Engineering, mathematical modeling, and machine learning are all fields where MATLAB will shine. It's fast, reliable, and relatively easy to use. MATLAB is the de facto standard when it comes to producing high-quality plots. If you need to deal with large data sets, and not take forever processing them, MATLAB may very well be the tool for you!
When you don't have much data science skills or when you need to build something quick, you can get started really fast with SAP Predictive Analytics. There are scenarios, like the ones covered by a neural network, where SAP Predictive Analytics is not well suited, but the big question is usually: "do you really need a neural network to address this use case?"
Has robust and easy-to-use debugging tools that can help one identify problems in one's codes.
Rich, well-developed and efficient library of mathematical and statistical functions that one might need to develop models or perform statistical analysis.
A very active online user community that is a great resource in terms of seeking help when you hit a snag.
Great help literature (and sometimes videos too) on all tools making it possible for all to train themselves.
Ability to use built-in algorithms or expand using R. This means that (with training) casual users can take advantage but also data analysts can do their thing!
Integration and consistency with Lumira. Even Lumira on its own has a quick 'predict' functionality (although limited/black box)
Ability to do the analysis and then present visually using the Lumira visualization capabilities
MATLAB should have a full free version (without time limit) in order to be more accessible and thus have a greater user community.
The idea of having toolboxes to work directly with hardware (microcontrollers, single-board computers) is great, but one can tell it isn't updated very frequently and there isn't as much documentation available as with more common resources.
Our organization had a lot of trouble getting our network licenses to work properly and there wasn't any local service provider that could help us get it to work faster.
The best thing about MATLAB is the variety of research and development fields it supports. The reason for this rating is that it is best used for medical images enhancement and signal processing, it is also used for speech to text conversion. This tool server is best when the demand is for machine learning.
The built-in search engine is not as performing as I wish it would be. However, the YouTube channel has a vast library of informative video that can help understanding the software. Also, many other software have a nice bridge into MATLAB, which makes it very versatile. Overall, the support for MATLAB is good.
The documentation provides an explanation about what features are available but not necessarily what's happening behind the scenes. On the other side, the "community" has grown since the acquisition and most questions are properly addressed by SAP folks. Since the "product maintenance" mode announcement was made, there wasn't much new content published except on the Smart Predict side (which is built by the SAP Predictive Analytics team)
The commands and coding language of MATLAB reads a lot more in plain English as opposed to all the periods and other special characters that are needed when typing in Python or Java. Additionally MATLAB has several different function packages that can solve all different categories of problems so you don't have to make a bunch of different code scrips from scratch.
We have typically used Spotfire for data analysis but decided to move to SAP Business Objects due to its innate connection with SAP. I found Lumira to be good for visualizations but it is not meant for data analysis. Therefore, we have introduced Predictive Analytics to see if it can fill that gap. So far, it's been far less intuitive than Spotfire to get started, and as far as I am aware so far, it does not bring many additional capabilities. I do, however, like that it utilizes the Lumira look/feel and integrates very well.
