I wanted to ask if SAS BI is preferable over QlikView/QlikTech BI to use? If not why?
From Gartner's quadrant review, SAS BI is an excellent tool to work with because of it's good web reporting, data analytics and dashboard design for easier access.
I have found out from various websites that SAS BI is not suitable for novices and not user friendly. The implementation is quite difficult. Is this true? At our company we are trying to use one of these BI tools for the first time.
I can tell you all about SAP Business Objects. I do not have any experience with QlikView/QlikTech. Just looking over the info for them, QlikView is somewhat of a cross between Informatica, Cognos, and SAP Business Objects. It has it's own servers to assemble and present the data and connections to most any type of datasource. They all pretty much offer the same thing. The devil is in the details and the underlying development of the data acquisition layer. No one creates an engine that can look at your data in its original data structure and magically produce reports for you. Especially with the dynamics of "drill into". SQL Server's Anayltics are about as close as it gets, on a SQL Server database. The real trick is to find a product that the Information team understands, and have people that know the data structure and business rules build the foundational data acquisition layer of the product. It all comes down to how the data is laid out, how the table joins are made, and how well tuned the systems are. A poorly designed database will give you poor performance no matter what tool you use. The table joins are key because you do not always join tables the same way in very large highly flexible systems like EPIC's Clarity model (for healthcare)
I don't have direct experience with either tool. Anecdotally, SAP BI is great if you have a big IT department behind you. It is at least an enterprise-level tool. QlikView is a "me too" product that offers some of the features behind enterprise-level tools but is fairly stripped down. Almost anything will be easier to implement than SAP BI, but if SAP is this company's native ERP, they will save on integration costs by using SAP BI.
Neither will be easy to implement. It is a misconception that any BI tool is easy to use. All of them have a steep learning curve. All run best with a data warehouse behind them. Any BI tool can do some things easily, and just about any will do dashboards on non-dimensional data such as the relational tables ERPs use. For any kind of in-depth analysis you'll need at least a partially dimensional structure.
The benefit of using a BI tool that integrates with the ERP is that you can use canned reports. If stripped down P&L style reports are what is needed, those can usually be done pretty quickly.
For cost savings, nothing beats MS SQL Server. Anything above 2008 has at least rudimentary data mining tools also. The interface is clunky, but it's just queries and displays.
Without understanding the company's context, it is hard to recommend one over the other. The big unanswered question is, what problem are they trying to accomplish with a new BI product?
SAS is probably the most widely used statistical analysis tool in the market, having been around for decades. SAS has added some BI reporting features but that would not be its strength. It can be very expensive; alternatives include IBM SPSS and the open-source R package. These are technical developer tools.
QlikView is a data visualization tool popular in Europe and gained some momentum here in the states. QlikView's competitors include Tableau and Tibco Spotfire (of the three, Tableau is probably the winner). These are business analysts tools.
If the company is looking for BI reporting products, they would consider offerings such as: IBM Cognos, SAP Business Objects, MicroStrategy, and Information Builders' WebFOCUS.
I have a manufacturing background and would be happy to talk.