- Flexibility
- Agile development
- Intuitive
- Very good performance
- Excellent user groups
Project Manager - Business Intelligence at www.datademy.es
We use QlikView to create department dashboards with useful analysis.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
We use QlikView to create department dashboards. We can create powerful dashboards with useful analysis in a few days.
What needs improvement?
I think its visualization has room for improvement, and I know Qlik Sense has better visualization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for two years.
Buyer's Guide
QlikView
November 2024
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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's difficult to manage big and complex data models, but the reason is that there isn't a semantic layer in Qlikview, but not having a semantic layer is a good point in other aspects, like agile development.
How are customer service and support?
Excellent, very good and active community.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Business Objects and Microstrategy. QlikView is a different tool. It has advantages and disadvantages compared to Business Objects or Microstrategy. The main advantages are flexibility and agile development.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward.
What was our ROI?
We haven't calculated the ROI yet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think the pricing is really competitive.
What other advice do I have?
QlikView is an excellent reporting and data discovery tool. I have used it on a departmental scale, but not on a corporate level so I don't know how it will behave on that level.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager of Data Analytics at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Great for personal productivity and data analysis. Forget it if you just need a reporting tool
What is most valuable?
I think it's the best data analysis/discovery tool I've ever seen.
How has it helped my organization?
I'm currently using it also for my personal and professional productivity: e.g. stock analysis, project management dashboards.
What needs improvement?
It is really missing a comprehensive semantic/metadata layer and security/data profiling can be hard to accomplish at corporate level without a high level of scripting.
For how long have I used the solution?
4 years
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Not in the last couple of years
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Not in the last couple of years
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It really depends on your analytics. You have to think and design your documents and/or analytics for large scalability if you think you need something like that.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: Medium/LowTechnical Support: Medium/High
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I never replaced a tool with QV in my working experience. For my personal productivity, it mainly replaced excel.
How was the initial setup?
Everything is quite easy and straightforward
What about the implementation team?
We implemented in-house with limited support of the vendor team
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Server licence (about 9k USD) + maintenance and a bunch (increasing) of different kind of user licences (average $500 each).
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Mainly SAS, Microstrategy and Microsoft BI
What other advice do I have?
Well, it really depends on what you're looking for. It's not a reporting product, it's an analysis/data discovery tool and it does it really well.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
QlikView
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about QlikView. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
BI Expert at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Continues changing, adding more features, improving performance, opening new possibilities
QlikView was born in 1994 in Lund, Sweden. While it was quickly spreading in Europe, it was virtually unknown in the US for many years. In 2000, there were few companies that used this BI tool. (I was lucky to work in one of these companies and learn QlikView in early 2000.) The situation is quite different now. Certainly the product has changed a lot, but the most important features that are responsible for its success remain the same.
First of all, the exceptional ease of use. User doesn’t need to learn anything “BI-specific” or any particular technology. If you know how to click – you can use QlikView applications. Well, maybe 15-minute presentation is needed to explain what this particular application is about and how to use it.
Second, there is no steep learning curve for the developers. After initial training (two or three days), you can create QlikView applications. Not the advanced ones yet, but quite reasonable and useful. The only technical knowledge I consider a pre-requisite is SQL, and you don’t need to be on an advanced level, basic “SELECT … FROM …” is good enough to start from. Even if you don’t know any SQL, you still will be able to develop QlikView applications using wizards that will create simple SQL queries for you. Developer certainly must understand the business needs, and know where to get the data which support business requirements.
Another important advantage of QlikView – it is “in-memory analytics” tool, I believe the first of this kind. All data is in memory rather than on the disk or other storage, and this allows get the results fast. Certainly it was somewhat a limitation in early years because of the limits of 32-bit architecture and memory price. Now with much cheaper memory and 64-bit systems, the “in-memory” applications can handle larger amounts of data than ever before.
Unlike the most (if not all) other BI tools, QlikView does not require data warehouse. Data can be read directly from the original sources, and all ETL work can be performed within QlikView application itself in the data load script and on the front-end level. If a data warehouse exists already, QlikView can use it as well.
Speaking of data sources, QlikView can load data from the variety of the RDBMS (I used it with Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle, MS SQL Server), Excel files and many file types including CSV and XML. There is also a proprietary data type, QVD (for QlikView Data) for temporary storage and retrieval, which is extremely fast. In practice, it is not uncommon for one QlikView application to read data from several heterogeneous data sources – multiple databases, maybe even of different types, from QVDs and flat files.
QlikView continues changing, adding more features, improving performance, opening new possibilities. The important event in the company’s history were moving to the US in 2006, and going public in 2010. I guess it is here to stay and increase its market share.
Disclosure: The company I work for is a Microsoft Partner
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Managing QlikView Server Without a Publisher
I have many clients who are using QlikView Small Business Edition or Enterprise Edition without Publisher. I'd love for them to add Publisher because I HATE HATE HATE managing file permissions in windows. I love that publisher automatically distributes QlikView documents to the User Documents folder and I can easily change who will receive each file right from the Management Console AND I don't have to remote into the server to do it
Ok, time to end this publisher love-fest and time to get down to the business of designing our security environment when you don't have publisher. I'm writing this post because I spent a good chunk of the other day fixing a problem we had that was caused by a goofed up security configuration(This is called learning from experience because I goofed it up). So after banging my head on the wall trying to figure it out I thought it would be a good idea to share with the interweb.
Here is my use case...
I work for a company who has 25 Named user CALS and 100 Document CALS(Probably not an important detail) There are several departments using QlikView Dashboards Each department includes sensitive data in their Dashboards so they must remain private to the department. There is also a Corporate Dashboard used by the C Suite and the CEO often uses the department dashboards to explore information about some key clients.
Our data is built by first extracting data from the source databases into QVD files. Dimensions are conformed and key fact tables are also built in QVD format. The Conformed Dimensions and Facts are combined into data models based on user requirements and finally the data models are binary loaded into the user applications and presented on Access Point.
A three tier data flow model provides the framework needed to present clear and consistent data to all your applications.
So let's start planning. We want to set up a folder structure to use in our Small Business Edition server to manage user access to their documents, and provide organization for our ETL framework, remember we don't have publisher. Obviously we can get very complicated with this but for the sake of explanation I'm going to make a single directory our starting point, I'll call it "QlikWarehouse".
Applications The Applications folder contains our user facing QlikView documents I always add one folder for each application and I design my security around those folders. You should create a "QlikView Users" group in active directory and assign read/write access to the Applications folder. Then you will override inheritance for "QlikView Users" on the application specific directories and grant read/write access to a group that corresponds to the folder for that application. In the QEMC you will set the Applications folder as the "Root" folder, when you do this the QlikView Server will add several files in the Applications folder, if your users do not have read/write access to these files then they will see login failure errors and you'll get to bang your head on the wall to figure out the problem.
Load Scripts Load scripts is added to the QlikView environment as a mapped meta folder. Mapping it into the QEMC will allow you to set the reload schedule for your data. It is essential that your users do not have access to this folder. If they do you will be exposing documents to the users that will not have any data in them and probably cause nothing but confusion for your users.
Data
Most of the files in the data directory will be QVD files but you must map it because the data model files will live in here but just like the load scripts your users should not have access to this directory.
Active Directory security settings needed to manage your QlikView SBE deployment.
Following this kind of configuration will allow you a couple of advantages.
Management Got a new Application? Create an AD group to go along with it and make it a member of Qlikview Users.
Simplicity Users only see the applications that they have access to, period.
Compatibility This structure is compatible with publisher so if you do decide to expand your Qlikview footprint you'll be ready to go. It won't be a turnkey deployment but this structure is close enough to adapt to the Source Docs/User Docs division in publisher.
I'd like to encourage comments since this is just what I've been doing when I deploy a server, any suggestions, criticism or praise(especially praise) is welcome.
A quick note on the images in this post, I would like to give credit where it is due. Many of the individual icons have been clipped from various presentations I have received from Qliktech however the overall diagrams are my creation(even if not terribly creative).
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Recruiter with 51-200 employees
Qlikview compared to other BI Tools
Qlikview is one of the older names in Business Intelligence software since it’s been around since 1993. It’s known as being particularly easy to learn, which is important for quickly training employees and getting them up to speed.
Business intelligence tools are applications that deal with Business Objects and that help with analysing and presenting data. For the most part, a BI tool will be working with data that’s already been in-putted into a system, and you’ll simply be using the BI application to work with that particular data set, though there are exceptions. The best business intelligence software for you though will depend on what you need, since there are many pros and cons of various BI programs.
-- Cons --
Qlikview has strong features all around, but there are other clients that tend to be somewhat better when it comes to certain features. For example, Tableau actually has a free reader integrated into it, which makes offline viewing considerably easier than the limited viewing capabilities while offline that Qlikview has.
Qlikview also struggles when it comes to integrating GIS data, which can be pretty important for topographic and geographic analysis and presentation. Other programs having mapping abilities integrated into the client, for example. Qlikview also struggles when it comes to multidimensional support, and support for things like xVelocity or Power Pivot.
While Qlikview excels in ease of use, there are many alternatives out there like Tableau and OLAP that tend to be better at analysing data in a deep and thorough way, and with support for all of the other applications and data sets that you may need.
-- Qlikview Pros --
An advantage of Qlikview is that it takes a very small amount of time to implement. It’s even better at this than other similar software such as Tableau. Another advantage that Qlikview has is that it has a significantly larger Partner Network than many of the alternatives.
Additionally, Qlikview has development scripting that tends to be superior as well. The 64-bit in-memory of Qlikview is among the best of any software BI package period. Qlikview has good interactivity with the UI, solid visual controls, and extensive compatibility with both web clients and especially with mobile clients. Qlikview also has considerably more mature features when it comes to data interactivity and visual drilldown as well. It’s easier to deal with the visualization aspect of the program than almost any of the competitors, including Tableau.
The best feature for Qlikview tends to be the visual drill down which it just does better than any other client. You can hardly go wrong with all of the extras Qlikview like MDI support, as well. The software shines when it comes to ease of use and learning curve. If you need to implement a BI solution fast and without hassle, Qlikview is often the best way to go.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
What’s So Great About QlikView in the iPad World?
Disclosure: I work for a company that is a partner with QlikView, SAP BusinessObjects and Microsoft.
As a non-Apple using professional (we are becoming less in numbers) I have always leaned further to the Android side of the mobile world. As a QlikView professional, most of my experience is on Windows desktops, laptops and servers and in previous years involved less interaction with what many people believe to be the greatest gadget(s) in the world.
So enter the iPad and QlikView V11.0.11426.0 SR2. Day one, the first step was simple, get to the QlikView Access Point. Open the browser, navigate to my access point and sign in. Outside of the search for the “\” key (domain\userid) that all went well.
The first question you are presented with after getting to the access point is would you like your default in full browser mode or small device mode. iPad is full browser. No question. I’m not a big fan of the small device mode unless the application was really made for phone use. The full browser mode gives you the full experience but beware: if the application was not developed for a smaller device, selection and navigation can become difficult. If you want your users to spend their time using the application, rather than zoom in, selecting, zoom out…repeat, follow some simple design rules from QlikView site:
- It is recommended that QlikView applications are designed for 980 x 590 with a tab row, and 980 x 610 without a tab row. This is a rule of thumb and depends on many things including the version of iPad your audience is using. I found myself struggling to keep the application down to this limit and expanded it slightly after thorough testing in a “no-tab” application.
- Use Arial or other font faces that are supported in iPad browser. I got lucky because my client gave me two options for font based on their creative team, one of which was supported.
- Font sizes – minimum 11pt. Good for most users. Someone with large hands will still probably struggle a bit selecting a specific line item but they probably struggle with most touch screen applications. I did cut this down to 9 and 10 pt sizes for informational only text areas that were non selectable.
- No Mouse Over Options – No mouse, not an option.
- There are some additional tips that I recommend you review but ultimately just keep in mind what you are designing for.
So now I am having enough fun with this that I really want to start testing out existing applications, some designed for mobile and some not. Unfortunately my lack of attention span kicked in and I was diverted over to the Apple Store to discover QlikView for iOS.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Partner at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
When is the best time to implement Business Intelligence?
When is the best time to implement Business Intelligence?
Many of our clients still operate with outdated ERP legacy systems. The common complaint we hear is “I cannot get access to the information that is stored in my ERP system!”
Most commonly, issues are due to the fact that when these systems were built, paper-based reporting was still dominant. That is not the case anymore.
--A New Approach to Reporting--
There are ways to solve data access and reporting issues today without having to go through a costly conversion to a new ERP system.
Today a number of new software products are available that are relatively easy to deploy. These tools can put the power if information in the hands of users.
-- QlikView --
We recently reviewed one such product from QlikView. This Business Intelligence (BI) vendor got its start in Sweden in 1993. Today they have over 27,000 customers worldwide.
Our client still uses a legacy system they implemented 20 years ago and struggles to manage the business with poor information. The information they access often takes hours to assemble.
This BI product easily attaches to the client’s various data sources: the old legacy data files, Excel files, Access files and more. The data files can be linked. The user, through a series of wizards, can easily construct displays of the data.
-- A Cube of Data --
What we saw during the system review was the access of a “cube” of data. The system organizes the cube by dimensions and the user can “slice and dice” the information by the various dimensions: dates ranges, customers, products, territories and more.
In this demonstration we viewed a dashboard that showed tabs across the top:
- This year YTD compared to last year YTD
- KPI’s over time
- P&L
- Cash Flow
- Budgets
- Trends
The user could click to the tab, and then select the dimensions they wanted to look at.
The user can add notes to the dashboard for other users to view. Also, the user can share a view of the dashboard to other members of the team at no addition license cost. This increased insight aids in overall business process improvement.
-- Unlocking Data --
Over the years, our independent ERP consultants have found BI to be an effective route to unlocking information. By getting information into the hands of the users, companies achieve benefits that can then be used to fund the transformation to modern ERP. The BI system you deploy today can ease your transition to modern ERP implementation and is compatible with your data today and your data tomorrow.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Industry Analyst with 51-200 employees
The future of BI in two words
Disclosure: I am an industry analyst focused on self-service business intelligence and data analysts. QlikView and Tableau user. Current clients include QlikView, Spotfire, and Tableau.
What’s the future of BI? Last fall, one sharp source of mine answered, “Two words: Tableau and QlikView. You didn’t hear it here.”
Those are startling words coming from that source, a well-regarded BI consultant known for big-name clients and their big deployments.
At about the same time, a column of mine appeared in Information Management titled “Don’t call it BI” — in which I mentioned Tableau and a few smaller tools. A reader emailed, “You should also become familiar with QlikView.”
My many Tableau-using friends say QlikView is hardly worth a look. Poor visualization! Control panels! Scripting! “It’s so — yesterday,” one emails.
It’s “yesterday” to some yet it’s the future to others. It’s time for a look.
Both Tableau and QlikView promise the same magic: Listen to one pitch and you might think that you’re listening to the other. Each sets itself up against traditional, big-iron BI. Each claims to empower business users by giving them all the data and control they need for free discovery. Each is easy to use. Go inside each tent, though, and you see how different they are.
Metaphorically speaking, Tableau is West Coast. It’s built for discovery by the individual. Just show up and ride on the breeze, the demos seem to say, free as a seed fairy on a meadow. The inevitable mistakes of discovery are quickly undone and forgotten. Create the most dazzling visualizations — “vizzes” — thanks to built-in best practices that nudge you toward beauty and punch.
One of the most attractive aspects is users’ effervescence. They seem to be riding on the wind and solving business problems all at once. Their rapture sweeps me away every time I’m near it.
If Tableau is West Coast, QlikView is East Coast. Its community is bigger, the third-party add-ons are more plentiful, support seems more available, and overall workflow feels more structured. It too is built for discovery, but it’s discovery rooted in community. The “associative experience” reveals relevant data, and you can create your own views and in quick succession ask any questions, anticipated or not. But unless you’re working alone, someone else probably defined the data and its structure for you. This is QlikView’s counterpart to Tableau’s meadow, though it’s more like a manicured garden than Tableau’s unfenced field of daisies.
QlikView’s boundaries may be more apparent than Tableau’s, but I suspect that there’s at least as much power there. I just haven’t yet been able to judge it for myself well enough.
The trouble for me is that I’ve used it alone, as if stuck in a remote cabin. Though even Thoreau might have liked the “associative experience,” QlikView really comes alive only when you link to others.
As in Tableau, any QlikView user can create or modify a workspace, a document linked to one or more sets of data with any number of displays. Unlike Tableau, QlikView isn’t so finicky about data; for one thing, linking to Excel spreadsheets is easier.
I can’t speak with assurance just yet on the differences between QlikView and Tableau Server — more on that later — though I think I see a QlikView edge there.
One other advantage for QlikView is clear: built-in collaboration. True, Tableau workbooks can be passed around in a variety of ways forever. But as with our atomized life on the West Coast, such a community would be for me, the hypothetical manager of a group, too loose for comfort.
Tableau users will shudder, as if about to be extradited back to Maine. “Great, central authority all over again,” they would say. Yet when I imagine myself managing a group, I would feel disabled without a tight, integrated social structure.
“It’s the soft stuff that matters,” TechTarget research director Wayne Eckerson likes to say. Such stuff is what interests me more than anything: Who are these people and how did they choose what they did?
Have most Qlik or Tableau users chosen their tool the way most of us choose spouses, religion, and politics — guided by our relationships? How many software shoppers qualified their candidates with lists of requirements and features and followed through based on evidence? Did they do what a veteran sales person at a large BI vendor sees?: “They gather requirements, they issue RFPs, they visit trade shows, they talk to vendors, and ultimately they pick one because they like its color.”
I think it’s usually about “color,” color being the cover story for something most people can’t quite describe. For now, though, I’m happy to say that at least my first question has been answered: Yes, QlikView belonged on that list in “Don’t call it BI.”
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: November 2024
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Learn More: Questions:
- QlikView or Tableau - Which is better?
- Ad Hoc Reporting: QlikView vs. MainFrame Focus
- What's your experience or opinion about Spotfire vs. Tableau vs. Qlik?
- I currently use Panorama Necto as a viewer on SQL Analysis services cube--what other solutions are out there?
- Which is a better for reporting, SAP BO or QlikView?
- Spotfire vs. QlikView. What can one do which the other cannot?
- Tableau vs. QlikView - functionality and pricing schemes
- A journalist is writing a story about which Data Visualization software product to choose. Can you help him?
- A recent user: "I've done some primitive comparisons between Tableau, QlikView and PowView." Have you compared these?
- Does QlikView support my requirements?
There are various reasons why QlikView continues to shine in the BI tools market. It is easy to use in the sense that users do not require prior skills and knowledge in order to make use of it.
Developers do not have to be geeks in using this tool in order to come up with viable products for their clients or businesses, by using this solution.
Knowledge of basic SQL, access to business information or data and being aware of the needs of a company or business is all that a novice developer requires for him/her to come up with a working product.
Faster access of information is made possible due to the fact that data is kept in memory locations. The various capacities of memory available in the market allows for as much information as possible to be kept while working with QlikView. As a result, this program works with/without warehousing or storage of data.
Moreover, QlikView allows for easy retrieval of data needed from various sources when in use. Generally, great performance, enhanced features and better functionality places this BI tool above many other alternatives, making it a good choice for most businesses.