Board Review
Updated May 12, 2020
Board Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Board
Currently, Board is used to propose navigable standard dashboards to the company management. By company management, I mean the Board of Directors, the district managers (in reference to the distribution of our branches in the area), and the division managers (in reference to the specialization sectors of our operators). The information that is proposed concerns sales, customer orders, supplier orders, purchases, the warehouse, holidays for employees, and credit control.
- The first strong point is in the management of the dates, intended as comparisons between dates of different years.
- The second strong point is data navigability (Drill).
- The third strong point is the possibility of having users customize those reports and charts which they must access more frequently.
- The definition of the time frame present in the different databases can be improved. It is not possible to move the initial year once entered, except through the intervention of a technician.
- The display performance of the reports can be improved; in databases that have a lot of data and many dimensions of analysis (i.e. entities defined in cubes), there are significant performance decays.
- The other parts that can be improved concern the implementation part of the cubes and entities present in the databases: they do not follow the rules of relational databases and do not have precise logic.
- The creation of dashboards/graphics is not as immediate as some competitors (see Qlik, Infragistic Reveal, Analisys Services) in the sense that, without a course, one cannot achieve it independently.
- The distribution of certified data allowed a more immediate comparison without preliminary discussions on the veracity of the data.
- Board allowed a simple approach to data navigation, increasing the use of the BI tool.
- Qlik Sense and Reveal
In truth, Board was not selected in place of the others. Board is the historical BI tool alongside Microsoft Analysis Services. As for Qlik Sense, it was purchased with 10 server version licenses to be able to support and possibly replace the Board because of the performance that should be better for the same size and analysis measures. As for Infragistic Reveal it will probably be the tool that allows you to distribute simpler business reports to a larger number of users: the sales force. This is because Reveal has an unquestionably more accessible cost/user for a large number of users both compared to Board and Qlik and, nonetheless, it connects directly to the Microsoft Analysis Services environment from which it inherits user profiling.
Board Feature Ratings
Using Board
25 - They are the BoD, the heads of the commercial districts, the heads of the divisions and the administrative heads. The district managers supervise the stores and agents that cover the territory. The division managers oversee the technicians and salespeople who cover certain product sectors (such as automation, home automation, industrial plants, civil plants, alternative energy etc ...).
2 - An AD that deals with identifying the dashboards to be
implemented, checks them and explains the results to other users. A developer
(me) who monitors and corrects any problems that may occur, also taking
advantage of the Board assistance service and / or the partner companies that
have followed the development.
implemented, checks them and explains the results to other users. A developer
(me) who monitors and corrects any problems that may occur, also taking
advantage of the Board assistance service and / or the partner companies that
have followed the development.
- Sales and customer orders
- Purchases and supplier orders
- Credit and staff management
- The ability to navigate in nightmares by literally immersing yourself in the details of the data
- The possibility of creating prospectuses extracted from the capsules for immediate data
- The ability to compare different periods in a rather simple way.
- Take advantage of access to the Server Board from each platform using the html5 base of the new version 11.2
Evaluating Board and Competitors
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
It was not I who decided to buy Board. He was already present in the company when I was hired in 2012. They then instructed me to deal with it from 2013 onwards along with all the rest of the products we use in BI. I met Board after the transition from version 6 to version 7 was made (it was not painless). Speaking with the administrator, I learned that the choice had been made towards Board because in that period it was one of the products that boasted the best specifications, brochures and graphics, and had a good reputation among users who used it in other companies. After the choice, investments were made which proceeded with the development through this product.
Today, after 7 years of experience, you have a different
view of BI tools. There are certainly more inputs, also from other users, which
concern the pros and cons of each instrument. Even reviews made by
professionals through the sites have their importance, since they are the
result of experience, often years, of the problems they find.
Board Implementation
- Third-party professional services
The Board project was developed in collaboration with Orange
Company (Perugia branch). The first development was made before 2012 with the
version of Board 6. Subsequently, the update was made to version 7, then also
to version 8, always by the same company. At the same time as the transition to
version 7, databases and capsules (brochures) were revised. The transition from
version 8 to 10.1.2 was carried out with the support of a Novidis technician
from San Benedetto del Tronto (AP) who allowed us to have a lower impact on the
usual migration problems. Today we always turn to Novidis for any type of
problem.
Company (Perugia branch). The first development was made before 2012 with the
version of Board 6. Subsequently, the update was made to version 7, then also
to version 8, always by the same company. At the same time as the transition to
version 7, databases and capsules (brochures) were revised. The transition from
version 8 to 10.1.2 was carried out with the support of a Novidis technician
from San Benedetto del Tronto (AP) who allowed us to have a lower impact on the
usual migration problems. Today we always turn to Novidis for any type of
problem.
Change management was minimal - No substantial changes occurred as those who were able to
use Board already had experience with the same data on Excel reports linked to
the cubes of Microsoft Analysis Services. Surely the convenience of always
having self-updating brochures, not having to intervene on the dates for
comparisons and having all the main indicators and values in a single screen,
have brought significant advantages. In this phase, users were equipped with 27
"/ 32" monitors with 2K resolution, in order to have complete (or
almost) complete control of the company in a single dashboard.
use Board already had experience with the same data on Excel reports linked to
the cubes of Microsoft Analysis Services. Surely the convenience of always
having self-updating brochures, not having to intervene on the dates for
comparisons and having all the main indicators and values in a single screen,
have brought significant advantages. In this phase, users were equipped with 27
"/ 32" monitors with 2K resolution, in order to have complete (or
almost) complete control of the company in a single dashboard.
- The main problem was user profiling
- Another problem was the limitation of the dimensions (or entities) present in the individual Board info-cubes with respect to the analysis dimensions of the cubes present in the Microsoft Analysis Services environment.
- Another problem was to make people understand the different ways of implementing sales data
Board Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - The only time I needed assistance was due to a problem in the prints: the colors of
the brochures as they were on the screen were not reproduced in the print, but
a series of standard colors were reproduced. This fact made colored numbers on
a colored background illegible. From the assistance they confirmed that it was
a problem of version 10.2 that occurred when leaving the brochures with the
default colors proposed by Board. To obtain the desired colors, they had to be
personalized ... I didn't like the solution very much and the technician who
recommended it didn't like me either, but they would have solved the problem
with the following versions. In any case, the assistance was quick and
effective even if not exactly efficient.
the brochures as they were on the screen were not reproduced in the print, but
a series of standard colors were reproduced. This fact made colored numbers on
a colored background illegible. From the assistance they confirmed that it was
a problem of version 10.2 that occurred when leaving the brochures with the
default colors proposed by Board. To obtain the desired colors, they had to be
personalized ... I didn't like the solution very much and the technician who
recommended it didn't like me either, but they would have solved the problem
with the following versions. In any case, the assistance was quick and
effective even if not exactly efficient.
The only time I needed assistance was due to a problem in
the prints: the colors of the brochures as they were on the screen were not
reproduced in the print, but a series of standard colors were reproduced. This
fact made colored numbers on a colored background illegible. From the
assistance they confirmed that it was a problem of version 10.2 that occurred
when leaving the brochures with the default colors proposed by Board. To obtain
the desired colors, they had to be personalized ... I didn't like the solution
very much and the technician who recommended it didn't like me either, but they
would have solved the problem with the following versions. In any case, the
assistance was quick and effective even if not exactly efficient.
the prints: the colors of the brochures as they were on the screen were not
reproduced in the print, but a series of standard colors were reproduced. This
fact made colored numbers on a colored background illegible. From the
assistance they confirmed that it was a problem of version 10.2 that occurred
when leaving the brochures with the default colors proposed by Board. To obtain
the desired colors, they had to be personalized ... I didn't like the solution
very much and the technician who recommended it didn't like me either, but they
would have solved the problem with the following versions. In any case, the
assistance was quick and effective even if not exactly efficient.
Using Board
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Technical support not required Well integrated Convenient | Lots to learn |
- Drill
- Dashboard customization
- Data selection
- Definition of info-cubes
- Definition of data acquisition procedures
- Maintenance of cubes, entities and the database in general
Yes, but I don't use it