BrightGauge vs. Longview Analytics

BrightGauge lets us know when we have critical issues that need solving. A massive influx of tickets all at the same time triggers an investigation. Usually, it is tied to a server going down, which we can address. It would not be helpful for a small MSP or IT department with just a few daily tickets. The stats are better used to track a large amount of clients.

Incentivized

arcplan is very well suited for reporting metrics and measuring BI. It is good for guys in pharmaceuticals/warehousing and small banks. I would not recommend this for FMCG or retail industries. SMEs will benefit from this product because of its versatility and lots of interfacing to other database tools.

Incentivized

• SQL queries can be presented in many different ways to illustrate the data. They can be used in lists, graphs, meter, etc.
• The datasets frequency of updates can be customized to from 5 minutes to annually. It's very granular in this respect.
• It allows dashboards to be shared outside your organization with clients, partners, and vendors to maximize collaboration and reporting.

Incentivized

• Endless functionality. With arcplan, you're not limited to a certain set of functions (like with most competitors), but you can think up and add functionality. This includes things like business process management modules, so that your BI really gets embedded into business processes.
• One core, one skill-set needed, no coding. As an all-round arcplan developer, you can basically do everything. So, even when things get complex, there is no need for external scripts, macros, VBA code, etc. Even the most advanced corporate BI systems are built in arcplan with one skillset!
• No end user training needed. With arcplan, it's easy to build applications that work purely intuitively. It's also possible to show/hide advanced options, depending on the type of users you define.
• No data modelling required. Of course, if the business requires it, you can add semantic layers, but you are not forced to do it in all circumstances. I find this a huge advantage over other products, because most business data sources already are logically structured.
• Multiple data sources can be connected and you're completely free in combining the data in these sources: create your own, or create modules to associate data 'on the fly', whatever you want. You want ETL? No problem. You want to avoid ETL? No problem either.
• Write-back capabilities: this is critical if you want to really embed BI into your business processes. In BI, information should be actionable: arcplan allows the end user to really take that action.
• Great developer interface, which makes it also possible for someone with limited technical skills (but high business acumen) to take part in developments.
• Pricing and licensing. At first glance, arcplan seems not very cheap compared to competitors. However, the licensing model is logical, and there are no hidden costs. Compare that to 'free' products that become very costly as soon as you want to have an enterprise solution.

• Modifying data sets to bring in custom fields requires an experienced SQL engineer
• Cost when bringing in lots of data sources can be prohibitive
• Limited ability to format gauges and reports
• Make MFA a requirement - this data is sensitive and giving the admin the ability to force MFA is a MUST!

Incentivized

• Pricing. Quite on the high side.
• Not many partners. Had a user in the Philippines and had to support them from here.
• Training materials are outdated.

Incentivized

Usability is BrightGauge's strength. Granting the ability of virtually any user to be able to create a dashboard is incredibly valuable. If an organization very simple and straight forward reporting needs then BrightGauge is a perfect fit for them. Connecting to the dataset we used was very quick and easy and I imagine it would be the same for any major data source you would like to pull from.

Incentivized

We did not need to use BrightGauge's support for the entire time that we used it. Best support is always the one that isn't needed because nothing breaks.

Incentivized

I'm not aware of any other competitors to Bright Gauge that we selected. They seem to be very close to managed IT service providers and have been great at tailoring their support to the PSAs like ConnectWise, AutoTask, etc. I can see Bright Gauge getting more and more popular as time goes by

Incentivized

acplan beats Qlik on basically everything, including price. It's technically far superior, provides far better security and unlike Qlik does not require coding when things get complex. arcplan beats Tableau and Yellowfin on capabilities. Tableau and Yellowfin are very good at what they do, but capabilities are limited, unless you call the programmers. arcplan beats SAP BO by being one product, instead of a suite with 10 components using 10 different skill sets. And, as a result, it beats SAP BO hands down on implementation costs and efforts

• Faster compilation of Business Review material
• For larger customers, the dashboarding has helped our customers to remain sticky and add services/revenue to our MSP. They want to add more fragments of their IT for the 1 pane rollup.
• From a leadership perspective, BG has allowed me to make difficult staffing decisions with confidence. Detailed metric driven decisions on who is hitting KPIs/who isn't - as well as when data proved we were overstaffed and understaffed.

Incentivized