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MicroStrategy vs Oracle Essbase comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

MicroStrategy
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
163
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (13th), Embedded BI (4th)
Oracle Essbase
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

MicroStrategy and Oracle Essbase aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. MicroStrategy is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 1.2%, down 3.0% compared to last year.
Oracle Essbase, on the other hand, focuses on Database Development and Management, holds 1.3% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MicroStrategy1.2%
Microsoft Power BI8.1%
Tableau Enterprise6.2%
Other84.5%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Essbase1.3%
Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials4.2%
Oracle Enterprise Manager4.0%
Other90.5%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

Harjinder-Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Reporting on insurance finances has become robust and supports detailed geo-spatial analysis
I am quite satisfied with the reporting part of the product. However, compared to other tools, the modeling part is not as strong. Data modeling is not as easy on MicroStrategy as it is on other platforms. I have worked with the administration tool and the Architect tool for MicroStrategy, but creating a star schema is not as easy compared to other tools. Creating hierarchies and the modeling part is challenging because data modeling is one of the most important aspects of any BI project. If you can create a star schema or Snowflake schema easily, then report building becomes straightforward. Additionally, MicroStrategy's Workstation tool compared to Developer still lacks some functionality that can be done more easily on the Developer side. Workstation is a great tool, but they have not given it full functionality.
Bhavya N - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at Infosys
Ensuring efficient data analysis and reporting while identifying areas for calculation and export improvements
The features of Oracle Essbase are valuable, such as its multi-dimensional database used for dynamic calculations and reporting purposes. These features are valuable because they support multi-dimensional data views, allowing users to analyze relationships across various data categories and establish a comprehensive perspective on business operations. Moreover, dynamic calculations allow real-time data analysis, significantly improving the accuracy and depth of financial insights. I have utilized Essbase's data aggregation capabilities. The Oracle Essbase interface provides a good user experience, allowing users to easily navigate and analyze data with fast query performance, effective data visualization tools such as charts, graphs, and tables, and flexibility for customizable analysis and reporting, including the ability to create ad hoc reports. The benefits of the interface include improving productivity and enhancing decision-making.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Tech support has been great, very responsive. We usually hear back within a day.​ We usually email them and that works out perfect. The right person always gets back to us."
"In terms of its performance, when compared with other products that we have, Cognos, QlikView, Tableau, I would rate MicroStrategy number one in the above terms."
"If you have a big company and you want to do all kinds of analytics, it's an open platform; you can create your own data connectors, do everything with APIs, and for me it's the obvious choice."
"Speed for high level aggregation by using Intelligent Cubes."
"I think one of the greatest things about MicroStrategy is their holistic approach to business intelligence."
"The architecture, it's very solid."
"We are embedding multimedia content in our apps... You can embed streaming video from websites, or you can host the video files on your internal media servers. The video is clear, absolutely."
"It has greatly benefited our organization."
"The solution can handle a large volume of data."
"With Oracle Essbase, everything is centralized in a comprehensive financial statement analysis, allowing for complete management of budget, actuals analysis, and forecast."
"Oracle Essbase is a web integration system that integrates with other data systems."
"It helps us fetch specific data sets per users' requirements."
"It provides for faster and more assertive forecast cycles and enables businesses to improve their process since with this tool, you can do things easily and quicker as the business can create more complex models than were possible before."
"Essbase is a powerful tool that continues to provide value for companies."
"It's a very powerful analytical engine with Essbase as the back end. We can analyze, transform, or utilize a big chunk of data for our calculations."
"Unlike relational, where you're linking together multiple tables, with Essbase, you basically define what the dimensions are beforehand, and you define the hierarchy, and then load the data. This allows you to do a pretty sophisticated analysis so that you can drill into it and slice and dice the data."
 

Cons

"Any product or feature request takes years to get, if at all."
"The UI seems klutzy with its manual entry."
"Preparation, data loading and data management application is challenging with MicroStrategy. It lacks cube-based analytics as it is outdated, meaning there is no memory or fast processing analytics or MMA deployment."
"Long way to go to explore complete suite."
"Data writeback, and on-the-fly predictive analysis results from R and Python could be improved."
"When we come to them with a problem, they might know more of a generalized solution, but not one targeted to our industry."
"They need to improve on distribution services. There are lack of features which were there earlier with Narrowcast, but they are not there in the distribution services."
"There are a lot of offerings, and we are not fully using everything to its advantage."
"The consolidation engine, which is HFM or FCCS, needs some room for improvement."
"There is room for improvement in terms of cost-effectiveness."
"The ability to drive external reporting out for development could be improved."
"The technical support for EPM is bad. I don't remember anytime that the service support helped me in something."
"The solution could be cheaper. It is costly, and the initial setup could be simplified."
"The initial setup could be simplified."
"A significant area for improvement in Oracle Essbase is that financial statement analysis, CAPEX and OPEX analysis, and financial consolidation must be done manually, as Oracle Essbase doesn't include the financial consolidation module that is available in EPM."
"It's not a very scalable solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"MicroStrategy's licensing cost is higher than that of other tools in the market. My company uses the enterprise edition of the product."
"We have one of the best pricing available, but we can't disclose that information."
"The pricing is fair."
"​They gave us a good deal.​"
"The price of MicroStrategy is reasonable."
"Now, the price is high."
"Pricing, in general, is high. With Power BI, you get mobile with the license, whereas with MicroStrategy, you have to purchase mobile for extra."
"They can improve its licensing. It is a bit expensive as compared to Microsoft and other tools."
"The solution is expensive."
"Essbase is competitively priced."
"I believe the licensing is on a monthly base."
"It is a costly solution."
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Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise101
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?
My company has many licenses for MicroStrategy because we can build reports in this tool. I don't know what the cost is for these licenses.
What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?
I am quite satisfied with the reporting part of the product. However, compared to other tools, the modeling part is not as strong. Data modeling is not as easy on MicroStrategy as it is on other pl...
What is your primary use case for MicroStrategy?
Harjinder, I recall approximately two years back we had a conversation with you about ForgeRock and Auth0, and I think we had discussed MicroStrategy as well. Currently, we are using it for financi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Essbase?
It's not that expensive, but also not cheap. I'm not sure because it's a private license.
What needs improvement with Oracle Essbase?
A significant area for improvement in Oracle Essbase is that financial statement analysis, CAPEX and OPEX analysis, and financial consolidation must be done manually, as Oracle Essbase doesn't incl...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Essbase?
The initial setup of Oracle Essbase is dependent on whether you select BSO or ASO cubes. First, you need to set up the type of information and once the type of cubes is defined, you need to define ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Essbase
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.
CHU de Rennes, Bellco Credit Union, Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd, Deutsche Telekom AG, Samarco MineraÊo S.A., PCCW Ltd., QDQ media S.A.U., Boiron Italia, Specialized Bicycle Components Inc., Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd., Air Canada, Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd.
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