LogiXML vs.

Microsoft
Executive Summary
INTRODUCTION For many organizations, Microsoft has been the default choice when considering a business intelligence (BI) solution. This is due in great part to the familiarity that developers feel with Microsoft products and the widely available skill sets related to developing in this environment. However, many of our customers have found that using Microsoft presents considerable challenges and disadvantages, particularly when flexibility and rapid turnaround are valued. This paper outlines the key features and benefits of LogiXML technology and compares it to Microsoft business intelligence offerings. We present a comparison of not only specific product attributes, but implications for development efforts, time to launch, and total cost of ownership. Comparing LogiXML with Microsoft is actually very similar to a "build vs. buy" comparison. Due to the toolset-like nature of Microsoft BI products, Microsoft is more analogous to building an application from scratch whereas LogiXML technology represents a more structured, out-of-the-box solution. KEY LOGIXML FEATURES & BENEFITS 100% browser based Open, Web-based high performance XML architecture Works on any web browser with zero client footprint Hundreds of "Pre-Built" Elements Microsoft is a popular choice for business intelligence, particularly for companies that already own SQL Server. Developers feel comfortable building in it, and the skillsets required to develop in this environment are widely available. However, its important to understand that Microsoft BI is akin to choosing build is the build vs. buy question. This paper compares and contrasts Microsoft business intelligence with LogiXML, including product features as well as the implications for development effort required, time to market, and total cost of ownership. It also advises in which situations an organizations should prefer one solution over the other.

Ad Hoc Reporting Modules

Logi ad hoc reporting modules are self-service business intelligence applications that empower business users to create and share their own dashboards, reports, and analysis without involving IT.

Data Source Neutrality

Logi XML enables you to report on data from any data source including any valid OLEDB, ODBC, or OLAP based data, SOAP/REST web services, RSS and ATOM feeds, XML files, flat files, Google Web services (maps, docs, spreadsheets), and Amazon S3 (SimpleDB). We also allow a full library of customizable data filtering logic, and calculation/statistical logic all managed by the reporting engine and report developers. This is crucial for generating business insight, as for most companies, data must be accessed through multiple disparate sources.

At the heart of Logi technology is Logi Studio: an elemental design environment which lets you simply choose from hundreds of powerful and configurable pre-built elements, including many complex analysis tools and visualizations. For example: Analysis Grids, Ajax-driven Dashboards, Charts, Graphs and complex mapping tools (including tree/heat map explorers) , integration with GIS capabilities (including 200 customizable region-based maps and data visualization tools).

Unified Platform
LogiXML is a completely unified platform built entirely on a single technology base. Therefore, once you learn how to use our products, this knowledge translates to every component within the platform, speeding your development cycles. SO HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO MICROSOFT? Now that weve spent time elaborating the key attributes of Logi XML technology here is an analysis of how it compares to Microsofts offerings:

Element-Based Development Approach

Our elemental approach allows technical staff to rapidly build sophisticated BI applications without the need to write code. This approach also applies to the manner in which developers create workflow, email integration, scheduling and archiving of reports.

Limited Pre-Built Elements

Microsoft components come with only limited libraries of prebuilt elements. Microsoft does not provide you with a vision, that is, a set of standards that guide you through the process of building compelling and useful visualizations and reports. In addition to actual development work, you will need to come up with an idea of how everything will work together. This necessitates becoming familiar with best practices in dashboards and reporting.

Lack of Data Source Neutrality

Selecting Microsoft components means you will be faced with the challenge of limited support for non-Microsoft based databases and outside data sources. The Microsoft BI stack is centered around SQL Server databases and therefore the data source is optimized to work with SQL Server. Unfortunately, if you need outside content it can be very difficult to integrate. Considering that, for many companies, data is accessed through multiple disparate sources such as databases, web-services, and spreadsheets, this can severely impede the ability to obtain critical insight.

Sophisticated Development Expertise Required

While Microsoft components provide basic capabilities, anything more sophisticated is development resource-intensive and requires you to take on design, execution, and delivery. Any complex report visualizations and logic must be written in code by the developer. Selecting Microsoft therefore requires a programmer to create a report instead of being able to rely on a less-technical report designer.

Platform Integration Problems

Microsoft BI strategy is not unified and is strongly tied to SQL Server. To obtain analysis capabilities, you must build cubes through to the Analysis Service, which is a separate product with its own different security architecture. Next, you will need to build reports that talk to SQL server, also using separate products. Dashboards require a SharePoint portal which is, again, a separate product with separate requirements and licensing. If you dont use this, you must completely code your dashboards from scratch. Unfortunately, Microsoft Reporting Services doesn't play well with Analysis Services or SharePoint since these were built on different technologies. SharePoint itself offers an out of the box portal and dashboard solution but unfortunately with a number of significant shortcomings. SharePoint was designed as a document management and collaboration tool as opposed to an interactive BI dashboard solution. Therefore, in order to have a dashboard solution optimized for BI, reporting, and interactivity you are faced with two options: 1. 2. Build it yourself using .NET and a combination of third party components Buy a separate third party product

Longer Development Time, Higher TCO

The lack of a wide array of advanced pre-built elements increases both total cost of ownership and deployment times due to the higher demands on programmer time. Senior developers are generally more expensive than report designers or web designers so the need for their time and expertise necessarily raises costs. Additionally, the need to both create the vision and write code increases the time to market for your reports and lengthens your overall BI cycles.

Limited Charts and Visualizations

Microsoft also has a smaller sub-set of charts and visualization tools. If you want access to the complete library of .NET-capable charts, you'll still need to OEM another charting solution such as Dundas charts at additional expense.

Lack of Web-Browser Neutrality

Microsoft BI tools are designed with the total Microsoft experience in mind and are therefore optimized for Internet Explorer. While other browsers and devices might be useable, the experience isn't optimized and may potentially lack in features or visualize differently. You may even be forced to work with all latest versions of Internet Explorer and Office products to ensure a consistent user experience.

Many IT professionals find these to be rather unappealing options, since they require evaluating a new product or components, and/or a lot of work to build and make sure it integrates with the rest of the Microsoft stack. Additionally, while SQL Server and other products support different types of security architectures, Analysis Services only has support for using integrated Windows NT security models to access cubes and therefore creates integration challenges.

Lack of Integrated Workflow

Microsoft does not include workflow features sets out of the box in their BI offering. If you want workflow, you would need to build it yourself via custom programming.

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Moreover, for client/ad hoc tools, you need Report Writer, a desktop product, or Excel - another desktop application. In addition to requiring separate licenses, these products don't even talk to one another in the same ways, as they were built by different companies and subsequently acquired by Microsoft. Each product requires a separate and often disconnected development environment with different design and administration features. Therefore to manage Microsoft BI, you must have all of these development environments available and know how to use them all. This requires either the support of several developers with distinct skill sets or a developer who can learn the specifics to work with each distinct component in their stack. In general, it can be very difficult to put together a complete solution since you need many different products and skills to get this up and running.

When Microsoft May Be the Best Fit

Using Microsoft building blocks means you will not be equipped with a vision, and anything sophisticated must be built. However, there are conditions under which Microsoft may be the best solution for your organization. First, it may be a fit if you are a pure Microsoft shop with a team of developers able to dedicate numerous cycles to building your BI solution. That team must also have the right vision to build what you need. In this case, you can create exactly what you want. Of course it will take substantially longer, but you will obtain a high degree of flexibility. SUMMARY When considering Microsoft as a business intelligence solution, it may be all too easy to see the familiarity and seemingly low cost as overwhelming advantages. But when you dig a little deeper, as many of our customers have, you may find that there are hidden costs and hurdles that suddenly cast an entirely different light on the decision. No matter what solution you do choose, keep these aspects in mind as you evaluate vendors and make sure your developers are given the chance to fully examine the features and functions before committing to a single direction.

The Core BI Delivery Mechanism is Excel

We find this rather ironic, considering that Excel is where so many companies began when searching for a BI solution. Typically, users pull data from numerous sources, whether theyre able to run exports to formats such as .csv themselves or must request queries from IT. After obtaining disparate, unformatted data, they begin the tedious task of copying and pasting in order to create conditional formulas just so that they can seek business insight from their heaps of data. Users faced with this time-consuming chore arent likely to be pleased when the end result of a brand-new BI initiative leaves them right back in Excel all over again. Additionally, while most users are very familiar with excel, it will unfortunately never be as easy to manage, distribute, and deploy as a web-based centralized approach or dynamic dashboards. Layered functionality is limited in Excels capabilities, and therefore comprehensive dashboard drill down is simply not possible. User collaboration is also impossible. To overcome the limitations of Excel, it is possible to introduce SharePoint, but as noted earlier this is also not an ideal solution. SharePoint is intended for document management and collaboration as opposed to reporting and analysis.

Need to Purchase Additional Licenses

You need a separate license for SQL Server, Microsoft Analysis Services, and Reporting Services to run these on dedicated machines. While it may seem like a bundle, you will still need to purchase additional server licenses to work with each product.

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