QlikView Reviews

QlikView’s Associative Data Model allow business users to easily create data models.

QlikView’s in-memory technology offers lightning-fast drill-down and drill-through capabilities.

The ability to apply row-based security provides the flexibility to deploy a single application and restrict access to sensitive data according to role.

We are busy rolling out QlikView as a self-service BI tool. The business is delighted with the capabilities they have without the usual restrictions they encountered working through the traditional IT channels.

• Robust Version Control integration, limited in current versions
• Automated deployment between DEV/UAT/PROD environments, currently these are manual file-based operations
• More descriptive system metrics and lower-level diagnostic and performance metrics at the application level

Deployment is easy and straightforward, even for non-technical resources.

Stability is largely linked to the infrastructure and requirements. QlikView SA has provided extensive guidance on deploying suitable hardware to support our environment.

Scalability depends on the environment and requirements. If you have large data sets, due to the in-memory nature of QlikView, the hardware needs to support your requirements.

I rate technical support 10/10, excellent. Qlik as well as our local QlikView Partner, QlikView SA, provides extremely good service and support.

There is also an extremely large and active online community.

We evaluated IBM Cognos and SAP BusinessObjects. We chose QlikView because of its online community, extensibility and support, and large demand from business.

Initial setup was straightforward, but consideration needs to be taken when procuring the hardware.

Implementation was a combination of in-house and vendor. Take the time to understand the underlying architecture and deployment setup to later be able to troubleshoot the environments.

We realised instant value through data discovery not previously possible with traditional BI.

Consolidating six disparate instances into a single group instance has improved our ROI immensely.

Care should be taken to purchase the right type of licensing blend for the environment.

Take time to understand the different license types, the requirements from users, usage model, etc., before deciding on licenses.

Potentially get some demo licenses before purchasing.

Happy Qlikking!

Take the time to understand the data, and develop solid data models. This will ensure good performance and a great user experience.

Just because QlikView can do it, doesn’t mean it should. (There is still a place for traditional BI, databases and ETL/ELT.)

Develop fit-for-purpose applications.

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. 

Extraction from almost all data sources provides a lot of value to me. Ease of operation, data modelling and creating dashboards with simple objects and the abundance of visualizations are also valuable.

We extract our data from SAP BW as well as Update 7 data source. Extracting and associating these data to form Main Data Model is quite simple. The objects that QlikView provides can be used to make complex KPIs for visualization. Apart from these for visualization, we also implemented many extension objects of Maps with our QlikView applications.

We managed to implement applications combining CRM (Customer Relationship Management) data and sales data from two completely different data sources. It's the first (small) step towards big data. CRM data comes from Update 7 and sales data comes from SAP BW, which made it tricky to combine them and make common navigation possible.

I would like to see JavaScript or jQuery features added to it.

Dynamic changes with respect to page scrolling, responsiveness and actions related to it are what I am expecting in the next version.

Other than these, while adding named CALs in QMC, it would be really great if we could load all of the names from a single file (for example, an Excel sheet) together all at once.

The iPad application lacks some features. For example, container box object functionality does not work properly in iPads.

I have been using this solution for more than 13 onths.

We had issues. After deployment, while extracting data from SAP BW, a timeout error occurred many times. We haven’t found any solution for it. So, we have to keep reloading the job on QMC until it gets successfully reloaded for the day.

Franky speaking, I have never contacted technical support.

I did not use a different solution before Tableau. This is the first tool I have used for BI.

I was not involved in the complete setup. However, its installation using multiple transports and connectors is quite straightforward.

We implemented it with the help of a vendor team. (QlikTech)

Deployment and configuration of this tool is very simple. The tutorials that come with the installation of the product are very helpful with creating dashboards and learning about the product in short time.

Usability, usability, usability: It is easy for developers and for end users.

We have cut Fire Department 911 response time 8-30 seconds.

We have improved the timeliness, accuracy, and consistency of reporting.

Unmetered water reports (e.g. fire hydrants, FDCs in commercial buildings)

Wage verification requests

Performance metrics

We have improved processes and increased compliance of firefighter training and certification, ensuring that firefighters are properly trained (“a trained firefighter is an effective firefighter”), expensive training courses no longer have empty seats, and we have improved our performance on training/certification audits from our regulatory agency.

We have engaged line managers on tracking and monitoring of program and operational budgets, leading to better oversight of the taxpayer dollar.

The QlikView management console could have better interfaces for managing security. Right now, it is hard to tell “who has access to exactly what apps?”

Better out-of-the box governance features, to allow analysis of application architecture, optimization of scripts, identification of unused fields/data.

Current GIS interfaces (e.g. with ESRI) are through partners, and are acceptable, but could be easier to implement, more streamlined interface between the two.

I have used this solution since 2008.

No issues at all. This application requires very little care and feeding. Cannot speak to big data scaling, our largest data sets are in the 1TB range — but no problems noted at that level.

Customer and technical support are fine. Account manager deals well with the added layers of demand that come from being a government client — purchasing is always more complicated.

Like everyone, we used Excel and Access. We tried using the enterprise MicroStrategy and both developers and users rejected it as too much effort, not intuitive compared to QlikView.

Technically, initial setup was very simple. The hardest part was getting visualization requirements form unsophisticated users who were not used to any sort of reporting on their processes.

We did it in-house, with one week of one vendor person assisting. (The four apps he helped us put together, we ended up redesigning altogether once we had a chance to use them and redefined requirements.)

Advice: Keep it simple. We know of similar organizations that used third-party implements, who created apps that were complicated to support and use, and consequently those implementations were not entirely successful. In at least once case, they abandoned the product (and haven’t done anything else that I’m aware of).

Qlik has a reputation for being expensive, but our TCO - compared to two other BI products in our organization (MicroStrategy and Cognos) is way, way cheaper. We didn’t have to pay for consultants or any professional services. The more we let our business managers design and develop their apps, the happier they are.

Keep it simple, involve the team (prototype with them - don’t throw a fancy app over the wall at the end users and expect them to actually engage), do POCs before you decide which BI system you will adopt.

The product is mostly for reports and analyzing the data of the company, basically. We aren't using it as a CRM right now. 

It's helpful. It's informative. It's good. Since we're doing analysis all the time and it has to do with numbers, it's pretty good.

It's user-friendly. The fact that you have everything accumulated in one place. You can switch views easily. You can also incorporate things if you want to. It's customizable and personalizable. 

The only thing I would improve about it is the fact that it refreshes all the time, and when it does that, it just deletes all the options you had, all the filters that you had selected, so you need to select them from the beginning. If it could refresh without it taking away all your filters, it would be amazing. It doesn't take a long time to refresh. It's every 20 minutes or so. Still, if it kept your options where you wanted them, it would have been much better.

I've been using the solution for two years. 

It is pretty stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It is reliable. 

While we do add users every now and then, I can't speak to the real scalability. I haven't attempted to scale. 

We have around 50 people using the solution. 

I haven't spoken to technical support directly. I've spoken with our tech team that was taking care of any issues, however, when dealing with them, everything was resolved pretty fast, pretty easily.

I'm not sure about how the setup is, as I'm not the one that does that part. We do request it from our tech people, and it's done fairly quickly, however, I don't know if it's easy or hard. That's their part to know.

We have a tech team that handles the setup.

I don't deal with the licensing aspect. I don't handle that part of the solution. 

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using. I'm not sure which deployment version we're using. 

I'd advise new users that it's a pretty straightforward product. It's easy. They should be a bit patient once it refreshes and takes away all your filters.

I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We are active in the Hospitality Industry in Africa and we use QlikView primarily, for the time being, in our sales and marketing environment. We are situated in multiple countries and in multiple locations within those countries running on multiple sales systems. Each sales system has got its own features and capabilities. 

QlikView permits us to consolidate all the sales systems together onto one platform and enables ease of access throughout the whole company anywhere in the world. Moreover, QlikView makes our complex data infrastructure understandable for everyone.

QlikView allowed us to determine the sales date which was missing in the biggest sales system. QlikView helps us with detecting shortcomings in data capturing and safeguard our margin. It also enables us to forecast our sales, our revenue, and our cash-flow. 

Our Qlikview applications help us to get a good idea of our Client Base Performance and assist us in the decision making for Seasonal Specials. On the other hand, QlikView helps us to get a grasp on our Suppliers and helps us to negotiate pricing with them.

It enables quick and easy access anywhere in the world in real-time. We have satellite offices on different continents with a different time zone which makes it quite a challenge to show real-time values.

QlikView is for the end-user easy to use; a few clicks suffice to answer the question at hand. 

QlikView has got a very intuitive approach of visualizations, both from a developer's point of view as well as the end-users. It makes complex data easy to understand with little prior knowledge of how reading graphs is required. 

QlikView lacks the development aspects that its sister product QlikSense has got. It would be nice to also get the new graphs that are available in QlikSense in QlikView. 

It would be nice if QlikView could be plugged in into the company's website or an online portal such as QlikSense is capable of. There are ways around but it takes enormous time to develop.

Certain features such as a cumulative result, as is possible in QlikSense, would be nice to have since it takes quite some time to get this right from a developer's point of view.

I have been using QlikView for five years.

It is very robust.

The scalability is quite good, QlikView is fairly versatile yet robust at the same time and can be applied on multiple levels

Did not need any of this yet.

Setup itself was fairly complex since our company battled with a legacy of dirty data and a lack of data literacy.

Implementation happened through a vendor, and their expertise was/is top-notch.

No idea, I haven't made the calculations yet since there have been multiple system changes simultaneously and therefore difficult to determine what is the result of which improvement.

The setup costs for QlikView are fair as are the yearly maintenance fees. The licensing becomes a bit more expensive and requires some planning for onboarding.

I don't know, I was not part of that process and not active within the company.

Since Qlik is focussing more on QlikSense, it is recommendable to look into that direction than into QlikView.

My company uses this application mainly for reporting and analytics through customized dashboards that meet corporate identity needs. The reports were created using existing SQL scripts that powered legacy dashboard and reports (i.e. SAP Crystal Reports).

This is a very cool application with endless options for creativity and visuals. 

While this application was loved by the end-users, the development required to build these dashboards proved to be more difficult vs. other solutions such as Tableau. 

My company is big on dashboards and this application excels in this space. Endless customization is key to meet everyone's needs. I also like how the application can use existing SQL statements to use as your root data/tables/information. Compared to other competitors, this solution can do more.

I really wish the application was easier to use in the development phase.

Our business model relies on the business to build their own reports and many departments did not have the associates they need with this type of skill set (i.e. SQL experience). In a business model where a centralized department (i.e. IT) is in control of the reports for the entire company, this would not be a problem.

The development was the ultimate reason this application did not take off in my organization vs. a competitor's application (Tableau). This is a shame as the finished dashboard appeared to be more polished.

My experience is limited but from what I experienced, stability is very good.

The scalability of this solution is very good.

Very reactive, quick and supportive.

I have been 110% satisfied every time I have reached out with a question.

We started form SAP Crystal Reports and originally moved to Qlik as a replacement, but this application proved to be more difficult for development as the business owns their own report vs. IT.

Application install was simple and straightforward.

We implemented this solution with our in-house IT staff.

No ROI as we have moved on.

The biggest comparison was made with Tableau, which ultimately won.

Their training and services have been top-notch and very reactive.