MicroStrategy vs Oracle Business Intelligence

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Our analysts compared MicroStrategy vs Oracle Business Intelligence based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Business Intelligence Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Oracle Business Intelligence Software Tool

Product Basics

MicroStrategy is a data visualization and reporting platform that deploys on-premise and on the web. The cloud version runs on AWS or Microsoft Azure. MicroStrategy Library is the web edition, while Workstation is the desktop version.

It reigns supreme as the top analytics tool in our product directory and provides 91% of the required features out of the box. Regarding source data integration, it leaves very little to chance, winning our best-in-class award for connectivity. With over 200 connectors, there’s a high chance it’ll satisfy your data needs.

If not, you can build one using a software development kit. SDKs are also the force behind REST and embedding APIs, HyperIntelligence and data visualization. Plus, the semantic layer enables automating data prep and analysis and generating visualizations on cue.

Dossiers in MicroStrategy are like books; they have chapters further divided into pages, and each page has one or more visualizations. Every view is free-form — you can move charts around and organize them as you like. With write-back capability, you can update underlying databases from visualizations.

The vendor launched its unified cloud AI analytics platform, MicroStrategy One, with GPT-4o in September 2024. It’s twice as fast, digging into the selected data to produce dashboard summaries and answer user queries in seconds. Update 12 has auditing capabilities and shows details of active licenses, including their compliance status.

Its heart and soul is an Intelligence Server that manages metadata and processes queries. A mobile app is available. There’s a 30-day trial, but access to group permissions, KPIs and subscriptions requires a paid upgrade.

User reviews mentioned that the solution was effective, but the ecosystem and pricing were complex.

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Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) is a robust suite designed to empower users by providing comprehensive capabilities, including data integration, analytics, and reporting. This is a product that's most suited for medium to large enterprises which have complex data environments and require in-depth insights into their operations. Its important benefits are scalability, advanced analytics, data visualization, and a strong support infrastructure that Oracle is known for. An important feature set includes self-service analytics, ad-hoc analysis, mobile analytics, and robust dashboard capabilities. This sophistication lends itself to comparison with other enterprise-grade BI tools, where users often highlight Oracle BI's extensive integration facilities and powerful back-end capabilities as differentiators. However, given its depth and complexities, it can also present a steep learning curve for new users. Pricing considerations are important as Oracle BI is viewed as a premium offering. Typically, it's priced on a per-user basis, with payment frequencies ranging from monthly to annual licensing. Prospective buyers should note that the total cost of ownership may include additional expenses for implementation, customization, and training. In summary, Oracle Business Intelligence serves as a comprehensive data suite that leans towards the higher end of the market in both capability and price.

Pros
  • Powerful data warehousing
  • Scalable for large organizations
  • Wide range of features
  • Integrates with other Oracle products
  • Large user and developer community
Cons
  • High cost of ownership
  • Complex setup and management
  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited non-Oracle platform support
  • Less user-friendly than some alternatives
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$25/User, Monthly, Quote-based
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Product Assistance

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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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Product Insights

Our analysts ranked it best-in-class for the following attributes.
  • Visualize Metrics: Various chart types, templates and customization are standard fare in modern data tools, and MicroStrategy is no different. What’s notable is seamless map integration while staying performant. It gets our best-in-class award and a 100 score for versatility in visualization.
  • Share Insights: Conditional formatting, templates, custom reports, scheduling and bookmarks—MicroStrategy ticks all the boxes, and we give it a 100 and the top product award for reporting. It supports report versioning, leaving Qlik and Oracle Analytics behind in this regard.
  • Secure Data: The vendor provides the entire gamut of security features—role-based views, audit logs, row and column-level security, encryption, MFA, and SSO — making it the best-in-class tool in its category. We give it a 100 score, at par with Qlik, Oracle and Domo.
  • Stay Connected 24/7: It also gets top honors and a 100 score for mobile data access, beating leading products like Tableau and Oracle. With MicroStrategy technology, anyone can deploy mobile apps with custom workflows, branding and multifactor security authentication. Barcode scanning is available for retail businesses and app vendors.
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  • Interactive Visualizations: Users have access to a wide selection of interactive dashboards, charts, graphs and other data visualization tools. They can filter, drill down or pivot data directly from the dashboard while prompts and suggestions from the system guide them through the exploration process to uncover additional insights.
  • Oracle Exalytics: Using Oracle Exalytics, users can analyze massive datasets efficiently and without the need for a technical professional such as a data analyst.
  • Self-Service: Even non-technical users will be able to explore, organize and interpret data using this analysis system. The intuitive visualizations make the information easy to understand and share for employees at any level of data literacy.
  • Actionable Intelligence: By analyzing data and identifying trends, users are more prepared to make decisions about business practices, quotas, forecasting and much more.
  • Proactive Alerts: Users can set predefined alerts that send users real-time updates when the system is triggered or scheduled. These alerts are sent via a preferred channel, including email, internal file storage and text message based on the severity of the alert.
  • Mobile Access: Everything in the solution is presented with a consistent interface on the mobile device of the user’s choosing. This includes multitouch and gestural interactions with map graphics and other advanced features.
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  • HyperIntelligence: Learn about departments or employees by hovering over their names. To get ready information, add the HyperIntelligence extension to your Chrome instance and configure it to your MicroStrategy environment.
  • Auto Express: Shift the heavy lifting to AI bots — have them analyze your dashboards and suggest deep-dive questions, many of which you might not have thought of. Pull data from Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL Database, Databricks, Google BigQuery and Snowflake, among others.
  • Action Triggers: Update data in Salesforce CRM, trigger email campaigns in Marketo, or approve expenses in Workday from a MicroStrategy dashboard. Triggering workflows from dashboards is available in MicroStrategy One and Auto Express.
  • Intelligent Cubes Technology: Drive targeted marketing campaigns by digging deep into buyer demographics, purchase histories and engagement levels. Create an Intelligent Cube to store data in memory and reuse it for as many reports as desired.
  • Metadata Management: Organize data using a handy index that points to where everything is. It also gives contextual names to datasets so everyone uses the same terminology. Metadata management establishes data lineage by narrating its entire journey — where it started, how it was changed and which tasks use it now.
  • Role-Based Displays: Remember skimming through your course book a day before an important test? You read the important parts while you skipped the rest. If that’s what you feel when decisions are at stake, role-based views are what you need. CEOs can choose high-level overviews, while middle management might want detailed reports.
  • Free-form Subscriptions: This is a new feature that allows users to view updates as PDF or Excel files without signing in to MicroStrategy. It’s a great functionality for those who are away from their desks and for their teams in the field.
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  • Dashboards: The rich dashboard feature lets users see and interact with personalized dashboards based on their predefined role. They can explore the data freely along a guided navigation path that leads them to new insights.
  • Report Types: The system can create a variety of report types including ad-hoc analysis, interactive reports, custom reports and a selection of pre-built reports.
  • Big Data: The in-memory processing power of this solution allows users to incorporate big data sets without needing to integrate another solution. It can draw from large databases such as Hadoop, HIVE, Google Analytics, etc.
  • Augmented Analytics: The inclusion of machine learning and AI in the analytics process enhances the user experience by streamlining every aspect of it. The system remembers previous searches, offers natural language search queries and provides intelligence suggestions for the ideal visualization for each individual dataset.
  • Enterprise Reporting: This feature refers to the creation of simple reports in the most efficient, organized manner possible. This analytics tool facilitates the creation of files from templates such as checks, flash reports, tables and more.
  • Spatial Visualizations: The visualization tools aren’t limited to two dimensions; the system also offers a map view in which the data is projected on a fully interactive map. This graphic can include color fill, adjustable size markers, customizable image markers, multiple forms of binning and continuous color-fill features.
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Product Ranking

#15

among all
Business Intelligence Tools

#50

among all
Business Intelligence Tools

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Analyst Rating Summary

90
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94
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100
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

MicroStrategy
Oracle Business Intelligence
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Advanced Analytics Augmented Analytics Data Management Data Pre-processing Data Transformation Data Visualization Embedded Analytics Capabilities Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 94 66 100 100 97 100 100 100 100 96 100 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 973 reviews
Great User Sentiment 508 reviews
84%
of users recommend this product

MicroStrategy has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 973 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

83%
of users recommend this product

Oracle Business Intelligence has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 83% when considering 508 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.9 (24)
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4.2 (544)
3.3 (11)
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4.1 (89)
4.2 (73)
4.2 (408)
4.2 (269)
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Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated MicroStrategy and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall Business Intelligence Tools available today and earns best-in-class honors for Data Pre-processing, Embedded Analytics Capabilities, Geospatial Visualizations and Analysis and Mobile Capabilities.

Analysts' Pick Award
Data Pre-processing Award
Embedded Analytics Capabilities Award
Geospatial Visualizations and Analysis Award
Mobile Capabilities Award

we're gathering data

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Data Visualization: Users were satisfied with its powerful dashboards and personalization options for self-service analytics.
Functionality: Reviewers praised the platform for delivering on capabilities and scaling with their data needs.
Ease of Use: User reviews appreciated its reusable objects and semantic layer for automating data wrangling and visualization workflows.
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User-friendly interface: Oracle BI is lauded for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible to users with varying technical expertise. Drag-and-drop functionality and self-service reporting empower users to analyze data independently.
Robust data integration: Oracle BI seamlessly integrates with diverse data sources, including relational databases, cloud applications, and flat files. This eliminates data silos and provides a unified view of critical business information.
Powerful data visualization: Oracle BI offers a comprehensive library of interactive visualizations, including charts, graphs, maps, and dashboards. These visuals help users identify trends, patterns, and insights within their data.
Flexible deployment options: Oracle BI offers both on-premise and cloud deployment models, catering to various organizational needs and preferences. This flexibility ensures scalability and accessibility for users across different locations.
Extensive security features: Oracle BI prioritizes data security with role-based access control, data encryption, and auditing capabilities. This ensures authorized users can access relevant information while protecting sensitive data.
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Cost: A majority of the users found the platform to be expensive.
Adoption: Most reviews said the platform had a steep learning curve.
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High cost: Oracle BI can be expensive to purchase and implement, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. The initial investment and ongoing maintenance costs can be a significant barrier for some organizations.
Steep learning curve: While the interface is user-friendly, mastering the full potential of Oracle BI requires time and effort. This can be challenging for users who are not familiar with data analysis tools or who have limited technical experience.
Limited customization options: While Oracle BI offers a range of features, some users find the customization options to be restrictive. This can be limiting for organizations with specific needs or unique data analysis requirements.
Potential performance issues: Large datasets and complex queries can lead to performance slowdowns in Oracle BI. This can be frustrating for users who rely on real-time insights and data accessibility.
Vendor lock-in: As a proprietary platform, Oracle BI can lock users into Oracle's ecosystem. This can make it difficult to switch to other BI solutions in the future, limiting flexibility and potentially increasing costs.
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MicroStrategy is a patchwork quilt of products on the web, desktop and mobile. There’s MicroStrategy Library where you can access published content and Auto Express for dashboarding and bot creation. Anyone with basic data skills can feed information to a bot and gain insights in seconds.You don’t need a credit card to sign up for the free trial, but you won’t be able to publish content to the server without a paid upgrade. As for choosing which edition to use, there’s the web and the desktop instance. Which one will suit you? Maybe both?MicroStrategy Workstation is for developers and data analysts and is more robust for manipulating data. It provides administrative control, even when offline, and helps prototype content before it goes live. Combining multiple visualizations on a single page provided me with more context for the same data.On the other hand, the Workstation version lacks the same level of natural language processing as the web version.MicroStrategy Web is for delivering content to your clients. Being online, it’s open to seamless upgrades and customization, and identity management and collaboration are built in. If you have a small organization, the web version might suffice, but you might want to consider going for both if you deal with large data volumes.Metadata mapping was immensely useful to me when designing a bot using MicroStrategy Auto Express. All I needed to do was feed it the data, and it generated a slew of questions I might want to ask.With a semantic layer, Microstrategy is among the BI tools that work best with large data warehouses. If you’ve just started in business or haven’t got large data volumes yet, you might want to consider a simpler tool.An oft-repeated sentiment in user reviews was that this motley crew of products — web, desktop and mobile — didn’t always sync. The vendor positions MicroStrategy One as a unified solution that’ll, hopefully, eliminate these annoyances.On the flip side, quite a few users said it could be clunky for inexperienced users. Also, some reviewers said it slowed on occasion. Most people said the solution was expensive and found its learning curve quite steep.In summary, MicroStrategy is worth considering, especially if you’re a medium or large-sized company looking for a web reporting tool with a user-friendly interface.

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Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) garners mixed reviews from users. Many praise its robust functionality and ability to handle large datasets, with one user noting, "OBI can handle almost anything I throw at it." Another highlights its insightful dashboards and reporting capabilities, stating, "OBI provides the perfect blend of data visualization and analysis tools." However, some users criticize OBI's steep learning curve and complex interface. One user lamented, "It took me months to feel comfortable using OBI effectively." Others point to its integration limitations, especially with non-Oracle products, with one user stating, "OBI shines within the Oracle ecosystem but struggles with others." When compared to competitors like Microsoft Power BI and Tableau, users often cite OBI's scalability and data-handling prowess as its main differentiators. One user highlighted, "OBI is the go-to solution for large-scale enterprise data analysis, leaving Power BI and Tableau behind when dealing with massive datasets." Additionally, users appreciate OBI's tight integration with other Oracle products, creating a seamless workflow within the Oracle ecosystem. However, users also acknowledge OBI's shortcomings in terms of user-friendliness and flexibility. One user stated, "Power BI and Tableau offer a more intuitive and user-friendly experience, making them more accessible to a broader range of users." Additionally, some users find OBI's reliance on Oracle technologies limiting, preferring the broader platform compatibility offered by competitors. Ultimately, the choice between OBI and its competitors depends on specific needs. For organizations requiring in-depth analysis and scalability, OBI remains a powerful contender. However, those prioritizing user-friendliness and integration flexibility may find alternatives like Power BI and Tableau more attractive.

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Screenshots

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