QlikView Reviews

1. QlikView Scripting - Takes some time to learn, but it is very powerful. Not as a total ETL replacement tool necessarily, but as a supplement to load and join data sources, perform additional transformations, add supplemental inline tables, and even at times, output a final .txt/.csv for consumption by other tools (even Tableau!). I've combined as many as a half dozen data sources including data from multiple SQL Data Marts, Teradata Data Marts,Source System DBs, XLS, CSV, and Google Big Query.

2. Design Flexibility - While other products may do drag and drop, ad-hoc reporting analytics better. (Including Tableau, and Qlik's new product QlikSense) I've not come across one that better supports the creation of a polished, packaged, custom dashboard, that supports what I'd consider "guided exploration", and best meets the needs of our user base. The customization can be taken even further through in-house built, or borrowed, extensions (e.g. Custom D3 Visualizations).

We have gradually reduced laborious manual reporting in Business Units and "spreadmarts". We now have some executive using QV dashboards in weekly review meetings, in place of spreadsheets and PowerPoints. While it does take some time and IT involvement to initially develop and deploy a solution, the payback is immediate. In one particular case we were able to eliminate a days worth of manual work with a QlikView solution that required a few days of development effort. We also previously had no way for end users to routinely and easily analyze larger (100 Million+ rows) data sets, which now can be done through QlikView.

No out of the box mapping capabilities (Extensions/Plugins available).

No auto-scale for different display resolutions/dimensions, but the trade-off here is the much greater design flexibility than one gets with a Grid based product.

Would like to see a few more visualizations available out of the box (e..g Bullet Graph)

Very rudimentary report creation and PDF capabilities No scheduling or distribution without Publisher product.

2 1/2 years

None.

None thus far, but have a relatively small scale implementation (30-40 Users to date), on a single server (196GB RAM, 15 Core). Our largest data sets are in the 100-200 Million rows. Dashboards deployed to the server perform very well, but working with data sets that large locally (on QlikView desktop) may start to lag, depending on your hardware. Being a in-memory tool, desktops and laptops should have at least 8GB RAM, though even more is preferable if working with very large data sets.

Customer service was/is excellent.

Our need for technical support has been minimal, but when needed it has been great. The overall Qlik Community is phenomenal. Many problems can be resolved through the community channel. Users often provide example files one can reference or reverse engineer.

Previously used an older Domo product (Centerview). The product was no longer supported. It was very flexible, but also very labor intensive. Data had to be fully prepared outside of the tool ,and every interaction had to be defined. Development time was weeks vs days in QlikView.

Currently also using Tableau, depending on the particular use case.

Straightforward setup. Connected to Active Directory to manage users.

In-house with some set up assistance provided by the Qlik sales support team.

Server is Apprx $35K initial cost, plus 20% annual maintenance/support cost

User licenses are $350 or $1500 depending on license type(plus 20% annual maintenance/support). This can get costly if you have a very large user base.

Several. If interested see my post http://www.itcentralstation.com/articles/i-evaluat...

I would never propose QlikView, or any other single tool, as THE definitive data visualization and dashboard tool for every organization, but it did best meet our particular needs. Organizations with more data-savvy, self-sufficient business users may find a product like Tableau, or Qlik's other product, QlikSense, to be a better option.

Within our customer base, we have manufacturing companies that produce goods like machine pumps, and these firms rely on QlikView for their production processes.

Our clients are looking for a migration process that's as trouble-free as possible, and Qlik Sense is doing well in areas such as database connections and integration, including in SaaS environments where QlikView is still a valuable option. It excels in supporting database connections and various database types.

They should offer the capability to directly access data from SaaS environments, as it would simplify the migration process, and while it may seem like a minor enhancement, it would be beneficial to our clients. Some clients have requested a hybrid environment where both QlikView and Qlik Sense can work together effectively during the initial stages of migration, so that would be a good feature to add.

I have almost twenty years of experience with it.

I would rate its stability capabilities nine out of ten.

It offers excellent scalability abilities. I would rate it ten out of ten.

I would rate their technical support eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. I would rate it nine out of ten.

The deployment process involves linking various units and requires careful project planning, including determining the necessary components, deployment strategies, and the overall timeline for the entire process. The duration can vary significantly, typically spanning from one week to several months, contingent on factors like the complexity of the customer's needs and any difficulties encountered during the migration or the implementation process.

It is quite expensive, rating at around nine out of ten on a cost scale. This is mainly due to the requirement for a dedicated ClickView infrastructure as the sole SQL solution. We are primarily using perpetual licenses at the moment, and it's essential to note that we currently have just one SQL solution, which comprises one two-cluster. This incurs a cost of €21,375 for the solution in the current setup.

It is highly valued by our customers as a powerful tool, but it must continue evolving and staying relevant. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

The most valuable feature of QlikView is the integration with other third-party tools. 

The solution should be mobile-responsive. It should also include drag-and-drop and slice-and-dice features. 

I have been working with the solution for eight to ten years. 

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten. 

I rate QlikView's scalability a seven out of ten. My company has around 500 users for it. 

I provide technical support to my customers. 

I rate QlikView's installation a ten out of ten. It was very easy. Deployment depends on the project and its scope. It can take around one week to three months to complete. You need one resource to handle the maintenance and deployment. 

I rate QlikView's pricing a five out of ten. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

It's essentially building dashboards for BI. So, the primary use case is back to the reports, particularly dashboards.

One of the good thing is that you can integrate different data source technologies. So you can model your environment without having any of our views running. And I see that our tool would essentially have its own programming language. So that's how you can customize a lot of things.

I'm not like a lot of people who are into AI, especially when it comes to making queries. I don't really remember if QlikView has this feature, the one where you write up a question about the data in human language, and they just bring up a quick analysis from it.

I'm not sure if this feature exists. But if it doesn't, it should be something they consider adding. I believe assisting users with quick building using natural language queries is not as simple as just making a regular query.

I like the idea of using human language queries. That would be a plus, really.

QlikView should improve the integration with scripting. It has its own scripting language for building the underlying data layer. Sometimes, dealing with complex reports requires more effort, and that could be really improved.

I have been using this solution for four years. 

It's quite stable. The problems I've faced were mostly related to data issues rather than the solution itself. So I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability.

I haven't encountered issues with scalability personally.

I am satisfied with the support. 

Neutral

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a six out of ten, where one being difficult and ten being easy.

The duration for deployment varies depending on the project's complexity. For some projects, it could take a few weeks, especially when dealing with large reports and multiple dashboards. But there were also cases where it took only a few days.

Usually, there were three or four people involved in the deployment process.

I've worked with Tableau, and they were different at the beginning, Tableau being at an advantage, but now they're very similar. Both QlikView and Tableau have their strengths and weaknesses. Tableau was a bit easier for creating storytelling, but I don't have any issues with QlikView. Additionally, I'm not a big fan of Microsoft Power BI, but I haven't tried it out, really. It has some interesting features, but sometimes it feels a bit too verbose.

I would recommend proper planning, especially because you have to build the underlying model that will support your dashboard. This is very important.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. To achieve a ten, they should improve the integration with scripting. Sometimes, dealing with complex reports requires more effort, and that could be really improved.

The ability to capture data from multiple sources, quickly link by key fields and quickly analyse in a dashboard proved to be such powerful features that we reduced the use of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access almost entirely for any kind of reconciliations.

I worked in a financial institution having most data in mainframes but also having extracts and datasets put into various places from highest quality Oracle and MS SQL server objects right down to MS Access/Excel and continuing to Text File output.

Sometimes for either quality control purposes daily or some other kind of reconciliation or verification, QlikView was great for a basic end user with minimal skill to bring that data in and map it as necessary to achieve the desired result. (Often the datasets easily map via a couple of primary fields that the business users understand and outside developers may not understand without a business analyst specification)

Most times making that ad hoc effort a template of some sort and making mundane roles like daily recons be easily achievable.

Doing this same work in MS Excel or MS Access can be tricky and dangerous and not be as intuitive for non-technical people. Doing it other ways can end up being too much effort with hiring developers and building systems and paying for a lot of developer man-hours when a quick QV dashboard does the trick by the business end user.

This product improved how my organization conducted repeatable analyses, such as a user access internal audit review for 500 users over 100,000 user ID and system access across 50-100 systems. My first project before we had QlikView took about a month, but after we rewrote the procedure using QlikView, it was much better and took about a week. We pretty much used the same raw data, but the report and analysis was so much quicker.

The process of gathering the data and using Microsoft Access used to take a month or so. Certainly, using QlikView as an ad-hoc tool is very powerful, yet easy. Comparing it to development on Microsoft Access, it feels about 10 times quicker. You go from raw data almost directly to reporting. (Skipping the hassle of lots of queries, forms, and slow report creation.)

As they say, "Seeing is Believing”.

While it used to be extremely easy to work with for me, at least the basics, some other folks used to have a bit more trouble using it. I think that it might be useful if the first-time user wizard was a bit better. It might help people get the “Eureka “ moment on their own. I always felt that the wizard was not really worth using, and I started people off with making their own import scripts with my help. Others also seemed to believe that as well.

I think the wizard could take a bit more time and provide training along the way. For example, show the data to be imported, and go over some of the best practices. And maybe continue on with going over the Edit Script and hit some of the basics there as well and so on.

I think all things are covered in the tutorial, but I had very little success having people use the tutorials.

Some aspects are so common, and used so much:

1. Basic import of data, load, review the field names that come in, set your fields as “what you want”
2. Import a different table, review as in step 1, but check for synthetic links, do your “AS” statements to clean up, and get the linkages you want, etc.
3. Then have some wizard to make tables and charts in the same way, etc.

I do these things with new users inside of a couple of hours, including usually helping tham make their first solution.

I used QlikView for five years.

Never has this been a problem, but mostly in our company, we focused on using QlikView standalone.

We had tons of core and server architectures, and QlikView was used to improve reconciliation and quality control.

Ultimately, there is great power in using QlikView to be an enterprise solution (in the right context). But the user base was able to get so much productivity out of our approach.

And to get an enterprise solution in place required a budget and resources, which we did not have.

Technical support is excellent, the user groups are really good, and outside of that, there are excellent web resources via YouTube (e.g. AnswerSharks) that have evolved.

In reference to user training, I sent people to these sources even more than to QlikTech themselves.

I left my firm just before QlikTech was finally given the go-ahead to design some product solutions for us. (Having ad-hoc users design things worked, but it was time to get more polished internal- and customer-facing solutions to take us to the next level.)

As a global firm, we actually looked at many products, even signing a multi-year contract with a QV competitor (Tibco Spotfire, but the enemy of efficiency for analysis is MS Excel).

For SpotFire, it was always my opinion that that deal was done on a golf course, because QlikView over the years was the better product by far (certainly, all users loved it) versus the other product, which very few users understood, and certainly users did not show anywhere near as much affection for it.

We went for standalone licenses in the beginning of about six, and over several years the license count grew to 60. When I left the company in late 2015, we were looking finally getting a server.

I do not know the status now, but the company should have been given serious thought to getting a server, and perhaps converting some of the licenses to QlikSense.

A vendor team implemented it, but it was more like a sales team. We just asked for more licenses and put the server deployment on hold for way too long.

Although users were very happy, the cross-division expansion that I felt was possible never happened.

The biggest problem out there is that most people keep thinking, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I believe that people use MS Excel way too much, and that is a symptom that something is broken.

Also, I used QV to pull data out of core systems often whenever reconciliations were questioned. (Analyzing the source directly is better than another Excel spreadsheet.)

We pretty much measured our success in man-hours saved or efficiency gains:

• We did not aim high, but certainly, I put together a number of solutions that worked flawlessly, and could save between 1-3 hours every day.
• More importantly, we applied this analysis tool, were able to benefit from very high quality analysis and recon, improving employer quality of life.

QlikView requires a little bit of “handholding”, which was provided via a small expert group at my last employer. (Originally, we got to a “Yeah, I get it”, Eureka moment after one or two two-hour, on-site visits from the sales support team. Add a phone call or two.)

I would suggest that while returns on efficiency would be quick, it is worth it to consider expanding the user group sooner, and having a strategy to grow the user bases very early on. I compared this tool to the over-use of MS Excel and MS Access to attempt to do similar things in my organization.

And while we saved lots of time and effort in the areas that QlikView was used, the real target I had was to take PowerPoint off its pedestal for management reporting.

We never quite got there, but I envisioned that dynamic usable reports was a much loftier goal than death by PowerPoint. (But it must be said that lots of executives love their PowerPoint, which has continued to mystify me.)

We use the product for data analysis, sales operations, and sales demand planning and forecasting.

QlikView's UI could be more user-friendly. At present, I encounter difficulties while writing complex queries on the UI. It doesn't support the query button as well.

We have been using QlikView for three years.

I haven't come across any stability issues for the product. However, a particular error keeps surfacing whenever the threshold for the number of onboarded users crosses the limit.

I rate the stability a five out of ten.

We have 30 QlikView users in our organization.

The technical support services are good. However, they could prioritize critical issues. This particular area needs improvement.

Neutral

We use SAP Crystal Reports.

I rate the initial setup process a seven out of ten. It took half a day to complete product testing and implementation. We receive support services from the vendor for maintenance.

QlikView is more expensive than SAP Crystal Reports. It could be improved. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

We extensively use QlikView for data visualization and analysis in our organization. It connects to ETW and Data Mart, helping financial executives visualize the data. It has user-friendly data visualization features, supporting our decision-making process with its business intelligence capabilities.

The integration between Qlik Sense and QlikView has proven most valuable to our business. Its speed and efficiency in processing large datasets proved moderately beneficial for our organization, with some performance challenges arising during complex joint operations.

It is a good tool to use and has efficient data visualization features. I rate it a seven out of ten.

For now, our use cases are mostly the common analytic tools. I'm not involved with any AI or machine learning solutions, only dashboards and reporting.

The common analytics tools of the solution are valuable. 

There is room for improvement in terms of scalability. Because it depends on the use case and customer requirements. 

If QlikView can't handle the scale, I usually look to the data lake or data warehouse for solutions. My experience is that for self-service BI, users often request low code tools, which wouldn't be suitable for the QlikView front-end due to performance limitations.

I have been using the solution for almost ten years now.

It is a stable product. 

Scalability really depends on the size of your data and QlikView server architecture. For the biggest data sets, it could become an issue at some point.

We haven't actually used technical support for Qlik. We've always been able to solve problems ourselves.

I don't recommend any specific BI front-end because customers usually suggest the tools themselves. I focus on the data lake and data warehouse. As long as the chosen tool is QlikView, Tableau, or Power BI, I don't see much difference. So, I always recommend those three.

We can handle all three tools, so it's more about understanding the customer's specific needs and suggesting the best fit.

We handle most of the difficulty in the data warehouse, so the front end is relatively simple. We just use the common features. 

My customers are mostly in government and banking, and they haven't had issues with QlikView pricing.

My recommendation depends upon the Gartner's recommendations. Currently, the top BI tools are Power BI, QlikView, and Tableau.

So, it's pretty good. I'd rate it an eight out of ten. 

We use QlikView for business analytics, primarily for internal insights in the healthcare space.

QlikView employs the Snowflake schema, which becomes an associative model, making it easier to drive insights. Additionally, the intensity with which you can work on the ETLs is quite impressive.

Creating an out-of-the-box solution for modeling capabilities might be beneficial.

I have used QlikView for about a year.

I didn't really face any big challenges with technical support; it depends on the plan. I am not a hundred percent sure.

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward. I would rate it around a seven out of ten in terms of ease.

Approximately four people were involved in the deployment, though I joined the tool for a short period and am not entirely certain about the current team composition for maintenance.

QlikView is probably on the pricier side than other BI tools. It's more expensive than the overall implementation of Power BI and maybe about or a little less than Tableau. I do not have any specific numbers regarding the cost.

We use other BI tools like Tableau, Power BI, R, and Python.

QlikView's overall product could be enhanced with a bit of finish.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.