Having developed using both tools in a Teradata environement, I would say that Business Objects is a far better more flexible tool for getting information into the users hands.
The only places where MicroStrategy “beats” Business Objects is the following:
Exporting formatted results into Excel. Our users scream for this and we can’t do it in Bobj
Business Objects doesn’t lend itself to large developement efforts. More then 2 developers working on a single universe is all but impossible. Because MicroStrategy allowed individual “objects” to be checked in and out of the metadata and locked access the individual object.
Prompts get the nod in MicroStrategy.
MicroStrategy is more advanced with their Web stuff.
Do you know the origin of BI Tools.pdf? I am using information from it in discussions with my supervisor and would like to be able to tell her more about its origins. Saying “I got it from this guy on the internet” just doesn’t compare to saying “It was prepared by Mr. X when Company Y was researching BI tools for a new implementation”.
Does anyone have any prior working experience with a tool named nQuire?
The company was bought over by siebel sometime last year. There was a proof of concept started at my prior client’s place but stopped because it had some issues dealing with the specific nature of data.
BO is not the cheapest, but it’s also not the most expensive. Talking about pricing isn’t a very useful exercise as it will vary in every situation.
BO is a great product that can help with a big Return on Investment on your BI project. It might be a bit more expensive than some of the products, but price should not be the reason to buy something else.
Truthfully speaking, it is a complementary product and it would be great if everyone saw it that way. There are some things that you can do in Essbase that simply can’t be done in the BO microcube.
For an article with a few specific examples on this, check out http://www.askcindi.com/TDWI_DOLAP_MOLAP07_02.htm
If you have the budget, I like it when companies have both. The big issue is that WebI as a front end to Essbase is not as good as the front end products from Hyperion. Maybe 6.1 will solve that. Thus, it can be viewed as a competing product, especially if companies try to use Essbase as the data mart architecture.
I also thought you’d like to know that Wayne Eckerson and I teach a course for TDWI evaluating these tool sets. Somewhere on TDWI’s web site, there should be a link for members on the results … or here is the course description.: http://www.dw-institute.com/education/conferences/sandiego2003/sessions2.asp?session_code=292.
Besides talking to customers, checking out news groups (like this one!:), we installed each of the products to get a bit more under the covers about how the products really work and compete.
Regards,
Cindi
I would also like to see a comparison to Excel, because users in our organization always compare BO with Excel. They are incompatible, but users don’t have that knowledge. It would be great to show them a list of things that will show them what the differences are!
Even if you use MS Query within Excel to access a DB, you don’t get the ‘semantic layer’ from Designer. Users have to know the underlying data structure. . .and they usually don’t wanna know!
I recently published a series of articles with Intelligent Enterprise that compares the six of the leading BI suite vendors, so that should give you more information. If you don’t subscribe to the magazine, you can access them online.
Within the next month, you will also be able to access more details on www.biscorecard.com.
Thanks for posting all these links! I also now have two very detailed reviews up on biscorecard.com (for subcribers) on both Business Objects and Cognos ReportNet. The Query and Reporting criteria are about 50+ criteria that I’ve looked. Based on some of the reader feedback I’ve gotten and some of the confusion that seems to be out there about WebIntelligence vs desktop, I’ve split these two products out in the review.
There is also a free “cheat” sheet or which vendors make which products.
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
(BOB member since 2002-08-29)
(BOB member since 2002-11-18)
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