SAS Visual Analytics Reviews

We are a non-profit educational organization and the primary use case is for building dashboards and reports to display basic post-secondary data that we either collect for ourselves or that is publicly available. In-house data is in a database and the publicly available data is on spreadsheets with dashboards based on those spreadsheets. We are customers of SAS and I'm the director of data services. 

It's an easy to use solution, it's relatively simple to create basic dashboards and reports. It's also a very powerful solution, although I haven't accessed all the features. With regard to dashboards, it's pretty easy to pick up and use the basic functioning. We built a database and we wanted to be able to use the dashboards for that, and it worked very smoothly. This solution looks like other visual analytics software and from what I've seen, it looks and feels very similar to Power BI or Tableau. If you're transferring from one software application to another, it should be fairly easy.

The powerful nature of SAS can sometimes work to its detriment, because there is a need for coding when it comes to digital reporting and that's a little overwhelming or intimidating for some of my coworkers. They're features that not all solutions have. Our biggest frustration with the solution is not being able to easily embed things on our website. That's become more important for us and we're trying to work with SAS support to be able to do that. There's a lot of back and forth, but they're willing to help. Adoption of the software has been difficult because people automatically assume that it's going to be more difficult than it is. People want to be able to create dashboards very quickly and get them on the website as fast as possible so they'll do it with Tableau, and SAS doesn't work that way. SAS deals more with those wanting to create dashboards based on a database. 

We've been using this solution in our organization for the past six years. 

The technical support is good. 

I wasn't around for the initial setup but we recently went through an upgrade. I expressed our need to do this quickly and efficiently, and that we had no time to waste because we were trying to get something out, and SAS assigned us a team to move things forward quickly. 

We pay a little over $10,000 for an annual enterprise license. It gives us an unlimited number of users but we're questioning whether it's worth the cost if we can't get users on board. There is some tech support included in that, but it's minimal. If we require upgrading or we're having some specific troubleshooting issues like embedding the analytics, we get charged for it. 

We've done some cost comparisons and informally gathering information with regard to SAS Viya, Power BI and Tableau. They would all cost us around $100,000. With Tableau we would probably need the server, which means we would have to buy servers so it's quite a big price difference. 

If it suits your needs, I would recommend taking a look at SAS, particularly if you're working with sensitive data. We've developed some dashboards and reports, but we haven't used SAS to its fullest potential.

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

This product is for dashboarding. We design dashboards for the higher management, for operations, and for the sales team. We facilitate the major components of the organization so that management can assess the profitability of the organization, and maintain financial health. We design dashboards for operations so they can optimize the entire process and another dashboard for our sales department. I'm the chief manager and we are customers of SAS. 

SAS VA is an amazing tool for handling complex data models. From our perspective, the main value is the ability to render bulky data. It also provides good flexibility to integrate with other applications.

The solution is a little weak at the front end.

I've been using this solution for seven years. 

The solution is scalable, we have around 300 users. 

SAS has a very supportive nature in India. We've used the local support as well as some support from the US. It's very good. 

Positive

The initial deployment took about four days and a couple of people were involved with that. We used a third-party vendor for implementation. Visual Analytics is a complex model. If I need to make changes, I have to hire a vendor or other external help. There's no internal team able to handle the level of complexity, so we have to spend more to maintain the configurations while maintaining the audit. We have two people who deal with maintenance.

I highly recommend this solution to those working in the finance sector. SAS has a huge data capacity which is not available in other tools. 

I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

I use the product primarily to visualize data in various fields such as government, education, and healthcare. It analyzes large datasets, detects anomalies and forecasts, and conducts scenario analytics.

The solution has greatly improved my organization by enabling more insightful data analysis. It allows users to ask and answer questions about the data they might not have considered otherwise. This capability surpasses traditional spreadsheets and coding methods by offering a more intuitive approach to data exploration.

The tool's most valuable features are its ease of use and advanced data visualization capabilities. Unlike spreadsheets or coding, it allows users to interact with the data and uncover previously hidden insights, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the data.

The integration aspects of the solution could be improved. While it can mask data, the process can be clunky and could benefit from a more streamlined approach.

I have been using SAS Visual Analytics for approximately ten years.

I rate the product stability an eight out of ten. 

The solution is highly scalable. It can handle thousands to millions of rows of data effectively.

My experience with customer service has been mixed. While I have encountered knowledgeable and helpful support staff, there have been instances where the support could have been more effective.

Neutral

I have used various data visualization tools such as Qlik, Power BI, Tableau, and Spotfire. I switched to this solution because it offers more powerful and intuitive data visualization capabilities, especially for large datasets and complex analyses.

The initial setup can be complex and depends on the specific environment and licensing. It typically requires some time and effort to configure properly.

It can be deployed as a SaaS solution or on-premises. It typically requires an installer and someone knowledgeable in business analytics and data management.

Generally, it does not require extensive maintenance, though occasional upkeep might be necessary.

The product is quite expensive. However, it can be worth the investment if you have the budget and require advanced data visualization and analysis.

I rate the pricing a nine. 

The solution adapts to evolving data environments by allowing for integration with various data sources and providing tools for data science and machine learning as needed.

It is a powerful tool, especially if you work with large datasets and need sophisticated analysis capabilities. However, its high cost and the complexity of its setup might be a consideration for some users.

I recommend it if the user has substantial data and the budget. Other tools like Tableau or Power BI might be sufficient for those with smaller datasets or budget constraints.

I rate it an eight out of ten.

I work for the European Banking Authority, a European organization responsible for collecting data from all European banks. Our primary role involves setting up migration standards in the banking sector for the European market. We collect supervisory data from European banks, investment firms, and other financial institutions. Our use case involves sharing files, producing analytics, data capture, and generating back-end projections. We then visualize this information and insights, catering to both internal users and external stakeholders, whether public or national entities associated with our organization.

The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps with quality assurance processes.

The product is expensive and needs the integration of more languages. 

I have been using the product for 20 years. 

SAS Visual Analytics is stable. 

The solution is scalable. My company has around 20-70 users. 

I have never contacted the support team. 

SAS Visual Analytics' deployment is straightforward. 

We have seen ROI in terms of better analytics, efficiency, and quality. 

We plan to switch to Databricks due to the pricing. Migration to the cloud should be done jointly, considering other products and services in the organization. It is not an easy process and needs to be planned appropriately. I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

We use the product for reporting. When we do reporting, we start with the data collection and also integrate that data into one source, the different packets of data. Then, we have one dashboard and have reports for different data sources.

We also do analysis. 

It doesn't require human intervention. When you were designing your databases, if you've designed them in a correct manner, everything is automated and you don't have to worry about anything.

Everything we want out of this solution we get in terms of the user requirements, and features. Everything is available to us. 

It's also user-friendly.

The product is stable, reliable, and scalable. 

Technical support is very quick to respond when we need their help.

If the cost could be a bit lower, we'd give it perfect marks. The reason we haven't rolled it out across the board is due to the fact that the licensing is so expensive.

We started using the solution in 2020, however, it was a pilot. The full use started in 2021.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable and the performance is good.

The solution can scale well. It's not an issue. 

We have less than 20 people licensing on the solution due to the licensing implications. They're a mix of IT and business people. 

Technical support is great. They are fast. This is due to the fact that we have a service level agreement with the SAS team.

Positive

We had a proof of concept and evaluated it against other solutions. This was the one that met our business requirements. That's why it was chosen.

The initial setup took us about six weeks. We had capacity issues. The people dealing with it had limited resources in terms of dealing with the setup. We only had so many people that were skilled. 

I'm not sure if the process was easy or difficult, however. I never asked my colleagues for their opinion. I wasn't part of the initial implementation process. 

While I don't have exact licensing details. I do understand that we pay an annual licensing fee. 

We are a customer and end-user. 

Our IT mostly handles the solution and therefore I'm not sure which version we're on. I assume it is the latest and is automatically updated. We're on an enterprise version. 

I'd advise potential new users to first pilot it and also ensure that you are clear about your business requirements before starting out. It will help make things go more smoothly.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten due to its agility and also in terms of its effectiveness. It's not a complicated app to use. 

It was helpful for creating KPI dashboards to report the status of the operations of the entire company to the management.

It provided the capability to visualize a bunch of data in an organized way.

In Brazil, there are few documents, courses, and other resources for studying and implementing the tool.

I used it for about two years at a previous company. 

It was very stable.

It is very scalable. We implemented it for many clients. We had about 200 clients.

In my experience, we didn't use technical support at any time.

We didn't use any other solution previously.

It seemed straightforward. Its implementation took about three to six months.

It was implemented by our consultants. We had about four to six people. After implementing it, the clients handled the operations and took care of its maintenance.

We didn't calculate ROI for implementations.

It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis.

I would advise planning very well before implementing it. You should map the primary data very well.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Quick deployment to dashboards and analytics features (using SAS Visual Statistics and Enterprise Guide). Easy to create a simple forecast and discover business insights using segmentation tools.

Agility in dashboard creation and evaluating statistics with simple models.

• Connectivity with other data origins
• Visualization is poor
• Create KPIs directly

Normally it is stable, if the hardware is correct.

There are scalability issues. It depends on the data volume and number of end-users. VA requires a lot of hardware resources to move volumes of data.

Seven out of 10 for the SAS Support home page and direct support.

QlikView and Qlik Sense, IBM Cognos suite.

The straightforward part: Create a dashboard and calculate attributes. You don’t need programming experience using SAS Visual Analytics. You can export to Excel or PDF directly. The complex part: Creating a relationship between tables.

Compare pricing online with other vendors; licensing type is simple.

Qlik, IBM Cognos, MicroStrategy, and others.

Right now at the company, we have a few projects in Visual Analytics. We have more in Qlik, however, gradually, we will change to SAS Visual Analytics.

It's very good. Very good. For our use, it is better than Qlik. It's easier to use than other competitors.

It's easy to set up for the most part.

It's a stable, reliable product. 

The solution can scale. 

Technical support has been great in general.

I haven't come across any missing features.

While I've used SAS for about seven months, I've worked with data science for about three years.

It's very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. the performance is good. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The solution can scale. It's not a problem.

We have 50 people on it right now, approximately. I'm not sure if we have plans to increase usage.

Technical support has been excellent. We are very happy with how helpful and responsive they have been.

Positive

We are also familiar with Qlik, however, this solution is better for us in general. We've also worked with Tableau. We've found the integrations with SAS better.

We haven't found the initial setup too difficult. I'd rate it three out of five. So far, the deployment has taken about two months. 

We have two or three people working on the deployment and maintenance. 

We handled the implementation in-house. 

While I can't speak to the exact price, likely after one year a company would begin to see an ROI.

I don't directly deal with licensing. I can't speak to the exact price of the product. 

We did evaluate other options. We did look at SAP, however, we focused on SAS in the end.

I'd recommend the solution to others. I would rate it ten out of ten. It's been great.