SAS Visual Analytics Reviews

The way how data is shown in the tool – using predefined views (statistical methods) is very helpful for understanding data/patterns – with such help I’m able to focus only on a specific area within my data set much easier than in other tools.

Handling of large volumes of data is much easier here, even with the fact that we’re using various data tools. I’m working mostly with ITIL core processes data (incident management, problem management, configuration management etc.). What this means is a lot of data on a daily basis, so one of the advantages of this tool is that I can analyze data without date limitations and I that I can do it within seconds.

Extension to more statistical functions, rest is quite OK. We always need to have in mind is that this is not a data mining tool, but an analytics tool for data exploring and for big data handling, which main advantage is in way how output is shown. It's easy to understand, nicely shown dynamic results for quick, but data-based decisions.

I've used it for a maximum of one year. I’m experienced SAP Business Objects developer. Unfortunately, SAP BO is not capable to work with that large volumes of data in that short time as SAS VA is. Also the main purpose of SAS Visual Analytics is not reporting, but data exploring. I also have experience with other business intelligence/data mining tools, but I’m using mostly SAP Business Objects and SAS Visual Analytics on a daily basis.

I wasn't involved in the deployment.

I've not experienced any issues with the stability.

I've not experienced any issues with the scalability.

I'm an experienced SAP Business Objects report developer, I have also experience with IBM SPSS, SQL Developer, with an overview of SAS Enterprise Miner, MS Excel, and other tools. The advantage of this tool  is its big data handling in seconds and its predefined statistical methods for better data evaluation and understanding.

It’s not a full data mining tool such as SAS Enterprise Miner, but it's a very powerful analytics tool, with useful statistical options. I especially appreciate dynamic way of visualizing data, mostly used for exploring patterns in the data. And also user friendly interface – user doesn’t really need to be data scientist to use potential of this tool.

If you’re looking for advanced tool for data analysis, but you do not have enough experience for SAS Enterprise Miner, or other data mining tools, this is a good first step for you due to user friendly interface and useful options. Always keep in mind that SAS Visual Analytics is not reporting tool so it shouldn't be its substitute.

• Reporting capability
• Rapid data processing
• Seamless
• User-friendly report access and view control
• Forecasting capabilities

All these features blend in very well together. Users from the most non-technical backgrounds can use this tool to pull out valuable insights from their data.

We implemented this product for our client as a BI/reporting tool. It has been key to addressing some major bottlenecks in our client’s CAPEX/OPEX planning.

SAS Visual Analytics was often prone to crashing. Modules with barely 20 to 30 GB datasets took a lot of time to load even after satisfying necessary software specifications (RAM, etc.).

I've used it for roughly four months. I used this tool for reporting purposes when I was in KPMG India.

There was no issues with the deployment.

The tool was subject to frequent crashes/errors with incremental data.

There's been no issues with the scalability.

4/10 - customer support experience has been quite poor. Perhaps this is to do with the fact that SAS India outsources its support function.

Implementation of SAS is a very complex process. In fact, SAS employs a technician at the time of implementation and it takes about 1-2 days. There are several controls/firewalls layered throughout the process.

All the technical help was provided by SAS. We were responsible for operational/post-implementation activities.

In terms of ROI, our client was able to chart out a viable savings plan using the insights we drew using SAS Visual Analytics.

SAS products/licensing fees are generally higher than industry standards.

Please ensure you go through the implementation process with a SAS team member. There are a series of access/authority barriers that require SAS technical help.

I use Visual Analytics for enterprise reporting.

A bit more flexibility in the temperatization will be helpful.

I've been using SAS Visual Analytics since it was launched in 2013.

SAS Visual Analytics is stable. 

SAS Visual Analytics is scalable.

SAS support is good. I rate it eight out of 10.

Positive

Setting up SAS Visual Analytics is straightforward.

The price is good.

I rate SAS Visual Analytics eight out of 10. I recommend it. It's a good product. Some temperatization flexibility would be helpful, and I would rate it 10 out of 10 if they improved that.

On-premises

We use Base SAS to extract IIS logs and prepare them for analysis. Then, we load them in SAS Visual Analytics to feed the reports that we made (tables and charts). We use dynamics dropdown lists to add interactivity (such as year/month).

Simplifies report designs and quickly displays tables and graphs. Time is not wasted thinking about what I want, then waiting for 30 minutes before seeing the display was not it.

The speed to display charts and react to users' choices is great. We use different  charts and they added some new ones since the last version which are great to display what we have to show.

The charts and tables could use better sorting, primarily using other variables than the ones on the figure. If they could implement views like in the older version (previous to Viya), it would be very nice.

Less than one year.

• Correlation
• Forecasting
• Autocharting
• Geomaps

The correlation gives us a better understanding of new data. Also, with auto-charting, it helps in identifying the best chart for the categories and measures selected.

Many things missing, including -

• Infomaps
• Facebook connection
• Better objects
• Forecasting, auto-charting, and correlation are only available in exploration but should be available in reports
• Server issues - it is difficult to connect to the public LASR server at times, then requesting SAS support and waiting for them to answer
  

I have been using this solution for the past year.

At times it hangs with some objects like gauges, and throws up errors like "ask your system administrator." After logging in, the issue is resolved automatically.

There are times when it's not responsive.

No issues encountered.

Customer Service:

5/10.

Technical Support:

5/10.

No previous solution was used.

It's not straightforward, and proper guidance or a manual is required which is not provided by the SAS support team.

We implemented it in-house.

No other options were evaluated.

It's good to go.

• Includes great tools for performing data analysis, executing queries and developing reports. • We can develop all types of reports by using its web based interactive interface. It enables us to build, load, organize, view and save reports based on OLAP cubes and/or relational data from one or more data sources. • It offers us a central platform and support for maintaining consistent metadata, managing huge databases, business rules, data and security definitions. • Ensures our data credibility and consistency, so we can easily manage all of our data integration projects.

• It is expensive. This is BI at the the high end. • Installation is complex. We required expensive professional services for installation. Would be nice to be able to do the install ourselves! • We had compatibility issues while integrating SAS.

We are using SAS because it provides us a complete set of BI capabilities. We use its role based portal to define the access level of each member of our team. I love the wizard-based report creation function which helps us in creating reports with enhanced graphs and skins. I also really like that we can print reports in PDF format and export data in any format to Excel as per our requirements. SAS in my opinion is an excellent BI solution if you have the money.

The variety of graphs and charts make it easy to show the data in a way that's easy to interpret.

It has taken out the step of preparing the reports so it shortened our turnaround time. You only need to prepare the report once. Anytime an updated report is needed, you just need to upload an updated data mart.

There are a lot of technicalities in setting up the product. 

Setting it up will probably take a while.

Setting it up will probably take a while.

There have been no issues with its stability.

There have been no issues scaling it.

Coordinate with your IT department so they'll know the specific requirements of the product.