In the IT Central Station community, our biggest category is BI Tools, which boasts 1,018 reviews for 85 different solutions. Out of the 18,530 IT Central Station users that follow the BI category, we’ve handpicked five notable consultants from our BI user community, sharing their most notable quotes and leaderboard rankings for their respective solution expertise.
Bob Edis, Expert in IBM Cognos and Infosphere
Bob Edis is a Principal Consultant at a tech services company with over 10 years of experience in IBM Cognos. Bob has been a member of the IT Central Station community since June 2015.
Bob is on three product leaderboard(s) in IT Central Station:
- Ranked #1 in the IBM InfoSphere MDM Leaderboard
- Ranked #1 in the IBM Infosphere Information Server Leaderboard
- Ranked #3 in the IBM Cognos Leaderboard
Expert BI Feedback from Bob
In his IBM Cognos review from November 2016, Bob describes the three (of the numerous) times he deployed IBM Cognos;
Bob describes the stand-alone installation of IBM Cognos on a Windows machine as the “easiest install ever”, while the “concurrent install” with C10.2.2 on a Windows machine was “smooth with little confusion” except around SSO and WebDAV. Used port 9305 as 9300, as 9300 is for 10.2.2 install.
When upgrading on a Linux machine, he adds, installation was “quick and painless.”
Notable Content in the IT Station Central Community
Another expert contribution that Bob made to the IT Central Station community is the project he published on our website, where he shares how he used IBM Cognos to build “sophisticated BI dashboards targeted to “C” level executives.
Gareth Crawshaw, Expert in TIBCO Spotfire, EMC Greenplum, and Tableau
Gareth Crawshaw is a consultant at a financial services firm with over 10 years of experience with Business Intelligence tools. Gareth has been a member of the IT Central Station community since August 2014.
Gareth is on three leaderboards in IT Central Station:
- Ranked #1 in the TIBCO Spotfire Leaderboard
- Ranked #1 in the EMC Greenplum Leaderboard
- Ranked #2 in the Tableau Leaderboard
Expert BI Feedback from Gareth
Gareth gives detailed advice for users considering Tableau:
- The software license cost is standard, he writes, and there is an optional maintenance fee which includes version upgrades. Because the software is straightforward to use, costs of training should be minimal, which balances out well with the licensing costs.
- Gareth also urges users to “assess the scalability using the Server set up, engage users of the tool independently through the Tableau community for their ideas and advice on the pro’s and con’s of the tool…Even the biggest evangelists will be honest enough to tell you where it doesn’t meet their expectations.”
Gareth makes a similar point when advising users about TIBCO Spotfire, emphasizing the benefit of a user community and software consultants that can offer feedback and expertise regarding the solution. Gareth suggests that users “find experts in Spotfire; perhaps get some consultancy to fast-track your knowledge.”
Kathy Williams Chiang, Tableau Expert
Kathy is the VP Business Insights at a tech services company, with over 10 years of experience in Business Intelligence Tools. Kathy has been a member of the IT Central Station community since April 2016.
Kathy is ranked as the #9 expert on the Tableau leaderboard in IT Central Station.
Expert BI Feedback from Kathy
Kathy shares that Tableau’s ease-of-use allows her to set up “basic analytic structures in the metadata with some starter chart types, then turn over to analysts who can then ask all the detailed questions of the data on their own.”
Kathy also addresses points within Tableau’s software that need improvement. These points relate to ‘advanced query functions’, which Kathy argues need to be improved, “especially when working with large datasets.”
Other areas in the solution which Kathy suggests improvement for are:
- Custom query editor; it needs to be easier to work with the database in one environment, as opposed to “having to open another query editor to develop custom queries for advanced analytics.”
- The formatting interface needs more customization options.
- More integrated statistical functions.
Guillermo (Bill) Cabiro, Expert in Qlikview and Tableau
Guillermo is the Director of Development at Strat-Wise Consulting, and has over 10 years of experience in Business Intelligence tools. Guillermo has been a member of the IT Central Station community since January 2013.
Guillermo is on two leaderboards in IT Central Station:
- Ranked #2 in the QlikView Leaderboard
- Ranked #5 in the Tableau Leaderboard
Expert BI Feedback from Guillermo
QlikView and Tableau are both part of “the new BI generation, known as Interactive Visual Analytics”, writes Bill.
Bill draws a distinction between QlikView and Tableau in terms of the types of professionals that are more catered for by each solution.
Bill defines QlikView as more intuitive for “regular users or executives that are not technical experts”, and “Tableau on the other hand is a lot easier to use for developers, analysts or power users who need to connect, manipulate and visualize data rather quickly.”
Julie Schellberg, TIBCO Spotfire Expert
Julie is an Analytics Consultant at Big Mountain Analytics, with over 12 years of experience in Business Intelligence tools. Julie has been a member of the IT Central Station community since June 2016.
Julie is the #4 expert on the TIBCO Spotfire Leaderboard in IT Central Station.
Expert BI Feedback from Julie
Julie values several features provided by Spotfire, such as its integration with R, and the ability to import, manipulate and transform data from disparate sources, as well as to create visualizations that communicate insight.
Julie also suggests additional features that would improve Spotfire, which include “allowing insert columns to be changed after the initial operation.” This change, explains Julie, would solve the current issue of the user needing to replace an entire table each time an insert columns operation needs to be changed.
See the full list of Business Intelligence consultants, or read our entire collection of Business Intelligence solution reviews.
The post Here They Are: Our Top 5 BI Consultants at IT Central Station appeared first on Enterprise Tech Central.
