Executive Summary

  • This is the Brightwork Research & Analysis software rating series.
  • We rate both the software and estimate the risk of implementing each application.

MUFI Rating & Risk for Birst

MUFI: Maintainability, Usability, Functionality, Implement ability

Vendor: Birst (Select For Vendor Profile)

Introduction

Birst appears at first glance to be a BI Light application in the same vein as QlikView and Tableau, however, it is actually in the BI Heavy category. However, for a young and new application with such positive press, Birst has a surprisingly low buyer satisfaction level.

Application Detail

Many BI applications claim a strong ability to connect to data sources, however, Birst is our highest rated application in terms of doing this efficiently. Connecting to a data sources is one thing, but validating that the data source is correct, and if not trouble shooting the data is something else. And Birst is excellent at all three of these activities.

Birst also gets very good marks in how quickly it is to deploy, which is in great part due to Birst’s SaaS/cloud approach (in all of the software categories we cover, SaaS implements not a little but significantly faster than on premises applications). Birst has been important in demonstrating how much faster SaaS BI is if only buyers will pay attention to the lesson.

Birst_Partner_Demo

Birst_Partner_Demo_2

In this demo, Birst does a nice job of explaining how a report can be created which can be used to perform inventory balancing, where inventory is re-positioned from some regions that are overstock to regions that are in need of stock. Dark blue states are over stock, and the light blue are under stock. 

This demo can be viewed at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBfIYteE7aEBirst_Visualizer

Birst has a designer that is quite easy to use. It allows the report creator to quickly switch between different report types.  

Birst also grades well for how well their implementations are performed in terms of also being flexible. This is actually one of the major areas of complaint with most BI software vendors historically. A major issue with the development of many BI structures has been while they perform well, they are inflexible. This is not the first time we have run into a software vendor having flexible data structures, while other software vendors struggle. Another vendor is actually in demand planning, and not BI, but the same principle applies. When we want to make changes to Demand Works, we simply make the adjustments and upload the data, and quickly a star schema is created for us. Bringing such a fast implementing time to an area, which is filled with low productivity applications, has been an important innovation on the part of Birst.

Birst offers a full data warehouse in addition to all its other BI tools. Birst is an easy decision for companies looking for a Heavy BI product. Birst has attempted to impress customers with its front end, but in fact, the real strength of Birst is in the backend, where it leads in several categories. Birst and even analysts present Birst as an all in one solution for BI, however, we do not think that it is, and this is not necessarily a criticism of Birst, but the weight of history in the BI space leads us to conclude that no BI software vendor an all in one solution.

MUFI Scores

All scores out of a possible 10.

MUFI Scores

Search for the vendor in this table using the search bar in the upper right of the table. Shortening Key: 
  • Ma. = Maintainability
  • Us. = Usability
  • Fu. = Functionality
  • Im. = Implementability
AppMa.Us.Ft.Im.Cat.
Average Score for Big ERP5.14.85.25.4Big ERP
Average Score for CRM6.26.25.15.9CRM
Average Score for Small and Medium ERP8.386.78.5Small and Medium ERP
Average Score for Finance8.88.888.8Finance
Average Score for Demand Planning7.67.277.1Demand Planning
Average Score for Supply Planning6.76.976.8Supply Planning
Average Score for Production Planning6.86.976.9Production Planning
Average Score for BI Heavy5.55.36.95.3BI Heavy
Average Score for PLM77.26.87.3PLM
Average Score for BI Light7.78.798.3BI Light
Arena Solutions Arena PLM 10101010PLM
AspenTech AspenOne48107Production Planning
Birst 88.5108BI Light
ERPNext10107.510Small and Medium ERP
Delfoi Planner866.57Production Planning
Demand Works Smoothie SP910710Supply Planning
Hamilton Grant RM1098.59PLM
IBM Cognos2.731.53BI Heavy
Infor Epiphany7865CRM
Infor Lawson8767Big ERP
Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions9959Finance
JDA DM97.588Demand Planning
Microsoft Dynamics CRM2322CRM
NetSuite CRM6433CRM
Netsuite OneWorld7788Big ERP
OpenERP788.587
Oracle BI4436BI Heavy
Oracle CRM On Demand4535CRM
Oracle Demantra533.54.5Demand Planning
Oracle JD Edwards World4136Big ERP
Oracle RightNow6745CRM
PlanetTogether Galaxy APS10101010Production Planning
Preactor8737Production Planning
QlikTech QlikView99109BI Light
Rootstock9899Small and Medium ERP
Sage X38878Big ERP
Salesforce Enterprise88.597.5CRM
SAP APO DP3432Demand Planning
SAP APO PP/DS2243Production Planning
SAP APO SNP3484Supply Planning
SAP BI/BW1.5242BI Heavy
SAP Business Objects32.573BI Heavy
SAP CRM4364CRM
SAP ECC336.53Big ERP
SAP PLM12.523PLM
SAP SmartOps4475.5Supply Planning
SAS BI6.5796BI Heavy
SAS Demand Driven Forecasting7897Demand Planning
Tableau (BI)9101010BI Light
Tableau (Forecasting)10859Demand Planning
Teradata86.39.76BI Heavy
ToolsGroup SO99 (Forecasting)7897Demand Planning
ToolsGroup SO99 (Supply)56107Supply Planning

Vendor and Application Risk

Birst offers a very good combination of a highly rated product along with a highly rated consulting service. Consulting is typically a bit of a secondary consideration when it comes to software selection, but it really should not be. Birst has one of the best-rated consulting entities in enterprise software.

Likelihood of Implementation Success

This accounts for both the application and vendor-specific risk. In our formula the total implementation risk is application + vendor + buyer risk. The buyer specific risk could increase or decrease this overall likelihood and adjust the values that you see below.

Likelihood of Application Implementation Success and Failure

Estimates are for a typical project. A specific implementation requires details from the project to make a project-specific estimate.

Search for the application in this table using the search bar in the upper right of the table.
ApplicationProb of Implementation SuccessProb of Implementation Failure
Actuate0.770.23
SAP Smartops0.390.61
NetSuite CRM0.460.54
Sugar CRM0.620.48
Base CRM0.910.09
SAP CRM0.350.65
Salesforce Enterprise0.720.28
QlikTech QlikView0.820.18
Tableau (BI)0.980.02
SAP Crystal Reports0.460.54
Brist0.830.17
MicroStrategy0.70.3
SAS BI0.760.24
Oracle BI0.350.65
IBM Cognos0.230.77
Infor Epiphany0.580.42
Microsoft Dynamics CRM0.260.74
Oracle RightNow CRM0.410.59
Oracle CRM On Demand0.360.64
Teradata0.760.24
SAP Business Objects0.320.68
SAP BI/BW0.250.75
SAP PLM0.290.71
Hamilton Grant RM0.890.11
Arena Solutions0.960.04
Delfoi Planner0.70.3
Preactor0.640.36
PlanetTogether Galaxy APS0.960.04
AspenTech AspenOne0.550.45
SAP APO PP/DS0.270.73
Demand Works Smoothie SP0.930.07
ToolsGroup SO99 (Supply)0.820.18
Demand Works Smoothie0.960.04
Tableau (Forecasting)0.90.1
SAS Demand Driven Forecasting0.820.18
ToolsGroup SO99 (Forecasting)0.860.14
JDA DM0.570.43
Oracle Demantra0.330.67
SAP APO DP0.280.72
FinancialForce0.920.08
Intacct0.980.02
Intuit QB Enterprise0.80.2
ERPNext0.90.1
OpenERP0.780.22
Rootstock0.910.09
ProcessPro0.930.07
Microsoft Dynamics AX0.40.6
SAP Business One0.490.51
Sage X30.620.38
Infor Lawson0.580.42
Epicor ERP0.40.6
Oracle JD Edwards World0.310.69
Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne0.360.64
SAP ERP ECC/R/30.320.68
NetSuite OneWorld0.650.35

Risk Definition

See this link for more on our categorizations of risk. We also offer a Buyer Specific Risk Estimation as a service for those that want a comprehensive analysis.

Risk Management Approach

In terms of implementation risk management, Birst is about as straightforward as it gets. No special considerations are necessary when implementing Birst, and a number of issues are greatly reduced as risks.

Finished With Your Analysis?

To go back to the Software Selection Package page for the BI Heavy software category. Or goto this link to see other analytical products for Birst.