Chartio (discontinued) vs. Logi Symphony

This product is well suited for end users that don't want to get too in depth with reporting. The interface is simple and the default filter options are sufficient for a general report.
Example: Total Sum of Net Sales for all products sold in X State between dates X and X. If the need is for a more complex query, then there is the Custom Query option. This would be something that an administrator would have to police as having users writing their own queries could get really messy really fast.
I suppose the key questions to ask would be:
Do you need a product that will... display all relevant charts/reports in one consistent place? ... be simple for an end user to navigate? ...be web-based and remotely accessed?

Considering it's price point in the market, Dundas BI offers a lot of functionality. They are constantly adding features and bug fixes which is great, but also means there are always updates to take if you want everything to work as expected. The standard user interface is pretty easy to understand, but it takes a while for developers and power users to become independent of documentation.

Incentivized

• Constantly updating: many of the BI tools we looked at were slow to iterate on their product. This was a main selling point for us.
• Ease of Use: We have many users that are new to BIs tools and database management in general. BI software as a whole has a pretty steep learning curve for most people, but Chartio does a good job of making things easier all around.
• Database Support: It seems as though every department insists on storing their information using different databases. Chartio had support for everyone one we needed which was very helpful.

Incentivized

• Project organization from Development to Production, you get a production and development license but I think the best way to do it is with DEV and Prod project in the Production box. Use the development box for testing updates and really crazy things. With the Dev and Prod projects on the same box, you just publish from Dev to Prod and you are done. Users only have access to the Prod projects so no one can mess up what you are working on.
• Security - If you have a hierarchy (subsidiaries, divisions, department, teams) and you want each group to see only their data, then Security hierarchies are for you!
• Dependent filters! What's this you ask? Here is an example of how it can be used, in your company you have departments and who works for what department is in your database. You make a dashboard that has a department filter (only show these departments), a managers filter, and employee filter. Not every manager or employee is in multiple departments usually only one. With dependent filters you can say that the manager and employee filter are dependent on what is selected in the departments filter so when you go to filter them they only show the managers or employees that are part of that department, and you can even it do so employees are not only dependent on department but on manager as well. Then it gets even better as it can be done in reverse as well so when you select a manager then go to the department it only shows the departments he works for (there are better situations where this is more useful).
• It is scriptable! From calculate columns, null replacements, button actions, load actions, hover over events there a way to do what you want.
• They are constantly improving and listens to your suggestions.

Incentivized

• The sharing is descent but is a bit lacking. You can embed charts but they're not as nice as when displayed on Chartio dashboards.
• The pricing model is very competitive, but just to offer embedding puts you in a very high tier.
• They need a better pricing model for adding users. User licensing is a bit expensive.

Incentivized

• Not too many cons for how we use the application. It really is easy and powerful. Very powerful.
• Licensing is one thing that could be looked into. It is simple, but a little confusing. For example, if I get a license today, but a new release comes out tomorrow, it seems that the license doesn't work with the new release. Maybe that is by design, but it would be nice to clearly understand.

It has become a core part of the business in terms of identifying the health of our network. If we grow and there are certain things that might not fit well with Chartio (e.g. we'd want to store snapshots of every single day's dash instead of seeing realtime data), it might make sense to move some of the data analysis tool in-house if resources are available.

I really like using Chartio. I use it on a daily basis for pulling data from different sources and combining data (the explore tab was a great idea for this use). I think I would give it 8/10 because there needs to be more documentation or maybe blog posts about things people are doing with it. I only have my own ideas about what to do /how to graph things. I know there are some articles, but it would be awesome to have a section on the neat dashboards people are building or how they show data in different ways. Another complaint is how much time it takes to load. I know our databases aren't set up precisely for Chartio and I have been creating data stores. But the data stores have so many more limitations that adds a whole new layer of frustration. Love the product, keep up the good work and the fast fixes.

We are still in the implementation phase, but so far we are finding it to be easy to use and learn. The eLearning courses that they have made available for free, as well as User Forums and other training videos have made even difficult concepts easier to understand.

We have bi-weekly calls with our Success Manager, as well as access to support as needed. Any question that I have had, multiple people have been willing and able to jump on a call to talk me through it, or send an email with the solution

I use self learning materials. Pretty helpful. I find myself having to go back to the "drilldown" instructions though, and have a hard time finding hidden variables on a dashboard, so perhaps there is room for intuitive improvements (or maybe I'm just being lazy)

Providing that you have the client's needs well known, creating BI content using Dundas BI is a walk in the park!

Again, Chartio provides the best multi-user presentation ability for us. Other tools are great for slicing and dicing the data, but at the end, you still have to spend time trying to find a way to present it. Chartio has that built in.

We have tested Tableau prior to Dundas BI and though Tableau is a great package in itself, Dundas BI is much more cost-effective for our needs and requirements and hence zeroed in on Dundas BI. We have also tried microstrategy but it has a very dated UI and doesn't suit our needs in today's more modern world

Incentivized

Chartio has worked well as our datawarehouse has rapidly expanded, and the usability/performance hasn't seemed to have suffered. What we haven't yet realized is additional savings from additional users. We have some dashboard needs for users who truly just view of a few charts, and the licensing structure hasn't yet been structured in a way that would support that type of approach...having 50 "core" licenses, and then potentially several hundred view only licenses for partners that would use the application infrequently.

• Coming from an SQL based standard delivery model, Dundas BI has provided a fantastic rate of ROI.
• The preparation and delivery time has reduced from weeks to just a few hours.

Incentivized