Board vs Pentaho Business Analytics comparison

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Board International Logo
991 views|657 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
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1,134 views|830 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Board and Pentaho Business Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Board vs. Pentaho Business Analytics Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Seeking advise on going with Birst, BOARD or Pentaho as an OEM platform solution where we could end up with 1,000's of users over time.
Answer: Bruce, have you made a decision about which solution is the best fit for your needs? I would love to hear your feedback.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The aesthetics of it are really nice. That is what attracted us to BOARD: the ease and functionality of it.""We have better reporting and have been able to better track performance.""BOARD technical support is knowledgeable and helpful.""Our clients have improved a lot in terms of coordination and communication. This has improved their internal performance.""The benefits are getting the data in one spot, the ability to report dynamically, and version control.""The ability to create a data model and have it in testing within a week is fantastic.""It has a good set of visual elements that you can use and can explain quite well.""My favourite feature of BOARD is the ability to write back to the OLAP DB, as well as the Rdb, and secure user data allowing databases to be flushed and rebuilt daily."

More Board Pros →

"Pentaho is an analytics platform that can be used when an organization has a lot of big data storage systems already installed and needs to manage and analyze that data. It has a specific use case for unstructured data, such as documents, and needs to be able to search and analyze it.""I use the BI Server, CDE Dashboards, Saiku, and Kettle, because these tools are very good and highly experienced.""We were able to install it without any assistance from tech support.""Easy to use components to create the job.""The initial setup is pretty straightforward.""Pentaho Business Analytics' best features include the ease of developing data flows and the wide range of options to connect to databases, including those on the cloud.""The most valuable feature of Pentaho is the Tableau report."

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Cons
"I'd like to see a more passive report user for enterprise report writers that aren't particularly technical.""The one thing that I think we would like to see in terms of improvement of the application is the ability to print. It's fantastic to have all of these graphic visualization of data, but we're not able to very easily just print... From my perspective, if you can have a little "print" button and then you just click it and it would produce what's on the screen, that would be very helpful.""We would like to see better logging in the procedural world.""​One of the things that I would like to see is the ability to have a rule directly referenced on the cubes.​""We have had some challenges with newer version of the rollout in terms of stability.""It needs more export to Excel functionality. Right now, we're having to build within the cloud-based platform, as well as build within the Excel add-in, because the export to Excel is somewhat ugly.""We are looking at ways to improve how we deal with security in BOARD and other similar things. ​""I would like to see a better Web client, where the controls work the same way as in the Windows client. I do think that the focus is now on the Web, so it should be improved upon."

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"Version control would be a good addition.""The repository should be improved.""Pentaho, at the general level, should greatly improve the easy construction of its dashboards and easy integration of information from different sources without technical user intervention.""Another concern is that Pentaho is not customizable or interactive.""Pentaho Business Analytics' user interface is outdated.""Logging capability is needed.""Deployment is not simple. It is not simple because we are dealing with a lot of data; we are dealing with a lot of storage. So, it's not a simple process.""We did not achieve the ROI. The work delivered to users had lesser value than the subscription cost."

More Pentaho Business Analytics Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Find a partner who will take responsibility for the implementation, and be available for support."
  • "​In terms of the pricing, it was reasonable. BOARD is not the lowest in the market, but it was reasonable for us."
  • "It is not the cheapest product on earth, but you get so much. It provides good value for money."
  • "The solution is quite expensive, if it is made cheaper then we can have more clients. I rate it four out of ten."
  • More Board Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Free and commercial versions are available."
  • "Pentaho is expensive ."
  • "We were lucky enough to find a Pentaho OEM partner who offered a data warehouse model and the ETL software for about 60K SGD per year."
  • More Pentaho Business Analytics Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same companies are caught up in an imbrogilo as to which tool to use, what are the technology/and end business user wise differences/ do i actually need to purchase commercial edition, is there any work around etc. Differences :- In the below mentioned points, I have tried to cover functionality wise the differences a. Reports :- Jaspersoft is known for its picture pixel perfect reporting. Jasper uses ireport for designing the reports. Hence, for having reports, Jaspersoft is the most ideal candidate. Pentaho uses Pentaho Report Designer. b. Dashboards :- Pentaho provides much more capabililties, interactivity in terms of dashboards. Dashboards designed in Pentaho are far more superior in functionality, aesthetically as compared to Jaspersoft. Pentaho CE uses CDE/CDF, Pentaho EE uses PDD . Dashboard functionality is present only in the Enterprise edition of Jaspersoft. c. Pentaho is having an intermediate layer known as Xactions & hence providing much more flexibility in terms of plugin designing, integration with applications, having out of box experience etc. Xactions supports scripting and scheduling of scripts execution. Jaspersoft dosent provide that much of flexibility in terms of… Read more →
    Answers from the Community
    Anonymous User
    it_user375219 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user375219 (Consultant at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees)
    Real User

    I would recommend you to for Pentaho as it is open source and I think for 1000 users Pentaho is descent and cost effective.

    it_user74796 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user74796 (CEO)
    Vendor

    Hello,
    You can look at our BI & Data Analytics Platform 'pi'. We have replaced the BI Platforms mentioned above at few of our customer locations and will be glad to have a demo arranged for our BI Tool.
    We are a company based out of India.

    Regards,
    Rahul
    www.progenbusiness.com
    +91-98663 97166

    it_user209304 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user209304 (Responsable Datawarehouse at a comms service provider)
    Vendor

    I'm not famialiar with these BI Tools, but I could advise you to use
    SISENSE BI Tools.
    It's really easy to use and for Non IT they could adopt it easily.

    It can handle big data with a best performance and with their concept of
    chipset technology to fetch data you can really the difference.

    And for IT Team, it gives the end user the independance in term of
    experience.

    it_user172275 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user172275 (Consultant at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees)
    Consultant

    Hi,
    I'm working with pentaho tools from 5 year and I've built small and big projects with it. Pentaho is a complete platform, because you can:
    - build ETL
    - build OLAP cube
    - create flat report
    - create OLAP analisys report with drag&drop
    - manage user access with different role
    - schedule and send report to managers
    - and other
    I projected, built and maintained OLAP projects for telecomunication companies (Telecomitalia Spa), automotive companies (Tomasi auto) and food retail companies (Frescomercato), and I can guaranty that all works fine.

    it_user196212 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user196212 (Vice President - Product Information with 51-200 employees)
    Vendor

    Key to our situation are a number of elements that I did not go into since I was asking for specific feedback on three specific options. A couple of those were found to be more difficult which eliminated a number of suppliers including the ones suggested in reply to my original inquiry. Fuzzy matching between many different retailers transaction data and our control data set where there will be significant dirty data. Advanced filters to group data around business rules, such as +/- around different numeric values for comparisons within the group of similar transactions. Any specific feedback on Birst, Board, Pentaho?

    it_user244644 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user244644 (Works with 1,001-5,000 employees)
    Real User

    Hi,

    To be honest, I can't see why you are not looking at Jaspersoft?

    In the words of Gartner... Jaspersoft is widely used by ISVs and end-user organizations to embed content in analytic applications and products. The embedded BI critical capability is another example where the collective strengths of the individual products result in a solid score for Tibco overall. It assesses both the ability of the platform to embed content through APIs, SDKs and open standards, and also its ability to consume PMML- and R-based models.

    Both of TIBCO's core BI products are used in OEM/embedded use cases, so don't discount Spotfire of course, but if you are looking at embedded production reporting then I would suggest Jaspersoft.

    it_user186843 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user186843 (Editor/Writer with 201-500 employees)
    Vendor

    Hi, I can't really help you decide between the options you've asked about since I only really have any hands-on experience with one of the tools that you've mentioned - but I can offer some advice, based on our own experience with OEM clients at Sisense (see, for example, here: www.sisense.com ).

    From your question it's clear that there are two main issues you are concerned with: scalability and ease of deployment.

    In terms of scalability, the first thing you should be worried about is PERFORMANCE. Will the tool continue to work at the same speed and stability when it's running not tens, but tens of thousands of concurrent queries? Which type of hardware infrastructure will this require? Will this force me to limit the size or granularity of the data that my end users see?

    Of course any BI salesperson will tend to answer these questions with an enthusiastic "YES", but check to see that they have some support for their claims. Get your R&D \ IT department on the line and try to understand the technology behind each of the products and whether it is indeed built for the heavy lifting you will need it to do.

    Ask for a real proof of concept, on your own data and according to the approximate "strain" 1000s of concurrent users would put on the system. If your vendor says this can't be done in a reasonable time-frame - run for the hills. At Sisense we're usually the ones who insist on having a full POC on the prospect's own data before signing a deal - to align expectations, prove our product's capabilities, etc.

    In terms of DEPLOYMENT - I would recommend against relying strictly on consultants or your vendor's professional services. This is your own product: your own developers HAVE to know all the ins and outs. Relying too heavily on external developers is dicey - what happens when you want to give your app a complete overhaul in the next release, but only the consultant \ vendor really knows the code or data model that they have implemented? In this case you will be, so to speak, "at their mercy".

    So I would recommend actually minimizing reliance on consultants and the vendor's developers, and instead opting to choose a product that can easily be white-labeled, customized and modified. At Sisense we have ensured this can be done using standard APIs such as REST and Javascript; and additionally included built-in features that allow you to set up data security, SSL, etc., without needing to write any code of your own.

    Again, this is something you should ask the vendor to PROVE as part of a proof of concept, rather than take their word for it, but in the bottom line - I would strongly recommend retaining your developers' independence, rather than going down the consultant \ professional services road.

    And if your shortlist isn't sealed shut yet, I'd take a look at the Sisense OEM program: www.sisense.com

    Best,

    Eran

    it_user254049 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user254049 (Executive - IT with 1,001-5,000 employees)
    Vendor

    Why not go for Tableau for quick easy implementation with robust reporting
    & BI functionalities.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and… more »
    Top Answer:All the reports are prepared automatically.
    Top Answer:Sometimes, the data disappears from the product. We have had a few such cases. When I added my comments to the data, it disappeared. A technical specialist tried to restore it. It was not convenient… more »
    Top Answer:There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows:  1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle  - look for SAP… more »
    Top Answer:The organization has both options based on their needs and budget constraints. The Enterprise Edition is expensive with references to an added number of features.
    Top Answer:The product to me is not as user-friendly as other players in the market. It also still needs improvement in the reporting module. You will need to search for deployment examples or need to have a… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    991
    Comparisons
    657
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    470
    Rating
    7.3
    Views
    1,134
    Comparisons
    830
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    526
    Rating
    7.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
    Learn More
    Overview

    BOARD International - headquartered in Switzerland - is a leading global provider of software for improving business results through better decision making. By unifying Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management into a single product, BOARD enables companies to achieve a shared vision of their performance across the entire organization, and thus a single version of the truth.

    BOARD provides seamless solutions for • Reporting & Analysis • Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting • Profitability Modelling & Optimization • Simulation & What-if-Analysis • Scorecarding & Strategy Management • Financial Consolidation. Based on visual modelling, BOARD has enabled global companies to deploy BI and CPM applications without a single line of code in a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional solutions.

    Pentaho is an open source business intelligence company that provides a wide range of tools to help their customers better manage their businesses. These tools include data integration software, mining tools, dashboard applications, online analytical processing options, and more.

    Pentaho has two product categories: There is the standard enterprise version. This is the product that comes directly from Pentaho itself with all of the benefits, features, and programs that come along with a paid application such us analysis services, dashboard design, and interactive reporting.

    The alternative is an open source version, which the public is permitted to add to and tweak the product. This solution has its advantages, aside from the fact that it is free, in that there are many more people working on the project to improve its quality and breadth of functionality.

    Sample Customers
    Coca-Cola, Puma, Desigual, Ricoh, KPMG, H&M, Groupe SEB
    Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Government20%
    Healthcare Company20%
    Hospitality Company10%
    Real Estate/Law Firm5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Wholesaler/Distributor7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company19%
    University13%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Educational Organization6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Government12%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Educational Organization8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise40%
    Large Enterprise23%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise61%
    Buyer's Guide
    Board vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Board vs. Pentaho Business Analytics and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Board is ranked 23rd in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 35 reviews while Pentaho Business Analytics is ranked 19th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 42 reviews. Board is rated 8.6, while Pentaho Business Analytics is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Board writes "A stable solution with good user-experience, easy deployment but needs some improvement with engine ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Pentaho Business Analytics writes "Flexible, easy to understand, and simple to set up". Board is most compared with Anaplan, SAP Analytics Cloud, IBM Planning Analytics, Oracle Hyperion and SAP Datahug, whereas Pentaho Business Analytics is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Databricks, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, SAP Crystal Reports and IBM Cognos. See our Board vs. Pentaho Business Analytics report.

    See our list of best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors and best Reporting vendors.

    We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.