What Are Business Intelligence (BI) Tools?
Business intelligence tools are software and SaaS applications that inform business decisions by combining and analyzing data from various sources. Modern BI tools support use cases for users of all skill levels, such as interactive dashboards, data visualization, augmented analytics, and embedded analytics.
In the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant BI report, only three vendors were named as Leaders: Qlik, Power BI, and Tableau. Here, we take a deep dive into comparing the three Leaders on the most important criteria when evaluating business intelligence software.
Fully interactive dashboards
Many BI tools can create pretty dashboards. Your tool should allow end-users to freely explore all your data, in any direction, directly from within the dashboard. This lets you uncover connections you might not have queried or just couldn’t find at all with a query-based BI tool.
Qlik
Qlik’s data engine is "associative" in that it lets users explore all data freely, on the fly, and from any angle. Plus, machine learning allows Qlik’s cognitive engine to get smarter over time – giving you ideas of where to explore.
Power BI
Power BI works on a SQL database that restricts users to linear, predetermined query paths within a narrow slice of data. In any given query, only part of your data is analyzed, leaving key patterns and connections undiscovered.
Tableau
Tableau also operates over an old school query-based approach, which restricts users to follow specific paths and limited data. And in Tableau, exploration only happens at the beginning of the process, before the final dashboard, so end users are not explorers.
Data visualization
Visualizing data in graphs, charts, and maps makes it easier for stakeholders to understand and engage with. The best tools go further by using AI to automatically reveal the shape of your data, pinpoint outliers, and even suggest new visuals.
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