Item: Google BigQuery
Rating: 8
Author: Liz Brandon

Overall Satisfaction with Google BigQuery

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Google BigQuery for all of our key sales and supply chain data sources. We have created a variety of standard certified reporting tables that we connect to either Tableau or PowerBI to build out dashboards to provide our teams with self-service analytics. Most data visualization tools connect seamlessly to data sources in Google BigQuery which makes it very easy to work with the data. We have been using Google BigQuery for over 10 years now. It has allowed us to more easily provide self service data and analytics solutions for various teams within the company.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Data management
Data connection
Data warehousing
Data access
Data certification

Cons

Provide easier management of security credentials
More seamlessly integrate with Tableau without the constant need to re-authenticate

Return on Investment

Faster access to data
Self service analytics
Increased ROI
Easier data management

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Web Services

Google BigQuery works similarly to AWS. We ended up going with Google BigQuery due to contractual restrictions imposed by one of our customers.

Key Insights

Do you think Google BigQuery delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Google BigQuery's feature set?

Yes

Did Google BigQuery live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Google BigQuery go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google BigQuery again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Tableau Desktop, Microsoft Power BI

Likelihood to Recommend

Google BigQuery has worked perfectly fine for our needs. It is easy to manager data and make reporting tables available to users throughout the company. We are able to create certified data sources and customize them to include exactly the needed information. Data refreshes fairly quickly do that we can keep all of our reporting up to date. Google BigQuery has enabled greater self service analytics capabilities within my company as now anyone can connect to the same certified data source.

Google BigQuery Feature Ratings

Using Google BigQuery

Users and Roles

200 - They represent a wide range of functions including IT, analytics, strategy, and data science as direct users. Others in sales, marketing, and finance use it indirectly through Power BI or Tableau reports connected to Power BI data sources. We use Big Query for most of our internal and external data sources.

Support Headcount Required

20 - We have a small IT data engineering team to support Google BigQuery. They load various data sources and build out reporting tables that users can connect to through Power BI or Tableau. We have been using Google BigQuery for over 10 years now as our primary data storage and reporting solution. It has been very stable and easy to connect to various data visualization tools.

Business Processes Supported

sales reporting
pricing analysis
inventory tracking

Innovative Uses

We have been able to support very large data sources in Big Query and connect to that data using Power BI or Tableau to create compelling data visualizations.

Future Planned Uses

As an additional data repository to democratize data through our organization.

Likelihood to Renew

We are satisfied with the performance and ease of use. It would be quite an undertaking to change

Evaluating Google BigQuery and Competitors

Products Replaced

Not Sure

Key Differentiators

Cloud Solutions
Scalability
Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use

Integration with other systems is very important. When we first started using Google BigQuery we used Tableau to connect to it and create data visualizations. We have since switched to Microsoft Power BI. Both data visualization and reporting tools easily connect to Big Query.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I cannot really answer this question as I wasn't involved on the team that selected and evaluated the software. I think the main thing I would look for is the ability for other key data visualization tools to connect to Big Query. It needs to be simple and intuitive for non-IT users to be able to easily access the data.

Google BigQuery Implementation

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled

Implementation Issues

It just took a lot of time to get it fully implemented.

Google BigQuery Training

Training Types Used

No Training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Ease of Google BigQuery Training

I think it was easy enough to learn. I had others within my company that showed me what I needed to know about Google Big Query. I use it on a limited basic to connect to data visualization tools like Power BI and Tableau. The connection to those tools was easy enough to figure out.

Configuring Google BigQuery

Product Configurability

I don't work too much with the configuration of Google Big Query but from what others in my organization tell me it has all of the features and customization options we need for our daily use.

Configuration Lessons

I do not have any recommendations as I do not do much of the configuration myself.

Additional Customization Considerations

No that is all.

Google BigQuery Support

Support Rating

I have never contacted support for this product. I am trying to skip this question but it won't let me do so until I type 50 words. I would want support to be easy to access, speak solid english, and be able to resolve issues quickly. I would also want them to be friendly and helpful.

Google BigQuery Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Immediate help available Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	Need to explain problems multiple times

Premium Support

I do not know if my company purchased premium support for Google Big Query. Those decisions are handled by someone else on our IT team who negotiates our vendor contracts. I think premium support would be a good idea though so that we could have the best and most complete support possible.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Google BigQuery Support

I really done have an example of this as I have not personally contacted support.

Using Google BigQuery

Usability

I think overall it is easy to use. I haven't done anything from the development side but an more of an end user of reporting tables built in Google BigQuery. I connect data visualization tools like Tableau or Power BI to the BigQuery reporting tables to analyze trends and create complex dashboards.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Integrates well with Tableau and Power BI

Difficult Tasks

None that I can think of. It works pretty well.

Google BigQuery Reliability

Scalability

We have continued to expand out use of Google Big Query over the years. I'd say its flexibility and scalability is actually quite good. It also integrates well with other tools like Tableau and Power BI. It has served the needs of multiple data sources across multiple departments within my company.

Reliability and Availability

I have never had any significant issues with Google Big Query. It always seems to be up and running properly when I need it. I cannot recall any times where I received any kind of application errors or unplanned outages. If there were any they were resolved quickly by my IT team so I didn't notice them.

Performance

I think Google Big Query's performance is in the acceptable range. Sometimes larger datasets are somewhat sluggish to load but for most of our applications it performs at a reasonable speed. We do have some reports that include a lot of complex calculations and others that run on granular store level data that so sometimes take a bit longer to load which can be frustrating.

Integrating Google BigQuery

Ease of Integration

I think Google BigQuery integrates well with other products. I have personally used Google BigQuery with both Tableau Software and Microsoft Power BI to create data visualizations and dashboards. It was very easy to connect Big Query to both tools. I never ran into any significant connection issues.