Wednesday, June 3, 2009

QlikView vs. SAS

Dear Readers,

In past few weeks I saw some good marketing/Sales activities from SAS, even in some cases they were in competition with me. My prospects were asking for comparison between QlikView and SAS then I decided to share that comparison with you.

Apart from the detailed comparison bellow in my view SAS have some excellent capabilities when it come to data mining, OR and Quality Improvement, and Data Quality (By using data flux). QlikView also cover these parts but not in the way how SAS do. Instead being a good tool SAS requires a good budget also for cost of ownership as well as for cot of maintenance. Also it is not very much helpful when it come to ad-hock reporting and it is not very much helpful to End-user( Top Bosses) and become an IT tool only.


 

I love to see you view on my article.

# 

Product 

QlikView 

SAS 

    

A 

Product 

  

  

1 

Product  

QlikView: Worlds Fastest Growing BI tool. With 14. customers being added every working day.

SAS EBI 

2 

Vendor  

Qliktech 

SAS Institute.

  

Qlikview is a IN-memory based BI tool which can be deployed in a weeks time. It comes at HALF the TCO and delivers TWICE the value compared to any OLAP based BI Solution In QUARTER of the TIME

 

C 

Applications 

  

  

1 

Business intelligence 

Qlikview is a single integrted tool for ETL, DW, Multi Dmentional Analysis, Dashboarding, Reporting, as per the Butler group user takes couple of hours training instead of weeks taken by traditional OLAP based tools

Yes 

2 

Multi dimensional view 

  

3 

Strategic planning 

Yes 

4 

Budgeting 

Yes 

5 

Forecasting 

Yes 

6 

Consolidation 

Yes 

7 

Scorecarding  

Yes 

  

  

 

D 

Hardware and Licenses 

  

  

1 

Warehousing is (Mandate/ Optional)  

NOT REQUIRED, One of the the major advantage of usinq Qlikview is, it does not require database which saves money and very wel skilled human resource. With no datawarehouse required Qlikview can be impleted in a couple of weeks saving a lot of TIME, MONEY AND RESOURCES.

Optional 

2 

Server Licenses(Named/CPU) 

Named 

SAS predominantly supports CPU based licensing, however in specific scenarios named licensing is also supported. 

3 

User Licenses (Name/Concorent/Unlimited) 

Named 

Unlimited 

4 

Web Users 

User lic 

Unlimited 

5 

If preparatory Database specify (Technical and Methodology) 

NO: Qlikview uses its integrated Robust ETL to Extarct data from multiple data sources and forms a data repository using its patented Technology (AQL: Associative Query Logic) This technology overcomes the efforts and time required to build datawarehouse, normalization, schema writing, creation of cubes. And Empowers the customer to be independent of the vendor to creat and use analyitcs

SAS Intelligence Storage (SPDS) which is based on OLAP technology i.e. the database is tuned for querying and reporting puposes. However SAS also natively integrates with all major database systems.

  

  

 

E 

Technology 

  

  

1 

Supported database  

Any OLEDB, ODBC complaing which covers althe datbase in the world today + FLAT FILE, WEBFILE. TEXT FILE DELIMITED FILE. ALSO WORKS WITH SYBASE

  

  

Microsoft SQL Server 

Y 

Y 

  

Oracle 

Y 

Y 

  

Pervasive SQL 

Y 

Y 

  

IBM DB2 

Y 

Y 

  

Informix 

Y 

Y 

  

Access 

Y 

Y 

  

FoxPro 

Y 

Y 

  

Progress 

Y 

Y 

  

MySQL 

Y 

Y 

2

Supported networks 

  

  

  

Microsoft 

YES 

Y 

  

Linux 

Y TO CONNECT TO THE DATABASE 

Y 

  

Unix 

Y TO CONNECT TO THE DATABASE 

Y 

  

AIX  

Y TO CONNECT TO THE DATABASE 

Y 

  

Novell Netware 

Y TO CONNECT TO THE DATABASE 

Y 

  

IBM AS/400 (OS/400) 

Y TO CONNECT TO THE DATABASE

Y 

3 

Development tools used to build application 

NO THIRD PARTY DEVELOPMENT TOOL REQUIRED. THE CUSTOMER BECOMES VENDOR INDEPENDENT FOR ANY NEW APPLICATION/ CHANGES REQUIRED 

COM, Java, SOA 

4 

Report writer used - which one(s)? 

NO THIRD PARTY TOOL REQUIRED

SAS Enterprise Guide 

5 

Data Extract Transform Load (ETL) tools - which one(s)? 

NOT REQUIRED: QLIK VIEW HAS ITS OWN ROBUST ETL INTEGRATED AS A QLIKVIEW SUITE. THE ETL IS WIZARD DRIVEN CAN BE LEARNT IN A FEW DAYS AND OPERATED BY CUSTOMER HENCE EMPOWER THEMSLEF TO CREAT OWN APPLICATION AS AND WHEN DEMAND ARISES

SAS Data Integration Studio 

6 

Cubes supported - which one(s)? 

IN ADDITION TO ITS OWN DATA REPOSITORY QLIKVIEW SUPPORTS ALL MAJOR OLAP CUBES 

All OLAPs and cubes created using SAS OLAP

7 

Existing integration to accounting and ERP systems - which systems? 

ALL ODBC COMPLAINT DATABASE(all the current database in the market) IRRISPECTIVE OF THEIR FRONT END, SAP USING A SAP CERTIFIED CONNECTOR 

SAP, PeopleSoft, JDE, SSA Global/BAAN, Portal integration kits

8 

Existing integration to customer relationship management systems - which systems? 

BY MEANS OF THE GLOBAL STANDARD ODBC, OLEDB CONNECTIONS (all major crm system) 

Siebel and other major CRM tools 

9 

Existing integration to payroll systems - which systems?

BY MEANS OF THE WORLD STANDARD ODBC, OLEDB CONNECTIONS( all major payroll system) 

All major Payroll Systems 

10 

Existing integration to HRMS systems - which systems? 

BY MEANS OF THE WORLD STANDARD ODBC, OLEDB CONNECTIONS (all major hr system)

All major HR systems 

  

  

 

F 

Features  

  

  

1 

Analytic functionality 

YES 

Yes, please see below (feature # 83) for further details

2 

Bubble up exceptions 

This feature is better handeled where the exceptions are managed at the lower level and not poped to the upper layer and confuse the user. However all precautions are taken to handle the exceptions eficiently.

Yes 

3 

Drill down 

YES 

Yes 

4 

Drill through to source data 

DRILL DOWN TO THE TRANSACTIOANL LEVEL. AS AGAINST TO THE AGREGATED DATA IN CASE OF OLAP BASED APPLICATIONS

Yes 

5 

Ranking 

YES 

Yes 

6 

Sorting 

YES 

Yes 

7 

Restrict results by date range 

YES 

Yes 

8 

Includes dashboard 

YES 

Yes 

9 

Time trending (for example, over 12 months) 

YES AS MANY YEARS AS THE DATABASE HOLDS 

Yes, along with basic time series forecasting

10 

Pareto filtering (automatically groups the categories that amount to less than 20% of a row or column total into "other") 

YES 

Yes 

11 

Calculations 

YES 

Yes 

12 

Counts 

YES 

Yes 

13 

Percentage of total 

YES

Yes 

14 

Allocations 

YES 

Yes 

15 

Total and Sub-total 

YES 

Yes 

16 

Create OLAP cubes 

NOT REQUIRED 

Yes using SAS Olap Studio which created MDX compliant cubes.

17 

Data extraction and transformation tools 

INTEGRATED 

Yes 

18 

Incremental extraction 

YES

Yes 

19 

Impact analysis - objects impacted by change 

YES 

Yes. Reverse impact analysis is also possible, which means any changes in any of the DWH-BI process can be traced and impact analysis can be performed.

20 

Can schedule process to run overnight

YES 

Yes 

21 

Formatting 

YES 

Yes 

22 

By dimension 

YES: N DIMENTION 

Yes 

23 

By level 

YES 

Yes 

24 

By cell 

YES 

Yes 

25 

Zero-row suppression 

ZERO/NULL FIELD SUPPRESSION 

Yes 

26 

Conditional formatting by cell, e.g., highlight cells below threshold

YES 

Yes 

27 

Returns text (e.g., if value > 90, returns "excellent") 

YES 

Yes 

28 

French version 

UNICODE: CAN BE IMPLEMENTED IN ANY LANGUAGE 

Yes 

29 

Screens 

YES 

Yes 

30 

Reports 

YES 

Yes 

31 

Documentation 

YES 

Yes 

32 

Metadata 

YES 

Single Integrated Metadata across complete DWH-BI-AnI process. One interface to manage ETL, Business Intelligence, Dashboards, Cubes, Information Maps (semantic layer), Reporting, Analytical solutions.

33 

OLAP functionality 

NOT REQUIRED 

Yes 

34 

Skip missing levels - support ragged dimensions

YES 

yes 

35 

Write back 

NO 

Yes 

36 

With audit trail 

YES 

Yes 

37 

Includes charting tools 

YES 

yes 

38 

Access multiple cubes at a time 

YES 

Yes 

39 

Excel client 

YES 

yes 

40 

Internet Explorer client 

YES 

yes 

41

Netscape client 

FireFox 

yes 

42 

Geographical representation 

YES 

Yes 

43 

Drag and drop 

YES 

Yes 

44 

Attach notes to cube 

CUBES NOT REQUIRED SAVES TIME AND MONEY 

Yes 

45 

Attach notes to cells 

CELLS NOT REQUIRED SAVES TIME AND MONEY 

Yes 

46 

Password security

YES: UP TO THE FIELD LEVEL( BETTER THAN THE LISTING BELOW) 

Yes 

47 

By company 

YES 

Yes 

48 

By department or division 

YES 

Yes 

49 

By menu 

YES 

Yes 

50 

By function (view, add, change, delete) 

YES 

Yes 

51 

By dimension 

YES 

Yes 

52 

By level 

YES 

Yes 

53 

By cell 

YES 

Yes 

54 

Respect active directory authentication 

YES: CAN BE INTEGRATED WITH ACTIVE DIRETORY AUTHENTICATION FOR A SINGLE LOG ON PER USER 

Yes 

55 

Respect database security 

YES 

Yes, row level as well as colunmn level security

56 

Portal generation that includes HTML reports 

YES 

Yes 

57 

Report writer 

NOT REQUIRED: INTEGRATED FEATURE 

Yes 

58 

Web-based 

YES 

Yes 

59 

Generate cube 

NOT REQUIRED: OVERCOMES CUBE DRAWBACKS 

Yes 

60 

Drag and drop 

YES 

Yes 

61 

WYSIWYG report design

YES 

Yes 

62 

Technology 

YES (AQL) 

  

63 

API-enabled (SDK provided) 

YES 

Yes 

64 

Web-based (only need browser at client) 

YES 

Yes 

65 

For entire application 

YES 

Yes 

66 

Support for .NET web services 

YES 

Yes 

67 

Support for Java web services

YES 

Yes 

68 

Transfer data to: 

  

  

69 

Report writer 

QLIKVIEW IS NOT A REPPORT WRITER HOW EVER IT SUPPORTS GENERTING REPORTS AND THIS FEATURE IS INTEGRATED PART OF QLIKVIEW. 

Yes 

70 

Excel 

YES 

Yes 

71 

PivotTable 

YES 

Yes 

72 

HTML 

YES 

Yes 

73 

PDF 

YES 

Yes 

74 

PowerPoint 

COPY PASTE (CTRL+C, CTRL+V) 

Yes 

75 

XML 

YES 

Yes 

76 

Views 

YES 

  

77 

Crosstabs 

YES 

Yes 

78 

Charts 

YES 

Yes 

79 

Both crosstabs and chart at the same time 

YES 

Yes 

80 

Work flow 

Open to function with third party tools

  

81 

Alerts can be automatically triggered 

YES IN THE FORM OF POPUPS AND CAN BE USED TO AUTOMATE SENDING OF MAILS, ACTIVATE/RUN OTHER APPLICATIONS 

Yes 

82 

Dynamically summarizing data without having to rebuild data? 

ANALYSIS AT TRANSACTION LEVEL, WITH DRILL DOWN CAPABILITY FROM THE CONSOLIDATED ANALYSIS

Yes 

83 

Ability to pre-calculate results (aggregate) when they are available, or dynamically generating result from atomic information when necessary 

YES 

Yes 

84 

Ability to control and design cube aggregations

DOES NOT REQUIRE CUBES WHICH CAN HANDLE 3-10 DIMENTIONS ONLY. QLIKVIEW IS BASED ON AQL THAT CAN HANDLE AS MANY DIMENTIONS AS THE FILEDS AVAILABLE 

Yes 

85 

Ability to monitor cube performance and tune the cube aggregations accordingly 

DOES NOT REQUIRE CUBES WHICH CAN HANDLE 3-10 DIMENTIONS ONLY. QLIKVIEW IS BASED ON AQL THAT CAN HANDLE AS MANY DIMENTIONS AS THE FILEDS AVAILABLE

Yes 

86 

Can the cube be built using either of ROLAP, MOLAP, HOLAP techniques

DOES NOT REQUIRE CUBES WHICH CAN HANDLE 3-10 DIMENTIONS ONLY. QLIKVIEW IS BASED ON AQL THAT CAN HANDLE AS MANY DIMENTIONS AS THE FILEDS AVAILABLE

Yes 

87 

A hybrid database that stores data in relational form and multidimensional form, as appropriate 

QLIKVIEW DOES NOT NEED THIRD PARY DATABASE.

Yes 

88 

Is 'What-if" analysis supported 

YES 

Yes 

89 

GUI based Data Mining Capabilities 

YES 

Yes with SAS Enterprise Miner all different Data Mining Algorithms can be performed and the results can be viewed in desired format.  

90 

Enterprise Platform 

YES

Yes, SAS supports Enterprise Intelligence Platform which provides capability to integrate all components of DWH-BI-AI across organization. 

  

Statistical Analytical Modeling  

YES 

  

91 

Statistics 

YES 

SAS provides statistical data analysis tools to drive fact-based decisions.

92 

Data & Text Mining 

YES 

SAS provides tools to build descriptive and predictive models and deploy results throughout the enterprise. 

93 

Model Management & Deployment 

  

SAS provides tools to streamline the process of creating, managing and deploying analytical models.

94 

Forecasting 

YES 

Forecasting tools from SAS helps to analyze and predict outcomes based on historical patterns. 

95 

Econometrics 

YES 

Use SAS components for applying statistical methods to economic data, problems and trends.

96 

Quality Improvement 

  

SAS provides SAS QC to identify monitor and measure quality processes over time. 

97 

Operations Research 

  

Using SAS components to apply techniques such as optimization, scheduling, and simulation to achieve the best result.

98 

Data Quality 

AQL TAKES BUSINESS INTELEGENCE ONE STEP FURTHER THAN THE TREDITIONAL DATA WAREHOUSE ARCHITECHTURE - OLAP BASED SOLUTIONS  

SAS has its own data quality tool (Data Flux), which is tightly integrated with SAS ETL tool. The Data quality solution comes with Indian Names and Address based Quality Knowledge base. SAS also provides Master Data Management solution.

Search more on BI on Web

Know the Blogger