Features to consider while selecting Reporting/Analytic tool-
- Does BI tool has semantic layer? like RPD in OBIEE and Universe i think in Business Object? The idea is to create Data Models in the semantic layers and use them to create multiple reports.
- Does BI tool has provision of creating hierarchies? If yes, can we create ragged and skip level hierarchies?
- Self-Service BI
- Advanced Analytics (KPI/Scorecard)
- Ease of Deployment
- Ad-hoc reporting
- Slice and Dice
- Drilling up/down/ Drill Through
- Constraint Prompt (or Cascade Filter)
- Formatted Reports (Pixel Perfect Report)
- Report Bursting
- Geospatial Analysis
- Ease of Filtering data on dashboard
- Development Life-cycle
- Ability to export the reports in excel/csv/pdf etc
- Can be Deployed on Cloud?
- Conditional Delivery of Reports (i.e. deliver the report in user's mail box only when sales drops below a pre-set-level).
- Conditional formatting supported (highlights cells in red when sales drops below a level and highlight in green when it is above a level etc.)
- Writeback Support
- Event driven cache/extract refresh
- Do we have provision of Guided Navigation?? i.e. one dashboard has multiple reports but which report will be visible will depend of a certain condition and that certain condition is derived by another report). OBIEE has this Guided Navigation feature.
- Can the BI tool's semantic layer connect to Cubes?
- Does BI tool support Impersonation?
