Platform integration is key to easing upgrade difficulty and overall platform quality. Figures 26 to 32 highlight the primary dimensions of platform integration.
Figure 26 shows ratings for both Magic Quadrant and "other" vendors on their ability to integrate with complementary BI capabilities (for example, parts of the stack such as data integration, search, content
management, enterprise applications, collaboration, business activity monitoring [BAM] and business process management [BPM] — see Note 5). Of the Magic Quadrant vendors, Birst, Prognoz, Panorama, Pentaho scored at the top, while Infor, Oracle, Pyramid and GoodData scored at the bottom. Of the
"other" vendors, Lavastorm, Kofax (Altosoft), Dimensional Insight and Software AG (JackBe) ranked at the top, while Strategy Companion, Chartio, eQ Technologic and Advizor scored at the bottom.
Figure 26. Ability to Integrate with Complementary BI Capabilities
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Figure 27 shows integration scores for the ability to embed and customize BI platform components.
Magic Quadrant vendor customers rated Panorama, Birst, Prognoz, Tableau and Logi Analytics at the top, and Infor, Oracle, IBM and Targit at the bottom. Among "other" vendors, Software AG (JackBe), Kofax (Altosoft), Jinfonet (JReport) and Dundas scored at the top, while Chartio, Advizor, Strategy Companion and SiSense ranked at the bottom.
Figure 27. Integration Score: Ability to Embed and Customize BI Platform Components in an Application or Portal
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Data discovery capabilities are proliferating among enterprises and more business users are creating their own business user data mashup models, either for personal/departmental use or as a rapid prototype for IT to turn into systems-of-record content. As a result, the ability for a platform to promote such user-generated models to sanctioned content becomes critical. Figure 28 shows how customers rate their Magic Quadrant and "other" vendors on this integration measure. Of the Magic Quadrant vendors, Panorama, Bitam, Birst and Tableau are ranked at the top, while Oracle, arcplan, SAP, Infor and IBM are at the bottom. Lavastorm, Kofax (Altosoft) and Dimensional Insight scored at the top of
"other" vendors, while SpagoBI, Strategy Companion and Jinfonet (JReport) ranked at the bottom.
Figure 28. Integration Score: Ability to Promote Business User-Generated Data Mashups to the System of Record
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Platforms built from the ground up tend to be the most integrated across platform components. Figure 29 highlights that, of the Magic Quadrant vendors, Birst, Panorama, Logi Analytics, Tableau and MicroStrategy scored the highest, while Infor, Oracle, Actuate and SAP ranked at the bottom. Of the
"other" vendors, Dimensional Insight, Phocas and Lavastorm rated highly for integration across platform components, while SpagoBI, Strategy Companion and Advizor ranked at the bottom.
Figure 29. Integration Score: Across BI Platform Components
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Figure 30 shows customer ratings for Magic Quadrant and "other" vendors' common security model and administration application capabilities that span across platform components. This integration attribute is a driver of administration costs — a key component of BI platform ownership costs. Of Magic
Quadrant vendors, Birst, Logi Analytics, Panorama, Bitam and Prognoz ranked the highest, while Infor, GoodData, Alteryx, Pentaho and Actuate were rated at the bottom. Of the "other" vendors, Dimensional
Insight, Dundas and Adaptive Insights ranked at the top, while SiSense, SpagoBI and Strategy Companion were rated at the bottom.
Figure 30. Integration Score: A Common Security Model and Administration Application Components Across the Platform
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
A common semantic layer across BI platform components is a key ingredient both to enable a single
source of the facts, and for reuse and governance. Figure 31 shows that Birst, Panorama, Bitam and MicroStrategy were rated the highest of the Magic Quadrant vendors, while Infor, SAS, Actuate and arcplan ranked at the bottom. Of the "other" vendors, Dimensional Insight, Lavastorm and Kofax (Altosoft) were rated at the top, while SpagoBI, Jinfonet (JReport) and Strategy Companion ranked at the bottom.
Figure 31. Integration Score: A Common Semantic Layer Across Components
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Making it easy for users to learn how to use the BI platform is key to adoption and the achievement of business benefits. An integrated and common set of front-end tools is an important basic element to help users learn and get benefits from a BI platform. Having to learn multiple tools is a significant barrier to user enablement and success. Figure 32 shows that, of the Magic Quadrant vendors, Panorama, Birst, Logi Analytics, Tableau and Bitam ranked the highest, while SAP, Actuate, Infor, Pentaho and Oracle were rated at the bottom. Of the "other" vendors, Phocas, Dimensional Insight and Lavastorm scored highest, while SpagoBI, eQ Technologic and Jinfonet (JReport) were rated at the bottom.
Figure 32. Integration Score: Integrated and Common Front-End Tools
n = 1,551 (see Figures 1 and 2)
Chart represents customer perception and not Gartner's opinion, and may feature vendors that (in
Gartner's opinion) do not deliver the functional capability described.
See Note 5 for an overview of integration categories.
Source: Gartner (October 2014)
Methodology
The online survey was developed and hosted by Gartner to support the BI platform Magic Quadrant analysis. More than 3,763 unique companies were invited to participate. Vendor-provided references (direct customers and OEMs), participants in Gartner's BI summit conferences globally and respondents from last year's survey also provided data.
To ensure the integrity of the survey data, each survey response was verified by company respondent email. For survey responses from nonidentified email accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo, the respondent was contacted to provide a company email address, role and other contact information, all of which were further vetted and ultimately included (this amounted to fewer than five responses). Only completed surveys were included in the results.
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