microstrategy 9 vs qliktech 11

7/28/2019 MicroStrategy 9 vs QlikTech 11

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A Comparison White Paper

MicroStrategy 9 vs. QlikTech (QlikView 11)


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This White Paper relects the views, opinions and conclusions o MicroStrategy Incorporated (MicroStrate gy) and other contributors to this White Paper. This White Paper is provided as is and without

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curate or erroneous (in whole or in part), you (and not MicroStrategy or Contributors) assume the entire risk or all costs related to the use o this White Paper.

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or indirect damages, including but not limited to any damages assessed against or paid by you to any third party, arising rom the use o, or reliance on, this White Paper, even i MicroStrategy and Contributors

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Copyright Inormation

All Contents Copyright 2011 MicroStrategy Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

Trademark Inormation

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy 6, MicroStrategy 7, MicroStrategy 7i, MicroStrategy 7i Evaluation Edition, MicroStrategy 7i Olap Services, MicroStrategy 8, MicroStrategy 9, MicroStrategy Distribution

Services, MicroStrategy MultiSource Option, MicroStrategy Command Manager, MicroStrategy Enterprise Manager, MicroStrategy Object Manager, MicroStrategy Reporting Suite, MicroStrategy Power User,

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MicroStrategy Consulting, MicroStrategy CRM Applications, MicroStrategy Customer Analyzer, MicroStrategy Desktop, MicroStrategy Desktop Analyst, MicroStrategy Desktop Designer, MicroStrategy eCRM 7,

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Web, MicroStrategy Web Business Analyzer, MicroStrategy World, Application Development and Sophisticated Analysis, Best In Business Intelligence, Centralized Application Management, Inormation Like

Water, Intelligence Through Every Phone, Intelligence To Every Decision Maker, Intelligent E-Business, Personalized Intelligence Portal, Query Tone, Rapid Application Development, MicroStrategy Intelligent

Cubes, The Foundation For Intelligent E-Business, The Integrated Business Intelligence Platorm Built For The Enterprise, The Platorm For Intelligent E-Business, The Scalable Business Intelligence Platorm Built

For The Internet, Industrial-Strength Business Intelligence, Oice Intelligence, MicroStrategy Oice, MicroStrategy Report Services, MicroStrategy Web MMT, MicroStrategy Web Services, Pixel Perect, Pixel-

Perect, MicroStrategy Mobile, MicroStrategy Integrity Manager and MicroStrategy Data Mining Services are all registered trademarks or trademarks o MicroStrategy Incorporated.

All other company and product names may be trademarks o the respective companies with which they are associated. Speciicati ons subject to change without notice. MicroStrategy is not responsible or

errors or omissions. MicroStrategy makes no warranties or commitments concerning the availabili ty o uture products or versions that may be planned or under development.

Patent Inormation

This product is patented. One or more o the ollowing patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033, 6,567,796,

6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100, 6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768, 6,798,867, 6,801,910,

6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693, 6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518, 7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165,

7,082,422, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349, 7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639, 7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840,

7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811, 7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253 and 7,881,443. Other patent

applications are pending.

How to Contact Us

MicroStrategy Incorporated

1850 Towers Crescent Plaza

Tysons Corner, VA 22182

Phone: 1.888.537.8135 Fax: 703.848.8610

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.microstrategy.com


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I. Executive Summary......................................................................................................................... 4

II. Comparison of MicroStrategy 9 and QlikView 11on the Key BI Capabilities............................. 5

1. Delivering More BI with Less IT Eort - MicroStrategy Delivers the Lowest TCO .............................. 7

2. All User Needs through a Single Platorm..................................................................................... 11

3. Sel-Service Through a Fast and Intuitive Web Interace................................................................ 15

4. High Perormance at Any Scale .................................................................................................... 19

5. Quick to Implement and Deploy, Easy to Maintain and Administer ............................................... 24

6. Highly Interactive and Flexible Mobile Intelligence ........................................................................ 28

7. Deep Insight through Superior Analytics ...................................................................................... 33

8. Flexible Technology or Departmental to Enterprise BI .................................................................. 36

III. MicroStrategy A Market Proven, Industrial-Strength Technology.......................................... 39

MicroStrategy vs. QlikTech


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I. Executive Summary

In the Business Intelligence (BI) marketplace, MicroStrategy competes vigorously with vendors such as QlikTech. At

rst glance, it would seem that companies can use either MicroStrategy 9 or QlikView 11 to support their reporting

and analysis needs. However, throughout the implementation and maintenance o BI applications, companies are

realizing signicant dierences in the BI capabilities between MicroStrategy and the less robust and less integrated

BI technologies o QlikTech. MicroStrategys organically grown architecture delivers superior perormance, scalability,

usability, eciency, and reliability, all o which impact the total cost o ownership, user adoption, and ultimately, the

success o the BI project.

As user and business requirements have become more complex, IT budgets nonetheless have come under

increasing pressure. Organizations need to deliver BI solutions in light o expanding user requirements, increasing

amounts o data, and diering data sources with a minimal amount o IT resources. Non-robust BI architectures

require higher amounts o IT eort because o the basic nature o deploying immature BI technologies which leads

to redundant and repetitive administration and the constant development o one-o workarounds. In contrast,

organically-developed BI architectures like MicroStrategys require the minimum amount o IT eort needed to

deploy and maintain BI applications, and can empower business people to create their own reports without reliance

on IT personnel.

MicroStrategy 9 oers business users a redened user interace or a ast and intuitive user experience where

they can access consistent inormation through secure Web, Microsot Oce, and mobile device interaces.

MicroStrategys advanced analytical capabilities, such as predictive analytics and in-memory analysis, provide users

with ast and deep insight. With MicroStrategys scalable architecture and a single metadata, users can seamlessly

navigate rom scorecards and dashboards to reports and analysis without being required to open and close multiple

BI tools and navigate dissimilar interaces.

MicroStrategy 9 is advanced technology that allows companies to support all types o BI applications with a

single technology. MicroStrategy 9 builds on MicroStrategys unique strengths at the high-end o BI to extend the

boundaries o perormance, scalability, and eciency o enterprise BI. At the same time, MicroStrategy 9 brings

quick-to-deploy BI technology easily within reach o smaller departmental BI initiatives through eatures such as

multi-source data access, In-memory ROLAP, and Visual Insight. Just as importantly, MicroStrategy 9 provides a

smooth migration path or islands o departmental BI to merge into a cohesive and consistent enterprise-wide

ramework. With MicroStrategy 9, even as departmental BI applications are consolidated into the enterprise-wide

ramework, departments can continue to retain the signicant autonomy and nimbleness that they enjoyed previously.

For nearly 20 years, MicroStrategy customers have gained an edge over their competitors with ast, agile analysis

using MicroStrategys best-o-breed technology. Companies and industry analysts widely recognize MicroStrategy

or its administration-riendly architecture, robust security, sel-service zero-ootprint Web interace, and proven user

and data scalability.

This document discusses in detail the key dierences between MicroStrategy 9 and QlikView 11.


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5. Quick to Implement and Deploy, Easy to Maintain and Administer ..................................................... pg.24

MicroStrategy provides organizations a platorm that is quick to implement and deploy as well as easy to

maintain and administer, ueled by a single code base that oers the advantage o reusable business logic across

the entire platorm. MicroStrategys single BI server provides ecient, centralized administration or IT and ewer

moving parts, which translates into less downtime. QlikView lacks a common reusable metadata layer that is

shared across documents. This creates a maintenance challenge as developers are typically orced to continually

and manually synchronize metric denitions and security proles across documents.

6. Highly Interactive and Flexible Mobile Intelligence ............................................................................... pg.28

MicroStrategy Mobile extends BI capabilities on mobile devices well beyond traditional grid and graph reports

and provides exceptional fexibility or creating purpose-built, workfow-driven mobile applications. MicroStrategy

Mobile apps are built using a metadata-driven, point-and-click development paradigm, ully utilizing the

MicroStrategy BI platorm inrastructure, security, and reusable metadata components. As a result, mobile

applications are aster and easier to create, easier to maintain, and provide the administration eciencies needed

to deploy to hundreds o thousands o users while providing the industry's lowest total cost o ownership.

QlikView treats mobile devices as just another interace to deliver traditional BI. The QlikView mobile interace

is not designed to use the powerul capabilities o mobile devices, and lacks the ability to provide a rich user

experience that mobile users are accustomed to.

7. Deep Insight through Superior Analytics................................................................................................. pg.33

The MicroStrategy BI platorm provides an extensive set o data manipulation and analytic options to allow

the user to delve deeply into a report to identiy and discover important trends and patterns in the data. Users

can drill anywhere in the entire data warehouse or boundary-ree investigative analysis. Report designers and

analysts can view and embed predictive analytics in reports and then distribute them to all relevant decision

makers and stakeholders. QlikView does not automatically provide drill anywhere capabilities across all reports.

Report developers must pre-dene all drill paths or each chart. QlikView is limited in the data mining and

sophisticated predictive analytic capabilities that are available out-o-the-box.

8. Flexible Technology for Departmental to Enterprise BI ......................................................................... pg.36

MicroStrategys metadata reusability and lie cycle management tools, such as MicroStrategy Object Manager,

enable departments to incrementally migrate their business logic into a consolidated enterprise BI environment.

QlikView lacks an enterprise metadata layer and the tools required to consolidate disconnected QlikView

applications into one enterprise-wide BI application.

The ollowing section o the white paper provides a side-by-side evaluation o MicroStrategy 9 and QlikView 11

along the key BI capabilities.


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Mics rkd hi admiii ecic

0.4 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.40.8 1.0 1.2 2.20.6

arplan

Bissantz

Board

Cubeware

IBM Cognos Analysis

IBM Cognos Reporting

IBM Cognos TM1

Information Builders

Infor PM

Jedox PALO

Microsoft SSAS

Microsoft SSRS

MicroStrategy

MIK

Oracle BIEE

Oracle Hyperion

Pentaho

QlikTech

SAP BO Webl

SAP BO Deskl

SAP BW/ BEx Suite

SAS

TARGIT

1.02

1.18

1.72

N/A

N/A

1.96

2.40

N/A

2.16

N/A

1.51

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

1.96

N/A

N/A

0.55

0.39

0.71

0.59

Source: The BI Survey 9 (2010) This chart provides a KPI score or the deployed seats per administrator head. The KPI is calculated sothat higher administration costs lead to a lower KPI and vice versa.

Figure 2: MicroStrategy Technology is Recognized or its Ability to Support Many More Users or Each IT Administrator

MicroStrategy technology requires ar ewer IT personnel or a given amount o BI users because its metadata is

inherently easier to maintain and because end users have more sel-service capabilities that ofoad work rom the

IT sta.

We evaluated several leading BI products and, using a total cost o ownership model, determined

that MicroStrategy had the best combination o ease-o-use, time-to-market, successul retail

implementations, and robust analytical capabilities. IT Senior Coordinator o Purchasing,Private Label and Reporting, Whole Foods Market

The ollowing table lists out key capabilities in which the MicroStrategy 9 platorm helps organizations reduce costs

when designing, deploying, administering and maintaining BI applications.


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KEY COST REDUCING

CAPABILITYMICROSTRATEGY 9 QLIKVIEW 11

MinimizingDsigneffort

Dmic rp

Piziyes

MicroStrategy has very robust Prompting

engine. End users can dynamically

author reports at run time by selectingattributes, metrics, metric levels,

templates, lters, and even hierarchies.

This greatly reduces report design

dependency on IT and the number o

reports or IT to maintain.

lIMIteD

QlikView can simulate basic prompting on

attribute and metric values using sliders

and selectors. However, QlikView doesnot provide object or column prompts

(i.e. prompts or selecting lters, metrics,

hierarchies, etc.), so business users

cannot easily author reports at run-time.

aumic Mui-uc

Di ayes

Business users can automatically drill

anywhere to any data source without IT

hard coding.

lIMIteD

Report developers must pre-dene drill

sequences or each chart.

mi wb yes

Easy What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get

(WYSIWYG) formatting allows business

users to ormat reports at runtime

without IT support.

lIMIteD

WYSIWYG formatting requires the

installation o ActiveX plug-in, thus

orcing users to use Internet Explorer.

o rpi

rub Bui licyes

Report developers can reuse all existing

business logic across the entire platorm

rather than spending time recreating

business logic.

no

Business logic for each report is dened

and contained within the report, and

cannot be reused across reports.

viu ai rpid

Dcii Mkiyes

MicroStrategy Visual Insight allows

business users to intuitively visualize, lter,

and drill into their data. The drag-and-

drop, WYSIWYG interface allows business

users to make data driven decision quickly

and without any IT involvement.

lIMIteD

QlikView provides capabilities to slice and

dice data. However, it does not provide

the capabilities to perorm ad hoc visual

analysis o data.

MinimizingD

ploymnteffort

o rp Diaumic Dp

a Ic

yes The same report design is automatically

optimized or interacting through all

interaces including Web browsers,

mobile devices, and Microsot Oce; and

ormats including PDF, Flash, and HTML.

lIMIteD

Deploying to the zero-footprint client

(ZFC) interace requires urther HTML

coding to achieve the desired dashboard

layout.

B aic

Z-pi wbyes

Eliminates client installation costs and

ensures application is automatically

updated.

Provides secure access for any browser

without IT eort or reliance on ActiveX

downloads or IE Active X dependence.

lIMIteD

The QlikView Zero-Footprint Client (ZFC)

supports only a subset o the unctionality

supported by the QlikView IE plug-in

client. The layout delity and unctionality

supported by the ZFC is also low. As a

result, the deployment scenarios o ZFC

are limited and restrictive.

e Cumiz dUpd

yes Upgradable plug-ins instantly customize

to corporate look and eel without

coding eort.

Customizations are managed in a central

location and can be upgraded with

minimal IT eort.

lIMIteD

Customizations to the zero-footprint

interace must be continually reapplied

every time the interace is redesigned or

upgraded, making customizations dicult

to maintain.

aumd Dpm yes

Automated life cycle management tool

synchronizes objects across development,

test, and production environments thus

greatly reducing manual work associated

with BI deployments.

no

Incremental updates made in a

development environment cannot be

easily merged or synchronized into the

production environment.


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KEY COST REDUCING

CAPABILITYMICROSTRATEGY 9 QLIKVIEW 11

Minim

izing

Dploym

nteffort D Imp m

wb Icyes

MicroStrategy Data Import functionality

is or business users and provides the

ability to easily import data rom localles or relational databases and quickly

converts them into dashboards or

visualizations without any IT involvement.

no

QlikView does not provide Web-based

data import unctionality or business

users.

Minimizingadministr

tioneffort

si s yes

A centralized server dramatically reduces

administrative eort and complexity.

yes

QlikView does not support all styles of BI

through its server.

si Pi

admiiiyes

Administrators need to create users and

security settings once and these settings

apply to the entire MicroStrategy platorm

without requiring duplicate IT eorts.

lIMIteD

The QlikView Management Console

(QMC) provides limited centralized

management o the QlikView

deployment. Security has to be dened

locally within each document by

modiying the QlikView script.

ou---B

sm-id Miiyes

Prebuilt system performance dashboards

allow the administrator to immediately

analyze system usage data down to the

details and to easily optimize resources.

Automatically logs object change history

without requiring IT sta eorts, easing

auditing process.

lIMIteD

Reports to analyze the collected statistics

are not provided out-o-the-box.

Change journaling is not provided out-

o-the-box, and developers must typically

rely on third-party revision control

or change journaling systems or this

capability.

aumd scipi

Cyes

Reduces repetitive and time consuming

administrative tasks through automated

command line scripts.

no

Administrators have limited ability to

automate server-related administrative

tasks.

MinimizingMintnnceffort

aumd rp

d D Ii

Ccki

yes

MicroStrategy administrators can uncover

inconsistencies or errors beore business

users see them while reducing 98% o

manual regression testing eorts.

no

QlikView does not provide automated

regression testing tools to detect report

and data discrepancies.

hi rub Bui

Mdyes

IT staff have to maintain only one

business metadata object in one

place, and this one denition is reused

across the entire platorm to reduce IT

maintenance eorts.

no

QlikView provides very limited metadata

reusability. This orces report developers

to spend more time redundantly creating

report objects.

scb I-Mm

rolaP acicuyes

MicroStrategy customers can instantly

leverage multiple types o data assetswithout moving data to an enterprise

data warehouse.

no

QlikView is an in-memory only product.

In order or QlikView users to access dataassets, the data must rst be moved to a

QlikView database.

aumic C

Mmyes

MicroStrategys unied platform and

object-oriented development method

ensure that a change is propagated to all

related objects, ensuring one version o

the truth with minimal IT maintenance

eort.

no

There is no object or metadata reusability

between documents. One change to

a common business denition would

require making changes to each QlikView

document one by one, a mistake-prone

and onerous process.


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2. all User neeDs throUgh a sIngle PlatorM

The ideal architecture or business intelligence is the one that provides organizations with a single and cohesive

model o the business that can be automatically displayed through any user interace. MicroStrategy users have

the option to access a single version o the truth through interactive Web, Microsot Oce, and mobile deviceinteraces. MicroStrategy 9 includes a newly re-engineered Web user interace that is designed to be aster, more

powerul, and more personalized than ever beore. The MicroStrategy 9 Web architecture boasts a wide range o

perormance-enhancing changes that make the user interace interactive and instantly responsive to user requests.

i s Bui Iic tu si Pm

Figure 3: Users Can Seamlessly Traverse All Styles o BI rom a Unied Platorm and a Single Interace

MicroStrategys long history and devotion to producing world-class business intelligence technology providedus with extreme condence that we are making the right decision or our casino partners. MicroStrategys

interactive dashboards with advanced data visualizations will allow our clients to view complex data in

an easily understood and graphically appealing manner to improve decision-making. In addition, we look

orward to implementing MicroStrategys Mobile BI on the BlackBerry, iPhone, and iPad, which will give

our customers ar greater fexibility in business intelligence than is currently available today. President,Aristocrat Technologies.

Scorecards &

Dashboards

Enterprise

Repor4ng

OLAP Analysis &

Visual Explora4on

Data Mining &

Predic4ve Analysis

Mobile Apps &

Aler4ng

Ad Hoc Analysis Predic4ve Analysis Data Mining

Visual Explora4on Slice & Dice Inves4ga4ve Analysis Root Cause Determina4on

Pageperfect Opera4onal Repor4ng Pixelperfect Business Repor4ng Printperfect Statements & Invoices

Opera4onal Dashboards Dynamic Scorecards Metrics Management

Mobile Applica4ons Massive Informa4on Distribu4on iPad, iPhone , BlackBerry, email Excep4onbased Alerts


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KEY BI REQUIREMENTS MICROSTRATEGY 9 QLIKVIEW 11

Dmic epi Dbd

Dashboards integrated with

industrial-strength BI platorm

Fast WYSIWYG Pixel Perfect

design

Single design environment

Automatically drill anywhere in any

data source rom the dashboard

Native parallel Flash and DHTML

visualizations

Multiple layers of analysis

Multi-layout dashboards

Automatic multi-panel ltering

Dashboard templates reduce design

time

Dashboard output caching in

HTML, PDF, Excel, and Flash or

instantaneous response

Actionable dashboards

yes

Dashboards are created using reports

and objects rom MicroStrategys single

metadata. Intelligence Server provides its

sophisticated processing, security, caching,

and analytical capabilities.

Users design dashboards rom

MicroStrategys single Web interace

using already amiliar design paradigm.

Dashboards are created in a Pixel Perect,

zero-footprint Web interface, WYSIWYG

and reeorm layout.

MicroStrategy dashboards provide high

interactivity via selector controls that allow

users to dynamically apply lters to all

dashboard components and to synchronize

data across multiple analytical layers o

inormation. Users can automatically drill

throughout the ull depth and breadtho the data warehouse to obtain more

detailed inormation or view related

inormation.

MicroStrategy dashboards provide multi-

panel and multi-tab layers or various views

o data. Multiple dashboards can also be

assembled into a single dashboard book.

MicroStrategy 9 dashboard templates

provide reusable starting points with

sophisticated ormatting that can make

any business user a dashboard designer.

Pre-calculated dashboards are cached or

instant viewing in HTML, PDF, Excel, and

Flash.

MicroStrategy provides the ability to

implement, and embed transactional

capabilities into the dashboards. Using

MicroStrategy Dashboards, business users

can not only monitor key business metrics,

but also initiate appropriate actions rom

within the dashboard.

lIMIteD

QlikViews pixel-perfect WYSIWYG

dashboard design interace requires either

a desktop client. Dashboard design is notpossible in a zero-ootprint Web client.

This limitation makes it dicult to provide

sel-service dashboard creation capabilities

to a large user population.

QlikView does not provide layout

templates out-o-the-box. With little

guidance in dashboard design, business

users have a dicult time building

eective dashboards.

QlikView dashboards can be distributed

as stand-alone les. However, the le is

in a proprietary ormat, and viewing a

dashboard ofine requires a QlikView

desktop client. Dashboards cannot be

exported to Flash.QlikView does not provide the ability to

implement, and embed transactional

capabilities into the dashboards.


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13


rpid Cmpi D

tu adcd viuizi

Out-of-the-box library of advanced

visualizations

Automatic drilling from

visualizations

Easy to create and deploy

customized widgets

Flexible properties support different

types o data comparisons

Extensible library of visualizations

and widgets created by 3rd parties

Customizable advanced

visualizations and widgets

yes

MicroStrategy 9 provides an out-o-the-

box library o advanced visualizations and

widgets that enhance the understanding

o complex data and highlight patterns

and trends.

MicroStrategy provides a library o

advanced visualizations, including Bullet

Graphs, Micro Charts, Interactive Heat

Maps, Interactive Bubble Charts, Grid

of Graphs, Bubbles Grid, RSS, Fish Eye,

Media, Cloud, Time Slider, and Stack Area

Charts. All visualizations have drilling

capabilities and enable users to select data

elements that lter out other areas o the

dashboard. Each MicroStrategy widget

has fexible capabilities and properties

that enable users to immediately identiy

or urther investigate trends or anomalies

in the data. For example, the Heat Map

widget incorporates OLAP technology

that enables users to lter data based on

numeric values.

MicroStrategy customers can extend

the advanced visualizations library

by importing 3rd party visualizations.

Advanced dashboard designers can edit

or create their own visualizations or

widgets. The widgets are built using the

power o Adobe Flash and are part o

MicroStrategys single platorm.

lIMIteD

QlikView provides basic visualizations

such as bar, line, pie, radar, and gauge

charts. Many advanced visualizations arenot available out-o-the-box, including

data clouds, weighted lists viewer, graph

matrix, calendar widgets, store layout,

etc. Bullet graphs are also not supported

natively, although they can be built by

overlaying multiple graphs in order to

give the appearance o a bullet graph,

making them time consuming to build and

maintain.

QlikView also cannot embed Web-related

content, such as HTML containers, media,

and RSS eeds, without coding. Advanced

interactive selectors such as sh eye

selectors are also not available out-o-

the-box.

Metric calculations, or chart expressions,

are dened within each chart. Because

metric denitions dened in one chart

cannot be easily reused across charts,

report developers are orced to spend

time redundantly dening metrics and

maintaining the consistency o metric

denitions.

QlikView extension objects allow designers

to create custom visualization components

or use within QlikView. However QlikView

extension objects are not suitable or large

data volumes (10 thousand records or

more). Also, extensions are not visible in

reports and can only be used in QlikView

documents.


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14


rbu epi rpi

Pixel Perfect absolute positioning

OLAP-enabled grids and graphs

Horizontal and vertical display of

data

Desktop publishing formatting

Advanced Export to Excel, Word,

PowerPoint, or PDF

High quality printing

Templates for rapid design

yes

MicroStrategy oers comprehensive

report styles or banded reports. These

documents are highly interactive, providing

in-place OLAP analysis through pivoting,

drilling, and Excel-like ormatting toolbars.

Highly ormatted documents are built

using common desktop publishing

paradigms such as rulers and Pixel Perect

positioning, all in a zero-ootprint Web.

MicroStrategys export to PDF capabilities

support advanced PDF eatures such as

table o contents and watermarks. Export

to Excel supports export o multiple

document layouts to multiple Excel

worksheets.

Print-perect reports can be printed

exactly as seen to any network printer.

MicroStrategy documents can be printed

horizontally or vertically. Users can

dynamically change the page layout, apply

t-to-page unctionality, and customize

headers and ooters or any report.

MicroStrategy provides out-o-the-box

templates and the ability to create custom

templates in order to decrease design time.

These templates can be saved and shared

across multiple projects.

no

QlikView has limited production reporting

capabilities. QlikViews report writer is

limited in the breadth o ormattingcapabilities provided to report designers.

Reports can be banded so that a dierent

page is generated or each dierent

attribute element value, but QlikView

restricts reports to be banded by only one

attribute.

The report output is meant to be printed

or output to PDF, and not to be viewed

in the desktop or Web client. Accordingly,

the documents generated by the QlikView

report writer are not interactive, with no

ltering or drilling possible.

Production reports must be designed in

a desktop client or ActiveX client, and

cannot be designed over a zero-ootprintWeb interace.

Imi Di d

Pci nici

Ability to self-subscribe and

subscribe others to report deliveries

Alerting and thresholds Wide range of output types: Web,

e-mail, print, ax, wireless, and le

server

Report bursting

Portal integration, with support for

portal servers including: Microsot

SharePoint, SAP NetWeaver Portal,

Oracle WebLogic, and WebSphere

yes

Users can subscribe themselves and

other users to personalized reports and

alerts. Report deliveries can be triggered

by dynamic events, exception thresholds,or time schedules. Personalized content

can be delivered via portal, print, email,

wireless, or le servers.

MicroStrategys platorm leverages highly

scalable technology that slices a single

report and dynamically bursts personalized

inormation to the right users. Reusing

a single report across hundreds o users

saves processing resources.

Portal integration is available out-o-the-

box, with support or portal servers such

as Microsot SharePoint, SAP NetWeaver

Portal, Oracle WebLogic, and WebSphere.

Portlet-to-portlet communication is also

available out-o-the-box, making it easier

to inject BI into a portal.

lIMIteD

Business users typically cannot sel

subscribe to reports or delivery nor

congure personal exception thresholds.

Instead, an administrator would typically

set up a recipient list to send reports on

a periodic basis. Alternatively, a report

developer can congure a QlikView

document to display text in a pop-up

window or send text as an email when

certain threshold conditions are met.

QlikView does not provide portal

integration out-o-the-box, orcing

developers to write a lot o code to

present reports in portlets and to

incorporate communication between

QlikView and other portlets.


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ib d Pu olaP

Icii

Drill anywhere fosters investigative

analysis

Derived elements and derived

metrics or on-the-fy calculations

and groupings

View lters for quick data ltering

On the y creation of derived

elements, custom groups, subtotals,

etc.

Built-in nancial and statistical

unctions

yes

The MicroStrategy BI platorm provides an

extensive set o data manipulation options

to allow the user to delve deeply into a

report to identiy and discover important

trends and patterns in the data. Users can

drill anywhere in the entire data warehouse

or boundary-ree investigative analysis.

New derived metrics, derived attribute

element groups, lters, and subtotals

can be created on-the-fy using existing

metrics and attributes in the report. This

unctionality makes it possible or users

to perorm new calculations, custom

groupings, and ltering directly on the

report at the speed o thought.

MicroStrategys analytical engine provides

hundreds o built-in nancial, statistical,

and mathematical unctions.

lIMIteD

QlikView is generally limited in the breadth

o options it provides or end users to

manipulate and analyze data. Datainteractivity on charts is generally limited

to ltering. Drilling is not automatically

enabled on charts. Instead, the report

developer must generally pre-dene drilling

sequences on each chart. The result is that

drilling workfows are typically prescribed

by the report developer, and the end users

ability to analyze data is bounded.

QlikView users are also limited in their

ability to create new custom groups o

attribute elements directly on a chart. Other

data manipulations, such as new metric

calculations and custom subtotals, require

a power user to edit a chart denition in

a wizard; such data manipulations are not

available in one click.

QlikView does not provide the breadth o

OLAP, nancial, and statistical unctions

that are provided out-o-the-box by

MicroStrategy.

sm Mic oc

Ii

All Ofce products supported (Excel,

PowerPoint, Word, Outlook)

Leverage all BI reports and reporting

objects

Full new report creation

Ability to save logic created in Excel

back to enterprise metadata Persistent and interchangeable

ormatting across Oce and Web

Server based conguration for

client settings, user, host, and IP

address settings

yes

MicroStrategy delivers the complete

reporting and analysis environment to

Microsot Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and

Outlook users. MicroStrategy Oce

applications are linked to MicroStrategy

security and administration, ensuring

100% data consistency across the

enterprise. Users are able to access existing

reports or create new ones rom withinMicrosot Oce applications. Changes

made through Microsot Oce are

immediately refected across MicroStrategy

Oce and Web interaces and can

be saved to the enterprise business

logic metadata layer. Microsot Oce

ormatting changes are preserved ater

automatic data updates.

The Web administrator can set client side

settings and security. Users can change

their passwords through the amiliar

Microsot Oce interace.

lIMIteD

QlikView reports and documents cannot

be created rom within Microsot Oce

products. The QlikView Microsot Oce

integration is limited to exporting

individual sheet objects to Excel.

QlikView users can drag-and-drop charts

rom the desktop QlikView client into a

Microsot Oce document. However, this

eature is not supported out-o-the-boxand requires installation o an ActiveX

control and IE plug-in. End users will

require installations o these controls or

viewing a QlikView-embedded Microsot

Oce document. This requirement makes

it dicult to widely distribute QlikView

embedded Microsot Oce documents.

3. sel-servICe throUgh a ast anD IntUItIve weB InteraCe

MicroStrategy 9 provides capabilities or business personnel to create their own ad hoc report designs easily rom

their Web browser. Using drag-and-drop actions through the MicroStrategy 9 Web interace, any business person

can assemble virtually any report by adding attributes and metrics to a simple report template without the need

to know any technical details about the data or the underlying databases. With MicroStrategy 9, business users

also have the ability to interactively build analysis with dozens o visualization options. To enhance usability, the

MicroStrategy 9 Web user interace adopts many amiliar Microsot paradigms, including ribbon toolbars, accordion

controls, control-click multi-select capability, and context-sensitive right-click actions.


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Mics Pid ed U i d Iuii U epic

Add/RemoveA*ributesMetrics

Many

ViewsEasily Filter

dataVisually Analyze Data or

use OLAP enabled Grids

Drop Zones for

mulCdimensional

analysis

Figure 4: Design and Format a MicroStrategy Report Using a Fast and Intuitive User Interace

MicroStrategys next-generation o advanced sel-service unctionality is designed to provide more control to business

users. Business users can easily import their personal or corporate data directly rom the MicroStrategy Web interace

and quickly convert the raw data into insightul visual analyses, reports, or dashboards. The MicroStrategy Visual

Insight interace provides incredible speed-o-interactivity, stunning visualizations, drag-and-drop manipulations, and

instant results thus allowing business users to rapidly go rom data to decisions.

We were impressed with MicroStrategys sel-service architecture, ease-o-use, highly visual dashboards,and mobile reporting that allows us to put the analytics and reporting in the hands o the business user.

MicroStrategys history in the business intelligence sphere also gave us condence that we had chosen the

right technology partner.

IT Specialist at Silverstar Casinos

Add/Remove

Attributes

MetricsEasily lter

dataDrop Zones for

multidimensional

analysisVisually analyze data or

use OLAP enabled grids


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U-id Ic

Drag-and-drop actions

One-click access

Familiar Microsoft paradigms

Tree view navigation

Ribbon toolbars and menus

Accordion controls

Personalized interface

User collaboration capabilities

Context-sensitive online help

Sophisticated formatting for nal

report presentation

yes

The MicroStrategy Web interace

leverages many amiliar, user-riendly

paradigms, including older-tree

navigation, ribbon toolbars, accordion

controls, control-click multi-select

capabilities, and context-sensitive right-

click actions.

MicroStrategy 9 enables collaboration via

comments that can be added to reports

to provide instructions to other users and

to share inormation. Every report can

maintain and display a set o notes with

details on who let the note and when.

MicroStrategy provides users

comprehensive, context-sensitive help

throughout the interace.

MicroStrategy Web allows users to ormat

reports and save custom ormat styles.

These include row-level headers, row-level

values, column-level headers, column-

level values, metric headers, metric values,

subtotal headers, subtotal values, custom

groups, consolidation, and reports.

lIMIteD

QlikViews design interace allows or drag

and-drop placement o charts and other

dashboard elements. However, the editingo each chart involves navigating through

a wizard to select data columns and dene

metric calculations. Attributes and metrics

cannot be dragged-and-dropped onto a

grid or graph to modiy charts and perorm

ad hoc analysis on-the-fy.

QlikView has limited capabilities or logging

notes and comments rom multiple users.

A QlikView application can have a text

input eld where users can append notes.

However, QlikView is limited in its ability to

automatically add details on the author and

entry date o notes. QlikView is also limited

in its ability to secure comment elds so

that dierent users have dierent privileges

to read, edit, and append notes.

s-sic wb Ic

Fully interactive interface with

controls or data ormatting,

manipulation, and analysis

Real-time changes without a

publishing process

Creation of report objects, such as

prompts and lters, over the Web

What You See Is What You Get

(WYSIWYG) design and editing of

any report type over the Web

Zero-footprint Web interface from

any browser

yes

MicroStrategy puts wide-ranging control

in the hands o business users, minimizing

the need or IT personnel to perorm the

same unctions. Business users are able to

rapidly create, manipulate, ormat, and

analyze any report themselves, all through

a single Web interace. Report objects

such as prompts, lters, derived metrics,thresholds, and totals can also be created

over the Web. Individual columns and

rows on a grid can be selected quickly

and users can easily ormat, drill, pivot,

and perorm other tasks on-the-fy.

Changes are available right away without

any need to publish or export inormation

to other environments.

Business users create highly ormatted

reports using any metadata object using

a zero-footprint, WYSIWYG design

paradigm that drastically shortens report

development time.

MicroStrategy Web is zero-ootprint, and

does not rely on Java or ActiveX. As aresult, report designers and business

users can use any browser to design and

interact with reports.

lIMIteD

Creating QlikView documents or

dashboards requires a desktop client; it is

not possible to create new documents rom

a Web-based client. As a result, QlikView

deployments typically give ad hoc report

creation capabilities to a ew power users,

while end users with Web access are

limited to ltering, sorting, and pre-dened

drilling.

In order to make a QlikView dashboard

available over the Web in a zero-ootprint

client or QlikX IE client, the dashboard is

rst designed on the desktop, and then

a Web page must be generated rom

that design. Depending on ormatting

requirements, the generated Web page

must then be urther customized via HTML

code beore being published to a Web

server. Any changes to the dashboard

design must go through a similar

publishing process in order to make the

changes available to Web users. This makes

Web deployments dicult to maintain.

Drilling within a chart is limited to

predened drill paths. I the user wants

to see a dierent view o the data not

available in the pre-dened drill path, the

user must essentially recreate the chart by

opening the chart wizard and selecting a

dierent set o table columns to place in

the chart.


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adcd s-sic

ucii

Data Import

Visual Insight

yes

The Data Import and Visual Insight

unctionality is designed to give more

control to business users. Business users

can convert raw data into decisions in

minutes and without assistance rom the

IT department.

Using Data Import unctionality, business

users can easily import personal or

corporate data rom local les, Excel

les, or relational databases through

the MicroStrategy Web interace. The

imported data can be easily converted

into interactive reports or dashboards

without any IT assistance.

MicroStrategy Visual Insight allows

business users to visually identiy patterns,

trends, and anomalies in data. Business

users can intuitively query, visualize, lter,and drill into their data. A drag-and-drop,

WYSIWYG interface enables business

users to visualize the changes as they

are made. MicroStrategy Visual Insight

provides incredible speed-o-interactivity,

detailed visualizations, and instant query

results, thus allowing business users to

rapidly go rom data to decisions.

no

QlikView does not provide advanced

sel-service capabilities. Importing personal

or corporate data is not supported rom

the Web interace. In addition, existing

QlikView scripts cannot be accessed rom

the Web interace, and end users cannot

save changes to the QlikView documents

(except shared objects) rom the Web

interace. As a result, the sel-service o end

users is severely constrained.

QlikView does not provide an interace

or visualizations specically designed

or perorming visual analysis o data. In

addition, perorming actions like adding

new metric calculations or custom

subtotals require a power user to edit a

chart denition in a wizard, making the

process o data exploration tedious and lessintuitive.

I rp U aci

Extreme AJAX Web interface

High degree of client-side

processing while maintaining a

zero-ootprint Web client

yes

The MicroStrategy Web architecture

adheres to an Extreme AJAX model,

shiting processing rom the Web server

to the Web browser or any browser

type. By spreading the processing

workload, the user is given a muchmore responsive and interactive Web

experience while still preserving a true

zero-ootprint Web interace.

lIMIteD

Users who need a highly responsive

interace with a high degree o client-side

processing would typically use QlikViews

desktop client or the ActiveX plug-in or

Microsot Internet Explorer. A desktop

client is dicult to deploy to a largeuser population, and an ActiveX plug-in

cannot be deployed to users who use

browsers other than Internet Explorer. A

zero-ootprint AJAX interace is available,

but this interace typically requires custom

HTML coding to ully ormat the interace,

and the architecture does not ollow an

Extreme AJAX model. Consequently, a

highly responsive QlikView interace is

dicult to deploy to a wide audience.


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Dmic rp Pizi

Comprehensive parameter and

question prompting (column, lter,

search based, value, hierarchical)

Personal answers saved for reuse

across dierent reports

Security proles personalize report

content or individual users

yes

In MicroStrategy, a single report can span

hundreds o possible data combinations

tailored to dierent user needs.

MicroStrategy prompts provide report

input parameters that control most

aspects o a report, and give the user

signicant ad hoc reporting capabilities.

Prompts enable the personalization o

reports rom a single report denition,

reducing the number o objects stored in

the metadata repository.

Advanced report parameters, like object

(column) and hierarchy prompts, allow

users to select the business attributes and

KPIs to include in the report at run-time.

MicroStrategy Web displays prompt values

and report contents that are permitted

by the user's security prole. For example,

when running a prompted report,

dashboard, or document, the user can

only select prompt answers that he has

permission to see. In a similar way, when

running a report, only the metrics and

attributes that the user has permission to

see will be displayed to the user.

lIMIteD

QlikView does not natively support

prompting. QlikView developers can only

simulate basic element list prompting usinglist boxes.

QlikView users cannot be prompted to

select hierarchies, columns, lters, and

metrics during run-time to generate a

report that shows only the data that is o

interest to them.

QlikViews lack o prompting abilities

results in developing, deploying, and

maintaining more applications as compared

to MicroStrategy. With MicroStrategy, a

single highly prompted report can satisy

the analysis requirements or thousands o

users across multiple departments.

Security proles, including row-level and

column-level security, can be dened sothat dierent users opening the same

document can only see data they are

permitted to see. However, security is

dened locally within each QlikView

document. For a sizable BI deployment

security maintenance in QlikView can be

very tedious, time consuming, and dicult

to maintain.

4. hIgh PerorManCe at any sCale

MicroStrategy technology has long been the perormance leader at high user counts and data scale. MicroStrategy

9 continues and extends that leadership with adaptive caching technology called In-memory ROLAP and SQLgeneration optimizations that can deliver the highest query perormance, even when accessing hundreds o

terabytes o data. In-memory ROLAP takes advantage o the huge addressable memory space now available on 64-

bit computers to provide high perormance middle-tier databases that can respond directly to data requests rom

reports, dashboards, and OLAP analyses.

We look orward to using MicroStrategy 9 In-memory ROLAP technology to help us improve our userexperience with aster response times and to take unnecessary pressure o our Teradata system. Manager o BI Architecture, eBay


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I-mm BI i vid i Pmc Cu BI sm

BEFORE IN-MEMORY BI AFTER IN-MEMORY BI

OutputCaching

In-memory On-Disk

Caching Query

DatabaseQuery Slower

Response Time

Data SetCachingReport

CachingOutputCaching

DatabaseQuery

Data SetCaching

In-memoryQuery

ReportCaching

In-memory On-Disk

Caching Query

FasterResponse Time

Figure 5: MicroStrategy In-Memory BI Provides the Combination o Fast Response Time rom Multidimensional Caching and the Flexibility o

Ad Hoc Query BI

ROLAP is unique among BI architectures in that it can model whole relational databases as i they were a single

multi-dimensional cube. In this case, the cube is virtual since relational databases oten contain terabytes o data

that could not t within any physical cube technology. MicroStrategys virtual cube provides MicroStrategy users

with the ability to perorm OLAP interactions with the data and drill reely throughout the vast virtual cube without

the severe size limitations o MOLAP architectures.

MicroStrategys new In-memory ROLAP option is game changing. Unlike other in-memory approaches onthe market today, it is ully integrated with an enterprise BI environment and provides high perormance

transparently to business users. The way in which large amounts o data are stored and accessed in-memory

is so seamless that I was skeptical until I saw the actual SQL generated and witnessed the perormance.

Cindi Howson, Founder o BIScorecard

Mics 9 Mui-uc rolaP a D eim b opimizd Pmc d C

MicroStrategy Virtual Cube

MarketingData Mart

MicroStrategy Virtual Cube

MfgData Mart

EnterpriseData Whse

SalesData Mart

FinancialData Mart

Lookups, Aggregates,Summary Data

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Supporting Hub and Spoke Data Architectures Balance the Workload Across Databases

SQLServer

Teradata

MySQL

Netezza

SybaseIQ

SQLServerDB2

Figure 6: MicroStrategy Multi-source ROLAP Helps Decrease Time to Value by incorporating Hub and Spoke Architectures and Decrease Cost

by Switching Database Processing rom the Enterprise Data Warehouse to Alternative Lower Cost Databases.


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Successul BI systems oten experience dramatic growth in user populations. It is increasingly common or a single

MicroStrategy BI installation to support thousands and even tens o thousands o business users. The technical

challenge in these circumstances is to be able to eciently accommodate thousands o concurrent user sessions

while providing high perormance and easy administration. MicroStrategy 9 supports 64-bit Java Virtual Machines

(JVMs) in both J2EE Web servers as well as ASP.net Web Servers. The dramatically expanded memory available in 64-

bit JVMs supports many more concurrent user sessions, and allows users to display and interact with larger reports

and dashboards.

The most critical actor or our organization is the speed with which we can react to the needs o thebusiness. MicroStrategy enables our executives and other business users to run reports and analyses

within seconds, which in turn, allows our employees to make timely decisions that dramatically impact

the business. Also, our high perormance BI environment encourages the use o BI across the company,

providing greater visibility into the business or more employees. Chie Inormation Ofcer, FAMIQ


Quick rp tim

In-memory ROLAP

Dynamic sourcing

Dynamic multi-level caching

yes

MicroStrategys In-memory ROLAP

capabilities leverage 64-bit operating

systems to improve the overall

perormance o the BI system. In-memory

ROLAP cubes improve the perormance o

the most time-consuming and requently-

used queries, while still allowing users

to seamlessly navigate the entire data

warehouse.

When building a report, the report

developer never has to explicitly reerence

an In-memory ROLAP cube. Dynamicsourcing capabilities automatically direct

queries to In-memory ROLAP cubes

whenever possible. Administrators can

be assured that the In-memory ROLAP

cubes they create will automatically

and immediately improve overall query

perormance.

MicroStrategy provides automatic caching

at multiple levels, including element

list, metadata object, report dataset,

XML denition, document output, and

database connection caching. Caching

makes the entire BI system ecient by

reducing redundant computations and

network trac.

lIMIteD

QlikView is an in-memory-only product

and holds its entire database in memory.

QlikView cannot ofoad portions o

its database to disk, so the entire

database must t in memory. QlikViews

perormance is thus limited by the amount

o data being analyzed and the memory

capacity o the mid-tier server or client.

QlikView does not allow dynamic sourcing

o data. All data must be queried rom

QlikView cubes, resulting in increased

hardware costs and wasteul utilization odatabase processing power.

QlikView caches recently calculated chart

aggregations in memory, but does not

persistently store these caches to disk.

Because the chart caches exist only in

memory, the caches typically do not exist

as long as a disk-persisted cache. As a

result, the same chart aggregations are

oten calculated redundantly.


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hi Pmc rolaP ei

Push-down joins

Push-down analytics

Multi-pass SQL

Support for all implementations of

multi-pass SQL, including the use

o temp tables, derived tables, and

common table expressions

Minimize network trafc

Automatic aggregate awareness

Database-specic SQL generation

and optimization through VLDB

drivers

SQL query optimization algorithms

yes

MicroStrategys ROLAP architecture uses

the database or much o its processing.

Data joins and analytic calculations are

processed in the database whenever

possible. MicroStrategys multi-pass

approach provides the fexibility to answer

analytical questions in an optimal manner.

Any technical advances in the database are

seamlessly accessible to the MicroStrategy

platorm. By leveraging the database to

its ullest extent possible, large volumes

o transaction level data are processed

eciently and network trac is minimized.

Automatic and intelligent support or common

data warehouse optimization techniques

like aggregate tables and table partitioning

ensures that the MicroStrategy SQL engine

maximizes database usage or every analysis.

VLDB properties allow or urther ne-tuning

o the SQL engine on both a global and

report-by-report basis. Through VLDB

drivers, MicroStrategy can optimize table

join sequences, databases parallel execution

capabilities, query optimization hints, and

other database-specic tuning parameters.

Global SQL query optimization algorithms

optimize complex queries to reduce the

number o SQL passes, providing urther

perormance improvement to queries.

no

QlikView relies on the client or mid-tier

server to perorm all its processing and

does not provide a push-down architecture

where processing is shited rom the mid-

tier server to the database. Data joins are

pre-processed when loading the data into

QlikViews proprietary in-memory database,

but analytic calculations and aggregations

are perormed on-the-fy by the client or

mid-tier (i.e. QlikView server). This aspect

o QlikView architecture results in wasteul

utilization o the underlying databases

processing power and puts additional

pressure on QlikView server resulting in

more hardware costs and perormance

bottlenecks.

Each year DB vendors spend millions o

dollars in R&D to improve their perormance,

MicroStrategy benets rom these

improvements transparently because o

MicroStrategys push-down architecture;

QlikTech cannot leverage these investments

as the entire database is held in-memory.

Some recently calculated aggregations

are cached or use by multiple users, but

the caches exist only in memory and not

persisted to hard disk. These aspects o

QlikViews architecture limit its scalability, as

perormance is bounded by the CPU and

memory capacity o the mid-tier server or

client.

QlikView has limited options to pre-

aggregate data or partition data across

multiple servers. As a result, QlikView islimited in its ability to optimize and tune the

perormance o its database engine.


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Mk P epi

scbii d Pmc

Native 64-bit BI processing

64-bit Java Virtual Machines (JVMs)

support

Server Clustering for failover

recovery and load balancing

Customer references for large

user and data scale production

deployments

yes

The MicroStrategy platorm is designed

or enterprise scalability. Native 64-bit

processing allows MicroStrategy to

support large numbers o users and data

volumes while improving perormance.

MicroStrategy supports native 64-bit

processing or all major operating systems,

and across the entire BI platorm.

MicroStrategy also ully supports 64-bit

Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) in both

J2EE Web servers as well as ASP.net Web

Servers. The expanded memory available

in 64-bit JVMs allows or optimal Web

perormance across the enterprise. One

server can maintain more concurrent user

sessions and run much larger reports,

reducing overall hardware costs.

A cluster-capable server provides loadbalancing and automatic ailover

capabilities, so system resources are

allocated eciently and system uptime is

maximized. MicroStrategy clustered servers

support asymmetric congurations, so

each cluster node can support dierent

applications. All cluster nodes share caches

and in-memory cubes and all changes

made to the metadata objects and security

settings take eect immediately.

MicroStrategy has many customer

reerences or deployments to thousands

o users who are reporting and analyzing

tens o terabytes o data.

lIMIteD

RAM need by QlikTech is not only

aected by the amount o data, but also

by the number o users simultaneouslyaccessing the QlikView application. Each

QlikView user needs to have its own

User Session States; storing the User

Session States and aggregates takes up

RAM above and beyond the RAM used

to store the QlikView application. It

is not uncommon to have a QlikView

application that takes up nearly 100% o

the RAM or each additional user. Having

3-5 concurrent users accessing the same

QlikView application could easily double

the amount o RAM required, creating

serious scalability, perormance, and user

concurrency issues.

QlikTech only supports the Windows

platorm. By not oering UNIX versions,

QlikTech limits customers deployment

options.

QlikView is limited in the extent to which

resources can be optimally shared across

a cluster. For example, chart aggregations

that are calculated on one server are

cached only in the memory o that server,

and not shared across a cluster.

QlikTech does not have the long reerence

list that MicroStrategy has o customers

that have proven the products data and

user scalability.


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5. QUICK to IMPleMent anD DePloy, easy to MaIntaIn anD aDMInIster

MicroStrategy 9 can deliver BI solutions quickly with little or no IT support. MicroStrategys unied BI architecture

oers many IT timesaving eatures including object reuse and optimized administration. MicroStrategy 9 allows

organizations to create a single shared business logic layer, the metadata, which presents a single cohesive modelo the business. Object reuse across the entire platorm acilitates aster application development. Object reuse

across the entire platorm also minimizes IT maintenance eort, since IT only needs to maintain one object instead

o several (or several hundred) object copies. Object reuse ensures a single version o the truth that persists across

all reports, dashboards, and analyses, regardless o who creates them.

Mics a rp Di C rub Md Cmp

Range of Metadata

Elements Used in Reports

REPORT DESIGN

Layout

FormatCalculations

REPORT COMPONENTS

Parameterization

Templates

Filters

Autostyles

BUSINESS ABSTRACTION

Metrics

Hierarchies

Custom Groupings

Transformations

DATA ABSTRACTION

Attributes

Facts

Tables

Aliases

MicroStrategy Other BI

Technologies

Report-

Specific

Components

Report-

Specific

Components

Reusable

Metadata

Components

Reusable

Metadata

Components

Figure 7: The More Comprehensive the Reusable Metadata, the More an Enterprise can Ensure Fast and Managed Development

MicroStrategy designed its architecture to minimize administration overhead through capabilities such as a single

administration point, reusable and automated cell level data security, and automatic internationalization eatures.

A central point o control across the entire platorm reduces overhead. MicroStrategys universally-applied reusable

security system protects the privacy o the data and dynamically lters out data rom any report based on the

security prole o each business user. MicroStrategy 9 oers the ability to automatically present every report,

dashboard, or OLAP analysis in the local language o each business user viewing the inormation without requiring

any additional design work by report authors. MicroStrategy capabilities, such as centralization and automation,

allow administrators to deliver secure BI to any user base, whether to a department or to thousands o users, with

minimal IT eort.

The new BI system has reduced the time we spend on monthly reporting by more than 50%. There is nowmore time to spend on operations and innovation. IT Specialist, Silverstar Casino


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Uid BI acicu

Single interface provides seamless

integration o analytics and reporting

or root cause analysis

Single metadata reduces IT effort

Single Server

Single code base across platforms

Single, zero-footprint Web interface

yes

MicroStrategys single code base oers

reusable business logic across the entire

platorm. For example, MicroStrategysdashboards can be made rom

existing reports and objects, speeding

development and ensuring consistency

o report logic across reports and

dashboards.

MicroStrategys single BI server provides

ecient, centralized administration

or the IT administrator. A single server

with ewer moving parts and processes

translates into less downtime.

lIMIteD

QlikView is limited in its ability to provide

all ve styles o BI. QlikView is limited in

its ability to generate the complete rangeo enterprise reports (highly structured,

multi-page reports); to perorm complex

OLAP analysis (including statistical, data

mining, and predictive analytics); and to

deliver sophisticated user-driven alerting.

All metadata associated with a QlikView

objects, such as metric and lter

denitions, are contained within the

document and cannot be shared across

QlikView documents. The lack o a

common reusable semantic layer creates

a maintenance challenge; as metric

denitions change, report developers are

typically orced to manually synchronize

denitions across reports.

QlikView has three dierent Web

clients to choose rom. These clients

provide dierent levels o unctionality.

The QlikView Zero-Footprint Client

(ZFC) supports only a subset o the

unctionality supported by the QlikView

IE plug-in client.

rub d ric Md l

Robust abstraction layer where all

physical constructs can be modeled

logically and hidden rom the business

user

Highly reusable metadata

Automatic change management

Object-oriented metadata

yes

MicroStrategys object-oriented

metadata denes an enterprises

business layer in a single repository.

Metadata objects can be nested as

building blocks to create more complex

objects. I a metadata object changes,

every other metadata object dependenton it automatically changes. This ensures

consistency across business denitions

and minimizes the number o objects to

create and maintain.

MicroStrategy assembles all metadata

objects necessary or a report and

dynamically builds the report SQL at

run-time. Complex queries, such as set

qualications, dimensional calculations,

and custom groupings, are created easily

without requiring manual SQL coding.

no

As each QlikView dashboard is a

standalone application, there is little

object or metadata reusability between

dashboards. This makes it dicult to

maintain one consistent business view

o the data. One change to a business

denition would involve making changesto each QlikView application one by

one, a mistake-prone and onerous

process. The lack o object reusability

makes the BI environment more dicult

to maintain, and increases the risk o

having multiple versions o the truth.

QlikView lacks an object-oriented

metadata. Many calculations are typically

created anew or each new report and

cannot be used as building blocks to

build other report objects. This orces

report developers to spend more time

redundantly creating report objects.


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26


epi-Cib admiii

Single management console

Self-tuning scalable server for

maximum perormance

Impact analysis

Usage monitoring / auditing

Controlled environment for usage

analysis

Object management / migration

Change journaling

Automated regression testing

Optimization of In-Memory ROLAP

environment

yes

MicroStrategys centralized

administration provides a single

console or real-time user and systemmanagement. Administrators can view

and perorm tasks on many system-wide

activities, including executing jobs, user

management, and scheduled services.

MicroStrategy Enterprise Manager

provides out-o-the box platorm

monitoring with hundreds o KPIs and

corresponding dashboards to perorm

impact analysis, auditing and tuning o

the BI application.

MicroStrategy Object Manager acilitates

metadata lie cycle management,

metadata dependencies, and project

management.

MicroStrategys change journalingsystem captures and logs all changes

to the metadata. Change tracking is

critical or Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Persistent commenting allows distributed

development teams to communicate

with one another about their changes.

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager

automates the report comparison

process and veries the consistency o

reports. This tool can detect, compare,

and present inconsistencies in reports

and data caused by changes in the BI

ecosystem. Discrepancies in data values,

SQL, and graph display are highlighted.

Cube Advisor recommends andautomatically creates an optimal set o

In-Memory Cubes to reduce database

processing and improve response times.

lIMIteD

In order to be data scalable, simply being

able to store and process large volumes

o data is insucient. Large datavolumes are typically associated with:

Complex Schema

Many tables and columns

Sophisticated analytical needs

Large number of users (which typically

translates to more reports to maintain)

QlikView is typically dicult to

administer under these conditions.

QlikView provides limited out-o-the-box

inrastructure to perorm analysis on

server statistics. QlikView collects usage

statistics in a log le, not in a database

in a ormat that is easily analyzable.

QlikView also does not have out-o-

the-box reports to analyze the collected

statistics.

QlikViews capabilities to queue and

prioritize jobs are limited. As a result,

the administrator has little control to

prevent the mid-tier server rom being

overtaxed or to properly prioritize

resource allocation. QlikView provides

system statistics to the administrator

or example, how many users are logged

in and how many jobs are running.

However, the administrator typically

does not have detailed visibility into

who is logged in and what jobs they are

running. QlikView also does not allow

the administrator to manually log out

users or kill jobs. In short, the QlikView

administrator can monitor the system,

but has little power to act.

QlikView does not natively provide

change management acilities.

Entire documents can be moved

rom development to production

environments, but incremental updates

made in a development environment

cannot be easily merged into the

production environment.

QlikView does not provide change

journaling out-o-the-box, and

developers must typically rely on

third-party revision control or change

journaling systems or this capability.

QlikView does not provide automated

regression testing tools to detect report

and data discrepancies caused by

changes in the BI system.


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27


Idui-s Mui-

scui

One, reusable setup for platform-wide

cell level data security

Same report yields different views

o the inormation based on user

proles

User prole determines appropriate

level o unctionality

Truly zero-footprint Web interface. No

use or download o ActiveX and other

plug-ins

Automatic secure extranet ready with

128-bit encryption

Integrate with any security

inrastructure with single sign-on

yes

MicroStrategy provides centralized

security administration across the entire

platorm. Reusable user proles and

privileges automatically ensure users only

access the appropriate inormation and

unctionality down to the data cell level.

MicroStrategy automatically provides

128-bit end-to-end encryption with a

zero-ootprint Web client, making it a

secure platorm behind the rewall.

MicroStrategy automatically integrates

with existing security authentication

inrastructure such as LDAP, NT,

Windows Active Directory, Tivoli, CA

SiteMinder, and database security.

lIMIteD

QlikView security is generally managed

locally within each dashboard. Security

permissions are dened locally withineach QlikView document, instead o

being automatically applied across

all reports and dashboards across the

entire BI implementation. In order to

implement row level security or users,

QlikView designers have to modiy the

QlikView script and assign appropriate

access privileges to the QlikView

document users. This makes security

management both tedious and error-

prone, especially as the user population

grows.

QlikView typically requires administrators

to write code in order to integrate with

security authentication inrastructure

such as LDAP, NT, Windows Active

Directory, IBM Tivoli, SiteMinder, and

database security.

QlikViews zero-ootprint Web client

provides less unctionality than the

ActiveX and Java plug-in versions o

the QlikView Web client. A business

user who needs greater interactivity

will typically require an ActiveX control,

making it dicult to deploy widely

as some users may be restricted rom

installing ActiveX controls.

e Mii gb

Dpm

Native support for multilingual

deployments

Congurable translations for multiple

content categories, including the

interace, error messages, date/number

ormatting, metadata objects, and

report data

Integrated interfaces and wizards to

input translations or import translation

strings

Support for partially translated

metadata

Flexible support for multiple data

warehouse translation methods

Internationalization-aware data pre-

calculations

yes

MicroStrategy oers the ability to

dynamically present every report,dashboard, or OLAP analysis in the local

language o each business user viewing

the inormation.

Translation wizards and interaces make

it easy or end users to input or import

translation strings into the metadata.

Translations can be perormed

incrementally; allback language settings

allow or partially translated metadata.

Multiple methods o data warehouse

translations are supported, including

translations at the column-level, row-

level, table-level, and database-level. A

single In-memory ROLAP Cube supports

multiple languages so that resources are

used eciently.

lIMIteD

QlikViews out-o-the-box support

or multilingual deployments isgenerally limited to presenting

the QlikView interace in various

languages. QlikView has limited native

support or multilingual metadata

and data. Translation capabilities

are not incorporated into the data

loading and modeling environment,

nor is it incorporated into the report

development environment.

QlikView does not provide interaces

to simpliy the process o inputting

or importing translation strings into

the metadata. In order to support

a multilingual deployment rom a

single QlikView document, the report

developer must implement workaroundsthat are time consuming to develop and

maintain.


28/40

28


e Cumiz d Mi

sm

Single development environment for

entire platorm

Easy to create and upgrade

customizations via Web Customization

editor

Eclipse Integrated Development

Environment(IDE) integration

Flex Builder support

Extensive API documentation

yes

The MicroStrategy SDK is a

comprehensive development

environment primarily used or

integrating MicroStrategy unctionality

into other existing systems, especially

enterprise portals, and customizing

and extending the unctionality o

MicroStrategy Web.

The MicroStrategy Web Customization

Editor integrates into the Eclipse

IDE. Developers can easily perorm

MicroStrategy Web customization and

migration tasks by eliminating the need

to manually modiy conguration les.

MicroStrategy provides Flex Builder 3.0

support or creating powerul Internet

applications embedded with robust

business intelligence.

The MicroStrategy Developer Zone oers

developers access to documentation via

advanced search unctionality such as

sorting results by relevance or by date,

wild card and exact phrase searching,

word highlighting, spelling suggestions,

and exclusion searches.

MicroStrategy provides developers

with an online collaborative community,

documentation, and customization

code samples.

lIMIteD

The QlikView zero-ootprint Web

interace ollows a publishing model

to deploy and customize reports. The

interace is designed in the desktopclient, and then the Web interace HTML

le is generated and placed on the

Web server. Customizations are then

applied to the generated Web page. I

the interace is redesigned or upgraded,

then a new HTML le must be generated,

and any interace customizations must

be reapplied. Because customizations

must be continually reapplied, Web

customizations are dicult to create and

upgrade.

6. hIghly InteraCtIve anD lexIBle MoBIle IntelIgenCe

The use o the Internet on smartphones and other mobile devices has changed the way people communicate and

consume inormation, creating an exponential rise in the acceptance, adoption, and usage o data. With the ability

to access inormation at any time, in any location, on a hand-held device, consumers can now make more and

more decisions quickly and easily.

MicroStrategy oers a very robust and innovative mobile app development platorm that can be used either

or creating purpose-built, workfow-driven mobile applications, or or directly displaying existing Reports and

Dashboards on mobile devices without the need o re-authoring.


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29

MicroStrategy Mobile Apps:

Are faster and simpler to develop (no coding) Created by metadata driven, point-and-click paradigms

and ully utilizing MicroStrategys BI inrastructure, security, and reusable metadata components.

Are easier to maintain Changes to the centralized BI platform metadata are instantaneously

propagated to all user interaces, including mobile devices. Changes are made once and only in oneplace in the metadata, ensuring a single version o the truth and hassle-ree maintenance.

Are enterprise grade Delivers the full benets of MicroStrategys BI infrastructure: administration,

security, scalability, and perormance.

Provid

microstrategy 9 vs qliktech 11

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