Power BI vs Logi Symphony

Our researchers ranked products on a whole bunch of features. They include data management, querying and visualization, advanced and embedded analytics, mobile BI, and IoT and location analytics.In our rankings, Power BI scores 87 for connectivity, leaving behind Tableau, Oracle Analytics and Dundas BI. Robust Microsoft technology is one reason, for sure. Besides, intelligent techniques like DirectQuery and easy data modeling make it popular among users.In product reviews, some users mentioned a lag when sharing reports from the desktop to the cloud. For me, the platform was a tad slow to start, but otherwise, it stayed performant for my average-sized dataset.When dealing with sales data, total sales, the top-performing products, seasonality and period trends are common queries. Creating a sales KPI report in Power BI was an excellent way for me to answer them. My CSV files included sales, calendar, products and store data.Connecting to sources is straightforward with Get Data on the home screen and toolbar. Once I had pulled in the data, I clicked on Transform Data and opened the Power Query editor. It automatically detects the data type for strings and numbers but can get confused with dates and currency, which it marks as text. It involved some manual wrangling, but I had it sorted in no time. Read my article on KPI Reports to learn how I did it.But I wouldn’t call it a deal-breaker as it’s not a tedious task. I had the same experience with Qlik Sense, but Tableau was way better as it recognizes seven data types — string, number, date, date and time, boolean, geographic and cluster values.Tracking sales over periods required a greater level of detail, so I added new columns to the calendar data — start of month and start of week. Column statistics were immensely helpful in identifying unique, distinct and null values and correcting incomplete records. Clicking on the number of products selling at a particular price allowed me to see which toys sold at that price.Creating a relational data model by defining primary keys is a manual process and seems dated once you’ve used Qlik Sense. Adding calculated measures is where DAX shows its magic. For data workers well-versed with SQL, DAX is a ready-to-go tool they’ll be glad to have in their corner.Creating visualizations wasn’t as intuitive as Tableau as it involved drag-and-drop onto the canvas, and frankly, I felt like I was flying blind. I didn’t feel that way with Tableau, and it’s slicker.Power BI offers a paintbrush tool that lets you define the layout, the card arrangement and the maximum number of cards. You can define the canvas settings, background and headers and determine the filter pane settings. It took me longer to create a dashboard from scratch than it took in Tableau.Some users found the pricing structure too complex. While using Azure data in Power BI for basic queries is free, costs can add up when you go for text and sentiment analysis. With Microsoft Fabric, the pricing complexity is set to rise. Though Power BI is available separately too, you’ll need to rely on Fabric to manage users, licenses and other administrative tasks.About 31% of the users mentioning cost complained about onboarding difficulties, possibly because DAX introduces the complexity of learning syntax. It can daunt non-technical users initially, but guided formulas can make the task easier. That said, I agree with the majority of user reviews that training will speed up onboarding and help your team maximize the investment.Overall, Power BI has many powerful features and will give you value for your money. If you’re not a Microsoft user yet, it’s worth checking out for the baked-in vendor technologies like Azure and SSAS. If you are an MS user, Power BI might be a no-brainer, though be prepared to shell out a little extra for advanced functionality and additional modules.

Logi Symphony is a web-based business intelligence solution that connects to a range of data sources, both on-premise and in-cloud, to source and optimize business-specific data. Users who reviewed its functionality praised the solution for its out-of-the-box features and extensibility to create tailored business solutions. With a vast library of visualizations, the platform allows users to create scalable and interactive dashboards to power data-driven decisions. Though it offers multiple graphs and charting options, some users who mentioned visualization said that the tool needs better integration with advanced charts, maps and D3, among others. Around 78% of users who reviewed reporting said that they found it easy to create and share impactful reports with stakeholders, though some users reported that generating reports in PDF format was difficult. The tool is intuitive and easy to use, though users who reviewed its data preparation capabilities said that it requires programming skills to manage more complex visualizations. The solution is not without its limitations though. Of users who reviewed its functionality, some said that the complexity of the tool can be overwhelming and some updates have resulted in broken features, requiring script rewrite. Around 62% of users who reviewed training said that that help documentation is lacking in best practices and use case samples for complicated data reporting scenarios. There were numerous complaints from users that the vendor’s apparent focus on introducing new add-ons translate into extra costs for them, while the core product — Logi Info — seems to have plateaued as far as new features and improvements go. Though SaaS-based businesses might find the pricing model workable, the platform can be cost prohibitive for many users due to rising licensing costs. In summary, Logi Symphony is an excellent platform to create a high-end website or application, with powerful descriptive and predictive analytics, superior embeddability and big data integrations.