Considering a Business Analysis tool? Consider Toad Data Point.
Rating: 10 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
Toad Data Point (TDP) is a business analysis tool. I work with department heads to show how it will solve their data needs and make better/quicker data analysis decisions. This tool is perfect if your data is in more than one data store. It supports almost 50 different data stores including Sales Force Automation, OBIEE, and other big applications. Toad supports connectivity to almost 50 different databases/Microsoft Office products/and ODBC compliant data stores.
It is also relatively easy to learn and has many of the same cool features of the Toad (database development tool) product. You don't need to know anything about SQL to do serious data analysis.
Toad Data Point is also integrated with Intelligence Central so it is very easy to share your workflows AND your data with others in your department/your company. It is more of a department kind of tool though. Intelligence Central also allows you to automate things so your data is organized and ready for use upon your arrival in the morning.
It is also relatively easy to learn and has many of the same cool features of the Toad (database development tool) product. You don't need to know anything about SQL to do serious data analysis.
Toad Data Point is also integrated with Intelligence Central so it is very easy to share your workflows AND your data with others in your department/your company. It is more of a department kind of tool though. Intelligence Central also allows you to automate things so your data is organized and ready for use upon your arrival in the morning.
Pros
- Ease of building SQL/accessing data, using the Query Builder.
- The new workflow feature mimics products like Hyperion and is centered on how business analysts are used to working with their data.
- The dimensional views are definitely a hidden gem. This feature allows you to display similar data in multiple windows, then filter on specifics. ALL windows will then reflect the same data. An example here would be salaries organized by dept then salaries organized by job type. As you filter, both analyses will reflect the filtered data.
- You can easily create spreadsheets and pivot table spreadsheets.
- You can email the results to the team/you can save the results in the intelligence central repository so others can access it.
- You can automate all of these things.
Cons
- The workflow is a relatively new feature. Quest is adding additional functionality and the workflows are useful now.
- Would be nice if the 'Automate' feature was a bit easier to use.
- Would be nice if some of the SQL Editor features in the traditional interface worked better in the new workflow interface (although, these are being fixed with each release).
- Would be nice if there were fewer releases.
Likelihood to Recommend
This is the best data analysis tool I have seen. I have worked with several and this tool allows for data to be gathered from several different sources and then saved to Excel, in a number of different formats. The saving to Excel is strong. It remembers formatting/headings/data locations and even allows you to name the tabs. This functionality can be automated with either the new workflow or the traditional automation.
Where it is weak is when specific reporting needs are required. Although, the traditional interface has a full-featured report writer.
Most shops don't buy the Intelligence Central and they are really missing the boat when it comes to team collaboration and data preparation for specific reporting.
Where it is weak is when specific reporting needs are required. Although, the traditional interface has a full-featured report writer.
Most shops don't buy the Intelligence Central and they are really missing the boat when it comes to team collaboration and data preparation for specific reporting.
DH
Dan Hotka
Oracle ACE Director in Professional Services at www.DanHotka.com, LLC (Professional Training & Coaching, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
3 years of experience