprises to make better business decisions.
MicroStrategy currently has 3 versions:
- MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise: Enterprise-grade business intelligence
- MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop: Free self-service visual analytics
- MicroStrategy Analytics Express: Free cloud-based self-service visual analyticshttps://media.trustradius.com/product-logos/qq/iH/PZORMI8Q2P14.PNGMicroStrategyMSTR Makes Data Analysis a Breeze2018-12-10T23:55:23.265ZWe use MSTR organization wide to track KPIs for our brands. We have several dashboards set up based on brand and channel. MSTR allows for real time monitoring of KPIs and provides views of performance over time. It eliminates the need to constantly run queries to check results, saving countless hours of employee time.,Visual representation of data
Ease of use for setting up and modifying dashboards
Intuitive UX for non-experienced users,Sharing custom dashboards,10,8,6Verified UserIntensive and reliable tool2018-01-21T17:58:01.848ZMicrostrategy Analytics is widely used in the company across all departments. Different level of access can be provided to different level of responsible persons. It is a very easy tool to get access of past data with different reports and presenting it with the help of variety of dashboard and VIs. Data collection and analysis is an essential function of it.,Data collection/data access- The tool uses different attributes and metrics to generate data for you in a required format with required filters.
Data Visualization- The tool has great function of creating Dashboards which are specially useful for higher management to review it.
Data Analytics- With great amount of functions, it does most of the excel work within itself. Eliminates excel in most of the fronts.,Better user interface- The only thing that comes out is there is a high scope of modifying user interface. Currently it is not as good as Tableau in terms of user interface.,8,salesforce and Tableau,8,9,Salesforce Analytics Cloud, WebEx Meetings, SAS Advanced AnalyticsRishi Bavishi, CSSGB, CAPMMicrostrategy , very good but..2017-10-25T15:12:05.199ZWe are trying to use it across all the organization as the only tool where you can find all the data of the company, making all kind of dashboards for managers and final users. We've also made "live" dashboard showing the status of the company.
The major problem is to make end users move from Excel to MS. The company leaves all this effort to the IT Team and does not make this a strategic decision.,Easy of use
Has improved a lot the visualization of data
Fast,For use it take a lot of time to prepare the correct data. I don't know it there is some MicroSrategy magic solution to make it faster
Better comunication with client
Improve dashboards, losing with competitors,9,,8,7Gonzalo SegarraMicroStrategy Review2017-10-18T15:03:56.795ZIt is being used across our health center in every department, from admin to ops to clinics. We are trying to use it with our scheduling program's data feed to solve TAT issues, staffing issues, and tracking issues. We've implemented several new policies around appointment cancellations due to findings in Microstrategy data. We also take in a feed from our EMR system for patient data research.,I think the dashboards are quite helpful to visualize on the spot data.
Creation of facts and attributes is simple - I have no programming experience and was still able to create and modify these items.
Scheduling reports to be run on a daily, weekly, or hourly basis is simple. It provides updated data on a timed basis with no need to go back into the program.,The graph options are not as robust as an Excel user might want.
The metadata layer can sometimes be slower, and it takes a long time for reports to run.
Viewing the data feed entered can be cumbersome at times, in terms of validation with reports.,8,Tableau Online,5,6,Tableau OnlineVerified UserMicroStrategy - excellent tool in the right hands2017-03-01T21:57:41.823ZWe use MicroStrategy to provide a business intelligence solution for our clients. We use it to create reports and dashboards that our clients can use to analyze their business.,Customized dashboards between the desktop and web applications.
Shared objects which allows reusability in a number of different reports.,Web tool still doesn't have all the customization possible in the developer application.
Rigid star scheme requirements creates complications in unstructured data.
I would love to see out of the box "what-if" scenario functionality.,7,7,8Brandon FitzpatrickMicroStrategy - Why, When & Where ??2016-04-20T20:40:54.445ZMicrostrategy is used as a reporting solution in my work environment. Microstrategy is used to interact on Hadoop, Microsoft SQL Server Tables, and SSAS MDX Cubes. Microstrategy's Visual Insight is used as a self service tool replacing Pivot tables & graph building in Excel.,Visual Insight is a very good tool for data discovery and for create quick dashboard presentation. This is is basically a online web based portal where you have capability to quickly slice & dice the data . Also it provides you options to create derived metrics & derived attribute (MSTR 10) with various mathematical or statistical functions. One of the major mention would be the map based data visualization where you can plot data based on Latitude & Longitude.Also with MSTR 10 following limitations were removed i) using hyperlink ii) HTML 5 is implemented instead of Flash ,so easy to be rendered in mobile too iii) Adding images is possible for hardcoding company logo & symbols
Drilling Capabilities. This requires some good backend data modeling. Once you bring in all the facts and dimensions you are supposed to establish relationship between them & create hierarchies. Then it would be easy to drill more & more. For example - Device hierarchy - (Device Used by User--> Browser-->Operating System)
Data Source Connectivity.
Enterprise Manager is basically BI to BI environment which is used by administrators or executives to track reporting usage, report performance,developer efficiency or frequency of usage & thousands of other statistics which proves to be very helpful in monitoring the efficiency of the whole environment. Once you set up Enterprise miner( which is a bit tricky) you will be able to access all the in built documents or you can custom built dashboard based on your usage,Visual Insight have multiple limitations. Few of them are listed here - i)Cannot change default graph colors ii) text/graph formatting are very very limited iii)Add metric to Color by / Thresholds is not possible iv)one of the worst limitation of the VI in older versions is that it is not possible to create filters that apply only to a specific visualization. For example if there are 4 graphs in one dashboard & if you have filters then those filters would be applicable for all of them
Some formatting options are not there either on Web or Developer especially while dealing with a document. We have to use both Web & Developer to solve issues.
While connecting with MDX cube reporting loses a lot of features.,8,Tableau Desktop, Tableau Online, IBM Cognos, Microsoft BI,9,8Abanish MishraSimplifying reporting needs2016-07-29T18:29:28.368ZMicrostrategy is currently being used by several different departments within the organization. It makes our reporting easier, where it provides the flexibility to automate much of it, as well as provide an easy to use interface for non sql savvy employees. It solves many of our reporting needs,Central location for reporting, makes it easier for several different departments to access different information
Automated reporting - allows us to schedule customized reports
Well formatted reports that are easy to run,My organization is on an older version of the tool with a lot less bells and whistles
If an employee is familiar with SQL enough, they can avoid using microstrategy
No other major cons,9,aqt,Dayforce HCM,10,10,No,Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation,10,No,The best type of support, is solving a problem proactively, before it ever becomes a problem. With my experience in Mircrostrategy, we do not typically have any issues, and when we do, they are resolved extremely quickly.★Alex KhamudisComprehensive enterprise BI Tool2016-04-28T14:57:39.800ZMicroStrategy Analytics is used by our organization to create highly interactive dashboards and reports with cutting edge visualizations. Currently, the front end and dashboards are being developed by only a single department but reports and dashboards are consumed across the organization and even clients.
The main advantage of MicroStrategy Analytics is that it can be accessed online through a web browser which eliminates the need to carry heavy Excel files. Also, the reports and dashboards are updated in real time which was not possible with Excel based dashboards.,It helps create dashboards that are personalized to a particular type of user. The access to the specific sections of dashboards and reports can be controlled and only the intended audience can access that information. This helps with distributing the same dashboard to different departments and even competitors.
The reports are completely responsive to different devices and can be accessed via any device of any resolution. Also, MicroStrategy offers a vast range of power visualizations like heat maps and can also connect with third party applications like Google Maps for additional functionality. Also, this functionality is present even on mobile devices.
With its Online Analytical Processing capabilities, users can modify the reports by slicing and manipulating the data as per their needs without executing the SQL query in the backend. This helps in saving a lot of development time as individual users can modify the report online by using filters and slicers without requiring the coding know how.,ESRI ArcGIS maps can only be integrated and accessed with internet connectivity which becomes a limitation when using only with LAN connectivity.
The community/forum is not very active with a limited number of users and low quality content.
Some functionalities are missing from the web version and are only present in the desktop version. Also, dashboards over the web still lack integration with HTML5.,7,IBM Cognos, Microsoft BI, Qlik Sense and Tableau Desktop,Tableau Desktop, Evernote, Falcon.io,8,8Tapan JainEnterprise BI Solution - Not an Analytics solution2016-06-17T15:10:57.335ZMicrostrategy is used in one of our banking clients. It's used by different areas, some use it for alerts. Others use it as a dashboard solution or for ad-hoc reporting.,The governance and security layer, with the metadata layer.
Easy ad-hoc reporting creations.
Strong dashboard options.,Merging data from different sources has been improved a lot but it's not easy to create a query manually.
Training metrics - it's not easy to use for users. But the new method of R integration could change that.,8,Tableau Desktop, QlikView and Microsoft Power BI,Tableau Public, Microsoft Power BI,7,8Pablo TemponeMicroStrategy 10 - the best in BI2015-08-17T17:05:29.737ZWe're building a new data warehouse and reporting system. MicroStrategy will be at the forefront of our strategy, providing a robust, multi-language, multi-tenant architecture for our customers and internally. It replaces our Excel, CSV based reporting company-wide.,Without a doubt, it scales, it is robust and the performance is great.
The latest enhancements for version 10 (like replacing Flash with HTML 5) address some previous issues and concerns.
They've closed the gap they had with Tableau and similar products with the introduction of Desktop, while still providing governed, data discovery. Something Tableau lacks.,It is hard for me to point out room for improvement. Version 10 just came out and I haven't had the chance to fully experiment with it, but it looks very good so far.,10,Birst,10,We just started this project so we are still in development, but it will potentially scale to hundreds of users.,10,10Mario FerrerGround level perspective of MicroStrategy2014-09-12T18:42:42.992ZWe use MicroStrategy Analytics in many departments, the span of support goes from Business users to IT support. This tool is intended to be the "one stop shop" for all reporting needs. We are able to connect many different data sources which tend to be common in large companies. The current implementation met our needs in the past and we are adapting to use it better and more efficiently for future needs. I believe when configured correctly, this product can meet all requirements for our department and all other departments.,Extremely fast and reliable sql generation, report and document development.
Flexibility and integration with nearly all data sources.
Self reliant product, many out of the box products that allow easy maintenance, development, and monitoring.
Cost of product is more reasonable than many other in its class.
Reports and documents produced can be pixel perfect and allow for extremely custom dashboards and scorecards.,There are many tools and products in the whole Analytics suite, I find this cumbersome and would like to see all these tools brought together
There is no version control built into the product. Versioning seems outdated and the principle way of handling versions is outdated and I think should be remodeled.
To a new user, learning the entirety of all MicroStrategy products is difficult and can take a long time to adapt to.,9,,10,Our customers are mainly internal to the business having a user base in the hundreds. The types of users who are active with MicroStrategy range from business analysts to software developers.,10,7,10,Implemented in-house,Yes,As far as implementation of the infrastructure, there were not many.
The most difficult part of implementation was collecting all required information to accurately depict the data model.,10,Online training
Self-taught,10,This product is not easy to learn without training. I would not recommend a self taught approach. The classes are a bit expensive, however the time saved is worth it.,Yes,10,Yes,I received exceptional support when we had to change our entire data model and there were many concerns and questions I had with an upgrade path. The case was flagged by me as level 1 (highest) and I was contacted within minutes and given the solution within the hour.,Creating metrics and filters
Creating a mobile application
Creating dashboards
Use Visual Insights,Understanding the core of the IServer
The differences between MicroStrategy Web and MicroStrategy Developer. Some features exists in one and not the other.,Yes,7,10,10,10Paul CampbellMicrostrategy is 'great enough' for business.2013-11-06T20:51:31.279ZMicrostrategy is our primary BI delivery environment and is being used for the entire organization. We have a unique business case in that our organization is the BI department for hundreds of other organizations; however, attributes, metrics, and nomenclature are different although using the same data set. In addition, our data sets are 10s to 100s of millions of rows of data. Microstrategy scales for large datasets and has just enough flexibility to address these problems.,Aggregate awareness.
The ability for the SQL generator to select the correct aggregate table, whether a hierarchy or dates, is invaluable to organizations with less mature database developer resources.
Delivery of reports, particularly web-based delivery.
Microstrategy provides the most options for report delivery, scheduling, and formats; a requirement of self-service BI.
Managing metadata
Microstrategy's architecture prefers a star schema; this can serve as a virtual ER builder and help locate possible bottlenecks in the database design.,Scheduling delivery; the use of schedules is very inflexible.
Instead of building specific delivery objects, a schedule builder (similar to MS Outlook) will push Microstrategy ahead of the competition. The schedule objects add to the maintenance.
FTP/sFTP delivery options.
Internal delivery to file systems and availing the file location to FTP is good, but often times external FTP/sFTP is required. Currently, BI engineers have to build external processes to deliver to external FTP.
Desktop dashboard development; it is a bit disjointed.
Dashboard development options are different between desktop (now called developer) and web are different. We often have developer and web open at the same time to build dashboards.
Architect product; still hasn't gained global acceptance for schema management.
More flexible cross-tab development.
There's an idea I have about joining data sets where there's aggregate data combined with crosstab data. The example i use is a annual budget (metric) along side monthly spend (metric). Today, the annual budget must be an attribute which means it cannot be used in calculations.,8,Tableau Desktop,Emanio,QlikView,TIBCO Spotfire,Information Builders WebFOCUS,Pentaho,IBM Cognos,8,The tool is used company-wide; however, universal adoption is still slow. A lot of the adoption issues are because of UI/UX. We have begun a process to reface Microstrategy and integrate it into other internal systems and the adoption is rapidly growing.,7,7,(positive) Improved analytics delivery due to the flexibility of the web platform.
(positive) Generated new lines of business via dashboard development.
(negative) Long development cycles.
(positive) Shorter QA cycles for analytics leveraging Integrity Manager.,5,4,Standard analytics.
Business intelligence.
Dashboards.
Custom report generation.
Account management.,Mobile dashboards.
Client-specific, custom dashboards.
Validation of datasets.,Self-service BI.
Data warehouse design validation.
Two-way analytics to action system.,Yes,Price
Product Features
Existing Relationship with the Vendor,We probably would have forced a full bake off between Microstrategy and the other vendors instead of selecting a production based on an extended POC. We gave Microstrategy, and their consultants, an opportunity to customize the demos and features around the limitations of the product. Had we given the same opportunities to other potential vendors, I think the other vendor's would've had a better opportunity.,Implemented in-house
Professional services company,No,Change management was minimal,Forcing query optimization via level metrics and VLDB settings
Setting up DB connections
Styling, styling, styling,8,Yes,8,Yes,There have been multile times that we have had product installation and licensing issues. In every case they were able to provide both a temporary and permanent solution to our issue.,Grid Report Generation
User Management
Installation
Visual Insight,Documents/Dashboard
Database Connections
Attribute/metric generation
Report API
Styling,Yes,7Wm. Dexter JonesMicroStrategy is a great product for medium to large size companies.2016-06-23T19:37:24.033ZMicroStrategy Analytics is currently being used by Accounting, Finance, and Audit. It is being used to pull policy level detail reports, month end summary reporting for making entries to the general ledger, and MTD as well as YTD/ITD reporting with various views to support month end variance analysis. It is also used to perform SOX audit testing on an annual basis.,Automated reporting
Interactive dashboards
Large amounts of data,Formatting of reports
Moving data around on a report at the user level
Creating applications,9,Tableau Desktop,Spreadsheet Server, Microsoft Access,8,9Verified UserA full single sourced, enterprise BI Solution2016-01-29T18:45:52.008ZMicroStrategy Analytics is being used as a full BI enterprise solution. We use MicroStrategy's full set of products, sourcing from an array of database technologies, but mostly from Microsoft SQL Server, Hadoop, Spark, and Storm. MicroStrategy Analytics solves the business problem of company wide data silos. In conjunction with an enterprise data warehouse, we can create a single source solution.,MicroStrategy Analytics has the best mobile BI on the market right now. The level of efforts (LOE) is very low for this type of development.
MicroStrategy Analytics's self-serve BI is very valuable to our business users and can cut development for BI developers by enabling business users to find business answers themselves.
The caching of Intelligence Cubes in MicroStrategy Analytics is a game changer. I have I-cubes with billions of rows stored in memory, ready at any moment.,The developer desktop product could use some UI enhancements. It's been the same for many years.
The world would be a better place if custom groups and consolidation were supported in Visual Insight and I-Cubes.
A more simplify licensing model.
It's expensive.,9,,Tableau Desktop, Microsoft BI, IBM Cognos,9,9Verified UserMicroStrategy - sexy reporting, if you can afford it..2016-02-10T17:36:04.836ZWe created a new tool from scratch for our clients to be able to view their spend across all regions. MicroStrategy Analytics was brought on to help power the analytics portion of the tool.,Dashboards - MicroStrategy creates some very nice and visually appealing dashboards.
Data - The amount and volume of data that MicroStrategy can crunch is impressive, and it's a flexible tool to be configured and used how we want.
Speed - Despite the massive amount of data collected, it runs quite quickly.,Cost to implement - since they use partner firms to do many of their implementations (perhaps all, not sure?), the implementation is quite pricey if you want a full featured product.,8,IBM Cognos,8,8,Professional services company,Yes,Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled,Technology constraints connecting our data warehouse to the BI tool.,8Verified User
Windows, Mac
MicroStrategy Analytics
215 Ratings
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