Data can mean a lot to a company, and for this reason, there are a few companies out there that help you collect it. Some charges you a dollar per user while others have an upper amount that they limit the usage to. This program claims that they have the best analytics software out there and they don’t just say this. They provide features below to show the reader how it is the best analytics software out there.
If you’re looking for the best analytics software, you’re in the right place. The points below are quickly summarized to deliver key product features in a fluff-free manner.
Altair
Platform: Altair One
Related products: Altair Monarch, Altair Knowledge Hub, Altair Knowledge Studio, Altair Panopticon
Description: Altair offers an open, scalable, unified, and extensible data analytics platform with integrated data transformation and predictive analytics tools. Desktop-based data preparation is available via Altair Monarch, while Knowledge Hub features team-driven data prep and a centralized data marketplace to speed collaboration and governance. Machine learning and predictive analytics are made available inside Knowledge Studio. Altair Panopticon houses the company’s streaming processing and real-time visualization capabilities.
Learn more and compare products with the Solutions Review Buyer’s Guide for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms.
Alteryx
Platform: Alteryx Platform
Related products: Alteryx Designer, Alteryx Server, Alteryx Connect, Alteryx Promote
Description: Alteryx is a self-service data analytics software company that specializes in data preparation and data blending. Alteryx Analytics allows users to organize, clean, and analyze data in a repeatable workflow. Business analysts find this tool particularly useful for connecting to and cleansing data from data warehouses, cloud applications, spreadsheets and other sources. The platform features tools to run a variety of analytic jobs (predictive, statistical, spatial) inside a single interface.
Qlik
Key Insight: If your organization seeks to use ML and AI to enhance the quality of data mining, the Qlik Sense is a top choice.
With two decades under its belt, Qlik’s combination of strengths offers a compelling vision in the data analytics sector. Chief among them: the company has advanced versions of artificial intelligence and machine learning built into its Qlik Sense platform. And it offers this functionality without requiring deep data science skills, so sales reps and mid-level staffers can leverage AI for data mining.
Also important: Qlik Sense is cloud-agnostic, so companies can deploy the data analytics tools to any cloud in their multi-cloud infrastructure. They can also deploy on-prem, and then hook the application into the cloud for a hybrid data analytics approach.
Pros:
- The company’s associated insights feature promises to deploy a cognitive application to dig for insights that users might miss.
- Very flexible and strong across public, private, and hybrid clouds.
- Enables upper-level self-service analytics for data scientists, or for users with minimal data science training.
Cons:
- While its product offering is strong, its overall vendor profile is not as high as industry giants like Microsoft or even Tableau.
AnswerRocket
Platform: AnswerRocket
Description: AnswerRocket offers a search-powered data analytics platform designed for business users. The product enables you to ask business questions in natural language, and no technical skills are needed to run reports or generate analysis. AnswerRocket features a combination of AI and machine learning, as well as advanced analytic functionality. The platform can also automate manual tasks and answer ad hoc questions quickly. AnswerRocket is mobile-friendly and includes native voice recognition.
BOARD
Platform: BOARD
Related products: BOARD Cloud
Description: BOARD combines business intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics into one platform. As a result, any change to data, data models, security profiles or business rules is immediately propagated to every application. The solution provides all the tools required to create and update databases, data presentations, analyses, and process models. The company also offers BOARD Cloud, a SaaS version of the platform, backed by Microsoft Azure.
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Zoho Analytics
Our score: 8.7User satisfaction: 99%
A powerful business intelligence, data analytics, and online reporting tool for creating data visualizations and generating actionable business insights. Zoho Analytics’ self-service approach streamlines the data analytics process in a way that can be handled by anyone regardless of their technical skills.
Tableau
Key insight: Even among market leaders, Tableau is a top vendor in the data analytics software tools market. The company was acquired by Salesforce in 2019.
Tableau has built a large and enthusiastic user base due to the depth and quality of its data visualizations. The company’s data analytics platform is known for collecting multiple data inputs, allowing users to combine them, then offering a dashboard display that enhances visual data mining.
Furthermore, data can then be arranged and rearranged to create hierarchical and bin structures with relative ease. All of this advanced data manipulation can be accomplished by staff without an extensive background in data science, yet the Tableau platform is robust enough to reward a user with data science education.
Pros:
- Tableau has been a data analytics market leader due to its data visualizations. With its acquisition by Salesforce, it’s expected that enhanced capabilities in AI and ML will continue to grow rapidly.
- A good fit for companies of almost all sizes, from large enterprises to SMBs.
- The Tableau Online solution offers a wide array of deployment options for a multi-cloud environment.
Cons:
- Some users would like to see expanded admin and governance functionality.
Microsoft
Key Insight: Driven by its Azure Cloud, Microsoft is the leader in hybrid cloud. The company’s Power BI platform benefits from this strength.
In classic Microsoft fashion, the company’s related software products help promote its Power BI analytics tool. For instance, reminders in Excel and Office 365 urge users to adopt it. Consequently, between this built-in advertising and the software giant’s already-sprawling user base, Power BI can justifiably be called the most popular analytics program on the market. This is important because a large user base prompts constant product upgrades, which Power BI certainly benefits from.
Most important: with its deep pockets, Microsoft has built an impressive array of AL and ML functionality, powering the augmented analytics that has become the key differentiator in the data analytics sector. For example, image analytics – clearly a step ahead – are driven by Power BI’s AI feature set.
Significantly, these ML and AI features are driven by the Azure functions built into the Azure Cloud, which are industry-leading.
Pros:
- Top AI and ML tools offer augmented data analytics
- Very well respected among its large user base
- No company has a more extensive software product portfolio than Microsoft, and Power BI benefits from interoperability with this exhaustive toolset
Cons:
- The on-premise-only version of Power BI does not offer the depth of functionality offered by the cloud version
- Users must run the product in the Microsoft Azure cloud, as opposed to the other competing clouds that many companies also use
Conclusion
The latest analytics software that helps businesses unearth the hidden truths within their data that lead to smart business decisions.