Inetsoft Review Summary
Inetsoft provides a highly functional Bi platform capable of addressing sophisticated reporting needs through to end user data visualization. Power users are able to build the visualizations they need, although Inetsoft is more focused building production data visualizations and as such compares with QlikView, rather than data exploration platforms such as Tableau and Sisense. However neither of these address production reporting needs.
Around 40% of Inetsoft’s business comes from OEM customers and the embedding of BI functionality into other applications. Direct users of Inestsoft include some big names, and the scalable architecture means demanding BI requirements can be met.
There are four editions of Inetsoft’s technology:
- Style Intelligence includes everything, including that data mashup capability, dashboards, charts and reporting.
- Style Scope does not include reporting capability, but does include the charts and dashboards, and so it is more of a data visualization platform.
- Style Report is the reporting module without any visualizations.
- The Agile Edition is actually free, but does not come with any security features and can only connect to spreadsheets and some of the more popular databases. It supports two users.
User Interface
Inetsoft addresses production reporting needs, data visualization, and dashboards. At the heart of the product architecture is the data mashup engine which accesses most data sources, including big data (Hive), and allows data to be merged and transformed as needed. Unlike many contemporary BI platforms, Inetsoft accesses data directly in the database, and pulls it into an intelligent caching engine, perfectly capable of handling millions of rows of data. The cache can be scheduled for update as needed, and new data is simply appended to the end of the cache. Since the cache consists of compressed data, it can handle large volumes of data in-memory.
The interface is largely drag and drop, allowing users to create reports, charts and dashboards, typically without code. Native apps exist for iOS and Android mobile for viewing dashboards and reports, and different layouts can be designed to accommodate the device they are viewed on. Write back can be implemented where appropriate, so that data can be modified in a report and written back to the database. Typical applications involve remote workers who need to update the status of a task.
Dashboards and reports can be as sophisticated as necessary, with conditional formatting, the nesting of charts (clicking on a detail in a chart invoking another chart, or table), and tables and charts can be used to filter each other. Most chart types are supported including radar, box and whisker, waterfall, in addition to all the usual charts. Maps are well supported and location based applications can be created that map such detail as a factory layout.
Although the company does not call it such, Inetsoft supports a semantic layer where unfriendly file and attribute names can be mapped to names that are somewhat more friendly.
Architecture
Inetsoft runs in a Java application server, and can be called from web applications. This accounts for the fact that Inetsoft sees a considerable amount of business from OEMs who need to embed BI functionality into other applications.
Security is down to the data cell level, if needed, and LDAP, Active Directory and other authorization mechanisms are supported.
Competition
Inetsoft platforms lie somewhere between products such as JReport (which also focuses on BI embedding, reporting and dashboards), and QlikView (for production oriented visualization). As stated at the start of this review, Inetsoft provides a good all-round platform for BI, and its enthusiastic uptake by OEMs illustrates the power and flexibility of the platform. Departmental use is common, but it also finds organization wide use in some large businesses. Developers will like the Java oriented nature of the platform and power users will appreciate the ability to create sophisticated reports and dashboards.
Detailed Feature Lists
Style Report Enterprise focuses on enterprise reporting. It provides production reports and web-based interactive reports in a zero-client, web environment. The small footprint, 100% Java, pure Web architecture delivers an embedding and integration-ready platform. As a J2EE drop-in Web application, Style Report Enterprise not only integrates with the Web user interface, it also leverages the same application server platform as that of the embedding application. It provides connectivity to relational databases (JDBC), multidimensional databases, XML, SOAP, Java beans (POJO), Microsoft Excel, and flat files. The business logic embedding is particularly impressive with report, page, or element level scripting using JavaScript, conditional control on element visibility, dynamic drilldown to report and URL, and alerts for exceptions or business-rule triggers.
The report designer supports WYSIWYG and a host of powerful constructs including:
- Word processor-like and HTML-like layout
- Rich presentation element library
- Dynamic expanding table, formula table, and super crosstab
- Free positioning field based section(band)
- Charting library with over 30 different types
- Reusable meta template and report beans
- Sub-report nesting
- Advanced presentation – TOC, maps, images
- Localization and internationalization to any language
Report viewing is equally impressive with:
- Mobile reporting accessible from Web-enabled devices including Android-based tablets, smartphones, iPads, and iPhones
- Zero-client, security controlled Web portal
- In-report sorting, filtering, hide/unhide
- Drilldown from any report element to another report or URL
- Parameterization in cascade and staging modes
- Summary/detail toggling displays
- Report element context menu
- Real-time viewing or queued reports
- Dropdown lists, text fields and other form controls
- Export to Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, RTF-Word, CSV, PostScript, Text, and SVG
- Email, server-based printing, and client-based printing
- Archived reports with in-report exploration
Style Scope is an easy to use, interactive dashboard software application that includes real time reporting capabilities. Visualized analysis is constructed in real-time by dropping data items into visual elements such as charts, metrics and selections. The resulting visualizations reveal the intrinsic relationships among data and allow for easy apprehension of multidimensional data.
- The interactive dashboards are functionally rich and support:
- Real-time data mashup
- Professional atomic data block modeling tool
- End user data mashup on the Web
- Connectivity to relational databases (JDBC), multidimensional databases, XML, SOAP, Java beans (POJO), Microsoft Excel, and flat files.
- Security control at the data cell level for users, roles and groups
- Data mashup across domains and multiple data sources
- Database write-back option
- High performance scalability for large data sets and large volumes of users
- Embedded dashboarding – a Java-style API and multiple integration points.
Visualizations and Visual Business Analytics offer an extremely productive environment:
- Dashboard and visualization annotations
- Mobile dashboards accessible from Web-enabled devices including Android-based tablets, smartphones, iPads, and iPhones
- Unlimited multi-dimensional charting
- Brushing for data exploration
- Drilldown across views and into details
- Wide range of sophisticated chart types including custom geographic mapping
- Visualization view re-use and collaboration
- Drag and drop design in a Web browser, spreadsheet-like design
- Use gauges, thermometers, and other familiar objects
- Use charts, maps, and other advanced visual displays
- Dual purpose input/output elements
- Views assembled from sub-level views
- Monitoring and analysis oriented views
- Export to Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, RTF-Word, CSV, PostScript, text, and SVG
- Alerts for exceptions or business-rule triggers
- Snapshot archiving
Style Intelligence is an operational business intelligence platform that features a powerful data mashup engine for the creation of dashboards, visual analyses, and reporting. It is the top line product from Inetsoft and embraces most of what they have to offer. It provides an environment for all types of users and features:
- Real-time data mashup Data Block™ architecture
- Professional atomic data block modeling tool
- End user data mashup on the Web
- Connectivity to relational databases (via JDBC), multidimensional databases,column-based data warehouses, OLAP cubes, Hadoop/HIVE, MapR, SAP HANA, PeopleSoft, SAP ERP, Siebel CRM, Google AdWords & Analytics, JDE, salesforce.com, Microsoft Excel, flat files, XML, SOAP, Java beans (POJO), EJB beans and more.
- Database write-back option
- Multi-tenancy support
- Data mashup across domains and multiple data sources
- High performance scalability for large data sets and large volumes of users via InetSoft’s Data Grid Cache technology
- Mobile BI – access dashboards and analyses from Web-enabled devices including Android-based tablets, smartphones, iPads, and iPhones
- Target-based balanced scorecards
- Shared bookmarks- save annotations, selections, and chart edit settings of any dashboard or analysis for future retrieval and sharing among users
- Alerts for exceptions or business-rule triggers
- OLAP access to applications such as Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Hyperion ESSbase, Oracle OLAP, and SAP NetWeaver
- Embedded BI – a Java-style API and multiple integration points allow developers maximum control over programmatic use of dashboarding and reporting.
InetSoft offers both perpetual licenses and on-premise annual subscriptions. Small to midsize organizations and business units can take advantage of user-based licensing, while large organizations can leverage server based licensing for enterprise deployments. A maintenance and support charge of 20% is added to perpetual license sales and is included in the annual subscription price