PF

Paul B. F.

Salesforce Solution Architect

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/19/2014

"Get 1 Source of Truth with Birst!"

5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

I like the ability to pull in data from different sources. All database drivers come included with Birst so you don't have to pay any third party for the drivers. Being able to plug our data from Salesforce into Birst was huge because Salesforce really restricts which data you can pull. With Birst's OBDC driver for Salesforce we were able to create much more sophisticated reports and dashboards than Salesforce would allow---even beyond custom reports types in Salesforce. In addition, we were able to incorporate a lot of our financial data that currently doesn't sit in Salesforce. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

Birst, like most enterprise software tools, has a huge learning curve. The product is fairly intuitive, however, I'd definitely recommend taking advantage of the training they offer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

This product is a huge improvement over other premise systems like Cognos. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have used Birst for two companies I was apart of. One company transferred from Cognos to Birst to have better access to business information (without a desktop install). Our key challenge there was forecasting sales data (# seats in a call center) against capacity constraints housing in a proprietary financial database.

Another solution was running global sales dashboards for a e-learning educational company that had 2 CRMs (Saleslogix and Salesforce) and providing a single view of sales and service goals. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

JT

Jim T.

Senior Manager, Software Architecture

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

7/12/2014

"Early on in the Process , but very impressed so far."

4.5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

The ability to rapidly deploy a solution either in the cloud or on premise with the same functionality is am important feature. The ability to to shift where the workload is hosted provides a great amount of flexibility. The architecture of the appliance when self hosted supports rapid upgrade cycles with control over when you upgrade, providing more control than a purely cloud based solution, where all tenants are upgraded continually. This helps meet internal change management requirements that are sometimes at odd with a pure play cloud implementation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

The implementation partner model is well documented but even at the high level of partnership, it seems better to go with Birst Directly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

We didn't determine where we would install (cloud or on premise) until very late in the game. I would suggest that if you have the option, consider your internally hosted versus cloud decision early on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

We need rapid access to building new insights into the business. Birst is replacing much older BI tools and access to more interactive, self service dashboards will enhance our end user experience greatly. Unlike other BI Platforms, the Birst solution can 'self discover' insights and patterns in the data bridging the product from a pure BI Dashboard tool to include functionality in Data Discovery. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

MD

Maggie D.

Senior Principal Escalation Manager

Internet

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/20/2014

"Birst Enhances Analytics"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

Birst enables the creation of more dynamic dashboards, allowing data to be displayed in various ways. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

Take time to set up. Know your data... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

The best part about Birst is that it integrates well with Salesforce. So if you use Salesforce, having this as an add-on will benefit you in the long run. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

I'm not currently using Birst today. But in my previous role, we had to provide a more detailed analytic snapshot of the business. Executives wanted to see the data in many layers, and Birst allows for that. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

CM

Verified User in Management Consulting

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/1/2014

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"Still the best Cloud BI Solution"

5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

Ease of use and end to end capability ETL -> Data Modelling-> Report and Dashboard visualization Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

Certain admin features can still be a challenge from time to time Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

Review your current cloud and on-premise transactional tools, if you have a mix of both, and need to analyze the data together in a single repositoy, i.e. SFDC + Oracle, chances are Birst is the solution for you Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

Sales Pipeline Change and Movement Analysis, difficult to do in transactional reporting tools Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

DB

David B.

Salesforce.com: Architect & Developer

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/20/2014

"Powerful analytics tool by itself, but also very complementary to Salesforce.com"

5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

The Birst product & support teams are very supportive and don't shy away from getting their hands dirty to help out. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

It is a very powerful tool and comes at a price. That price is a bit of a deterrent for smaller businesses. Perhaps it's time for a Birst Light version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AM

Aslihan Ayan M.

Senior Marketing Technology Consultant

Marketing and Advertising

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

7/24/2014

"Birst Review "

2.5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

It appears to be a powerful tool that you can use dashboards and provide capability to C-Level for play and understand and dissect data with ease. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

Birst needs to invest in training. Their online training is broken. There is limited how-to and best practice docs. Also they need to implement a customer success management program to keep their customers understand the full capability of their solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AD

Alex. D.

Lead Solutions Architect

Education Management

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

11/21/2013

"Impressive tool from a new breed of Business Intelligence Solutions"

4/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

Good Value.

Cloud Based and very easy to scale.

Great UI and easy to use - I created a dashboard in under an hour.

Accessible outside out corporate firewall. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

Functionality is limited compared to Business Objects.

Birst does dashboards well but nothing more than basic adhoc reporting needs are met.

It's Flash based so will not work on iOS Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

It's a new breed of BI tool which is really exciting. It offers a lot that the bigger more traditional vendors don't. It's easy to try and scale.

If you're looking to implement a new dashboarding tool I would definitely give Birst a go. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

We wanted to create a quick dashboard as a proof of concept. The proof of concept needed to be cost effective, quick and easy to build, be scalable and in the cloud.

Birst satisfied these needs. I've shown the dashboard to management and business stakeholders. It's to be decided if we'll take Birst further. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

IC

Verified User in Computer Software

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5/20/2014

"Birst Review for Sales Dashboards"

4/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

Visual filtering and instant data segmentation Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

difficulty in importing data sources from Netsuite, no native security filters- hard to restrict data. need search bar for fields in designer, needs to be easier to drill to report detail Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

Birst is good for a data warehouse solution as well as a visualization tool. However, it is difficult to access the detail from graphs and charts. Birst supports Netsuite and Salesforce but should also support other data sources, such as Workday, ZenDesk, etc. (other cloud based tools) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

unclean data is easier to notice via birst, visual data solutions for the field Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

LD

Luke D.

Birst Consultant

Outsourcing/Offshoring

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/31/2013

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"Birst is a great solution for any organization."

4.5/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

- Cloud or on premise, ease of use, automated data warehouse, mobile/HTML5 support. Ability to connect and combine many data sources into one report environment, no hardware/software.

- The ability to embed this in other appliactions

- Active user community and support! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

ETL is a bit limited, not much localized language support, still needs to promote its self outside of the US, platform license fee. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

If are looking to break away from the big (legacy) vendors (you know who they are) and want more than some quick adhoc discovery reporting tool, then please consider this. It also offers the ability to host your own complete cloud based BI platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

Numerous solutions across various verticals (from call centers/CRM/ERP/voluntary sector/local government etc....) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

CC

Verified User in Computer Software

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5/20/2014

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"Birst initial review (first use)"

3/5

What do you like best about Infor Birst?

The visual online interface is amazing. Great UI and easy to find various options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Infor Birst?

I do not like how you connect up to a datasource (ie. sample stocks.mdb). I was lost as soon as I uploaded the information as to what to do. I also was unable to connect to the GA API. I do not understand what key file you are looking for. Other systems just use OAUTH. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Infor Birst:

Review your data prior to uploading to assure it is clean. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Infor Birst solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am trying to find a means to connect to Twitter, Facebook, Google Analytics and SalesForce and combine the data to see trends in activity over time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.