it_user7488 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer with 51-200 employees
Vendor
BI Tool Rant: Qlikview Pie Charts

This posting is the first in a subset of posts I plan to make on this site that I can use as my method of stress release in regards to general frustrations with business intelligence tools and all related subject matter. In terms of BI tools I can not say that I align myself to any single software. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses and it’s a combination of that matrix of features (or lack thereof) along with the context of the business implementation that needs to be considered when picking a tool to investment.

That being said let me get back to my rant…

IF YOU LOVE PIE CHARTS DON’T USE QLIKVIEW!

Okay, okay let me elaborate on such a strong claim. On a recent piece of work that I had done for a client they had wanted to utilize a portion of their dashboard with a pie chart that would show the breakdown of possible values for a particular field. The pie chart was actually quite cool to see. It drew the correct relationship. It gave the pie chart one of the 3D angled views. The thing it couldn’t do? It couldn’t label the chart inside the pie slices! I could show percentage breakdowns, counts for each value, and have any dynamic label I wanted AROUND the pie chart – but trying to put the details within the slices cued up the “Impossible Dream.”

So is there a workaround for something that isn’t second nature with the application? Well there is a solution per say. Option A would be to possibly add a text label within the chart and try to position it within the slice. Each text label would show the percentage for a certain value. The issue is that as your pie chart changes there wouldn’t be a guarantee that your static label would be sitting in the correct spot. Option B would be to use some kind of macro or javascript plugin that would relocate the label – but now you’ve added custom macro codings for a LABEL. *Insert a headshake here*

Qlikview has a lot of power behind its engine and can offer many ways to illustrate your data. The warning is to do a bit of research and try to browse through different Qlikview demos to see the strongest visualizations. Or hire a web developer.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Assistant Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides scripting as per a customer's need
Pros and Cons
  • "Scripting as per a customer's need, which is a pretty cool feature and not available in other tools."
  • "Installation and deployment could be made easier and quicker."

What is our primary use case?

Our sales reps use dashboards for reporting latest inventory quantities on a real-time basis, which is critical for the business.

How has it helped my organization?

Time and effort are reduced using QlikView by saving a lot of money providing the same information before an implementation.

What is most valuable?

  • Datamining
  • Fast data loading of million of rows
  • Incremental load
  • Scripting as per a customer's need, which is a pretty cool feature and not available in other tools.

What needs improvement?

  • Bookmarking
  • Data load window and more information to be used while loading huge data.
  • Installation and deployment could be made easier and quicker.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support is very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It is better in all aspects than our previous solution.

What was our ROI?

Not sure.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Qlik is fairly high in terms of pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated MS Excel.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, it is an excellent product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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QlikView
May 2024
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PeerSpot user
Database Expert at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
The most valuable feature of this product is quick and easy access to data by top management, in an elegant and colorful display that make is easy to visualize numbers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this product is quick and easy access to data by top management, in an elegant and colorful display that make is easy to visualize numbers.

How has it helped my organization?

We are able to provide top management with dashboards that connect different applications together, and gives them visibility and decision-making abilities that simple reports don't.

What needs improvement?

The management console is cumbersome to use for managing large numbers of users and documents.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I did not really encounter any issues with deployment, stability or scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support and customer service are highly rated.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We evaluated this product against other BI products such as OBIEE and Cognos. We preferred QV because of its ease of use and fast deployment and development of dashboards.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward. We just installed the Server Edition and configured it in no time.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house. There are no specific skills needed, except basic knowledge of Windows.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We mainly use QV for providing dashboards to top management, as licensing is very expensive.

What other advice do I have?

QlikView is a great product to get you up and running easily and quickly. However, it does not replace an enterprise reporting solution. It should be used for specific needs and would be too expensive and cumbersome to manage to deploy across the whole institution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user159192 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It provides an easy way to grant access to all data or just bits of it to specific users.

Valuable Features:

The best features of QlikView are:

  • The fast and easy process of extracting data from multiple sources (DB), although having duplicate data in the source files creates a mess.
  • The intuitive way of creating dashboards for finance, sales, BPM, etc.
  • The display and drill-down access to detailed information, graphic interfaces are easy to create and dynamic using just one pivot table.
  • The easy way to grant access to all the data or just bits of it to specific users.
  • The capability of QV to handle .pdf files.

Improvements to My Organization:

As an example, today we have our budget information from different areas in one summary page. Numbers are updated fast and easy in the web browser. This has given crystal clear info for all the users that have access to the model. Hard data and dynamic graphs give a clearer and accurate view of the data. Filtering saves a lot of time when doing presentations to the top executives of the company; any question is answered in real time with just a few clicks.

Room for Improvement:

I would like to perhaps be able to have preloaded and editable examples of models created by QV experts that can be customized for our specific needs, instead of starting from scratch anything we need to work on.

I work an electric utility in Mexico, therefore we build QV models and dashboards specific to our industry (electricity, gas, nuclear generation, asset management, executive reporting and such). 

Right now, we have to build our models from scratch, if we could have access to prebuilt models for our specific industry and line of business it would be very useful and time saving. 

Other Advice:

It’s important to understand that the quality of the final data will have a direct relationship to the source of information. You can really apply here the phrase "Garbage in-Garbage out". Because once QV is up and running, almost everyone will turn to the dashboards as THE source of information, it’s imperative to be sure the source of data is flawless.

It’s a great BI tool to convert raw data coming from several different sources into a dashboard full of in-depth knowledge, to do proper information analysis and make accurate decisions for the company.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Manager - Anti Money Laundering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
The product enables top management with better decision making if utilized properly.

Valuable Features:

  • Data discovery
  • Set analysis
  • Adhoc reporting
  • Drill down options
  • Flexibility
  • In-Memory technology
  • Quick learning curve
  • Easy to deploy

Improvements to My Organization:

The product enables top management with better decision making if utilized properly.

Room for Improvement:

QlikView should not loose its original flavour. They should stop trying to emulate other BI products and mould their own product.

Use of Solution:

I'm using the QlikView local client.

Other Advice:

It is best suited for Dashboarding, Analysis and Reporting. Do not try to re-implement everything from a previous BI product if you had one. Ensure that the QlikView features & functionality are properly utilized to get the best out of it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user358971 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Integration with almost all databases is good.

Valuable Features:

  • Ease of use
  • NPrinting
  • Visually good diagrams
  • Integration with almost all databases
  • Associating links

Improvements to My Organization:

We have used this product for a number of different clients, and most of them liked the software and all the rich features it bring with it. The amount of data it displays on the dashboard with such a ease, helps users to always get the results in desirable time limit.

Room for Improvement:

They are coming up with a lot of improvements. However, the version control is not one of them, and it's not straightforward.

Deployment Issues:

We have had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

There have been no stability issues.

Scalability Issues:

We've had no issues with scaling it for our needs.

Other Advice:

There is a number of criteria you have to see before you start implementing the product, as you compare Qlikview with other tools such as Tableau. You make sure that you check the cost, ease of use, differnt ways to displaying the information etc.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
AVP at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Best In Memory Tool

Valuable Features:

Our business finds this tool very impressive, particularly the drill down to nth level is very good.

Improvements to My Organization:

Yes. we were using BO previously and it took a long time to track particular trade details. In QlikView we get trade level data in seconds.

Room for Improvement:

Yes, Drag and drop of controls. Some geographical charts.

Use of Solution:

I've been using this tool for 4.5 years

Deployment Issues:

None.

Stability Issues:

None as of now.

Scalability Issues:

Sometimes it creates problem when many users log in at same time, but this also depends on your RAM capacity.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user2862 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Our support has been excellent, but is provided by a 3rd party consultant group

What is most valuable?

Ability to quickly deploy dashboards with multiple data sources.

How has it helped my organization?

We have enable a user self service reporting capability support minimally by IT for linking and sourcing of data.

What needs improvement?

Map capability without add ins and extra cost.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used this product for about 2 years

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, product has proven to be scalable. You need to consider at least mid term scale before deciding which license types to purchase, I would recommend Server versions with session cals, vs. Document cals.

How are customer service and technical support?

Our support has been excellent, but is provided by a 3rd party consultant group.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No we did not have a dashboarding tool other than using MS Products such as Excel.

What about the implementation team?

We used a combination of both internal and external resources. We used DI Squared, they have been excellent to work with and have more than adequate capabilities and expertise.

What other advice do I have?

Go for it. I might consider waiting for latest release version to come out before comparing other products. There may be some excellent additions to functionality. Plan out your environment, plan out the data modeling process. Spend time on governance of the processes that support the user self service capabilities. Although end users can use the product easily, they may need help with data procurement. Think about security of your data before turning everyone loose.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user11226 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user11226BI Expert at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor

To what underlying database(s) were you connecting?

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