Diver Platform

Pros

As a developer consultant, The Diver platform provided me a flexible and importantly, reliable tool set for which i can build out and deliver applications quickly and efficiently. Every customer that i deployed this tool set were amazed at how quickly a lone consultant can churn production level applications. From raw data extraction and manipulation to the presentation layer via the integrated portal, my customers were able to consume data more effectively and efficiently than they expected. In many cases i simply automated many of their manual reports, but with the added ability to download the data in different way and actually engage with a dashboard. The vast majority of users are report consumers, however with the platform the power users emerge and really start to utilize the Business Intelligence functions such as "diving" and a plethora of data manipulation tools to expand data perspectives. Aside from all the features, i really like the ease of deployment. I could set the platform up in less than an hour and start developing thereafter. Compared to other platform i have deployed like Business Objects and Hyperion, this platform is extremely robust and stable.

Cons

I suppose the biggest knock against the product i experienced was not having flashy presentation layer such as Tableau. But, Dimensional Insight does provide the ability for the viewer to dive into the visuals via the integrated portal. But still, some customer wanted flashy graphics. I was a bit annoyed at the time to get my hands on the big data engine. So here, i could say i wish the company was quicker to roll out new functionality. Saying that, its a trade off between quality and time to market.

Pros

What I like most is that the software is so quick to develop applications in and versatile re data types, and can be used to help solve virtually any business problem relating to managing data, transforming data and creating user analytics interfaces that suit the various business roles in an organisation. It creates data warehouses that are easily accessible without technical knowledge of drill paths etc. and allows anyone with a minimum of familiarisation to get the information they need out of it. It's got really powerful tools to create the business rules that are need to make sense of data.

Cons

I suppose the thing I like least about the software is setting up some of the complex access control levels when there are a lot of data sets and users involved, but this is one of the strengths of the software in another way as it allows for so much flexibility in setting up security - from data model, down to user, page, portlet, dimension and summary field level.

Pros

Easy to use and to implement. Very complete in terms of features and tools provided, it remains very simple to manage. Simple, fast and secure.

Cons

The application interface is too old and the decision-making effects and design capabilities of the portal are poor.

Pros

It's a complete platform (for Data Management and Business Intelligence), but still fairly easy to learn. It allows you to produce results fast. The user experience is good. The support from the vendor is very good.

Cons

More on-line resources, tutorials and forums (perhaps) wouldn't hurt. It's fairly easy to create a nice user experience, but the default templates could be better.

Pros

Diver gives me the easy to use overview as well as the deep insight down to the detail level. I love the dimension switching and the dimension console. The vendor's support also impressed me very much.

Cons

I use the deep diving features which I need to have more than just the view and print report features which are just nice to have.