Item: Looker
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We started using Looker about two years ago. The marketing department brought it on as a better way of analyzing data that was housed in disparate systems. Sales data in NetSuite. Call data in Cisco. Website traffic data in Google Analytics. Looker was brought on to consolidate the data under one roof and allow us to analyze and report on the data in a more centralized way.

Pros and Cons

Bring in data from different systems.
Allow users to drill into reports and view the underlying data.
Combine reports into custom dashboards.

Difficult to display data in custom formats.
Data needs to join on a single key instead of just showing what you want.
Overly complex with difficult learning curve.

Alternatives Considered

Looker is a lower cost solution than other tools available in the marketplace. Unfortunately, that means that it does not have as many resources available that help users with onboarding and getting up to speed. They also charge for add-on functionality that comes standard on the other comparable tools that other companies provide.

Data Integration

Not a lot of systems have readily available connectors. This delays the process of getting up to speed and integrating data. Connectors are expensive and hard to build. Even when the data is flowing, it doesn’t always import into the right fiends and it takes a lot of manipulation to make things work properly.

Collaboration and Sharing

The tool is pretty good about sharing. Each report has a unique web address that can be emailed. Users can copy the report and make changes without fear of altering the original master copy. Reports can easily be restricted to certain users. You can also schedule reports to be mailed out to users each day.

Likelihood to Recommend

Looker helps users to visualize data from multiple sources. It is good at helping to stitch together multiple reports. With the proper training, it can combine data from different channels and display it in a way to allows users to visualize the impact of different variables. You can even create dashboards that are customizable for different users or roles.

Complex but powerful

Overall Satisfaction with Looker