Clari vs. Microsoft BI (MSBI)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Clari
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
Clari is a predictive sales analytics and sales forecasting solution from the company of the same name headquartered in Sunnyvale.N/A
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.
$14
per month per user
Pricing
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Power BI Pro
$14
per month per user
Power BI Premium
$24
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Considered Both Products
Clari
Chose Clari
Clari is incredible compared to just using SFDC, helps augment the service to another level
Chose Clari
At the time of selection, Clari was a more mature product than Xactly forecasting. We did not want to experience growing pains with Xactly.

Pipeline Inspection from SFDC was just becoming available. We had already selected Clari before we learned about Pipeline Inspection.
Chose Clari
We also use sales force in our office, the management thinks sales force at times does not give better prediction like clari. As per me both the tools are at par with each other. And the best part if integration of sales force to clari, the only challenge I have is about …
Chose Clari
Clari Revenue Platform is a robust sales management solution that offers a range of features and capabilities designed to improve sales performance and forecasting. When compared to similar products, Clari stands out in several areas:
  1. Data integration:Clari integrates with a …
Chose Clari
Clari was selected due to the flawless integration with salesforce, updates are made in real time. Being able to monitor everything at a scalable level has also been critical for our team. For example, we have different views established that show the rep level, manager level, …
Chose Clari
I have not used other forecasting tools other than the built-in functions in Salesforce, Gong, and Outreach. I think that the benefit of Clari against these other tools that almost any Sales organization has is that their whole focus is on forecasting and visibility into your …
Chose Clari
Have evaluated Clari against Outreach. Outreach has a much simpler UI and is very easy to use, and it is also famous amongst sales teams for campaigns, deals tracking and analysis. However, Clari's deal analytics and forecasting is way too superior than Outreach and dasboarding …
Chose Clari
Clari is heads and tails above Microsoft Excel when it comes to forecasting and tracking the numbers for both sales and management. It's not even close.
Chose Clari
Actually, Clari complete what salesforce is providing to my organization, both tools together are integrating to make our business planning cycle much more controlled and visible.
Chose Clari
I've only used Salesforce prior to Clari
Chose Clari
i don't have any insight on this one. I am not familiar with Clari competitors and am a user rather than a purchasing decision maker.
Clari seems like a predominant solution in this category. Perhaps some orgs just stick to a CRM tool like SFDC reporting rather than investing …
Chose Clari
Even if I don’t have some experience with Datahug, this platform doesn’t have an excellent end-user experience as Clari. Also, Clari has simple integration with Sales Apps, mobile application and notifications work very well, and is faster than Datahug. Reports are more …
Chose Clari
Clari is a salesperson's view on their book of business in an easy, yet defined way.
Chose Clari
Clair is additive to other tools like Salesforce or your BI tools. It gives great visibility at each level. We know throughout the quarter where we are likely to fall. When we have shortfalls we know where those are coming from. This helps us drive the right actions to close …
Chose Clari
The only other tool that we use that is close to the Clari offering is SFDC. The nice thing about Clari is how easy and quick it is to make changes to your forecast without having to go through all of the required steps in SFDC. The mobile app is also extremely useful and …
Chose Clari
Haven't used anything like Clari in the past, this is a game changer. SFDC does a great job of showing you your forecast but lacks the insights that Clari provides.
Chose Clari
The only other funnel management we have is SalesForce itself. We've made some adjustments within our own SalesForce platform, but Clari is significantly easier to navigate for funnel management than deals individually within SFDC.
Chose Clari
Not familiar with other products in the quote to close space. I have not used others, as Clari has been our first and we have been very pleased with it, so I have had no need to evaluate other competitors to it.
Chose Clari
Clari is MUCH better for reps to use/consume than the other products we've attempted. While the other tools we've used have been a bit better from a Sales Ops perspective, if they don't get used by the sales team, they are not nearly as powerful. Adoption of the tool really …
Chose Clari
Clari was able to start generating advanced analytics within 3-4 hours after connecting to our Salesforce data and immediately in opportunity data. With Birst, there was some implementation needed, IT setup and configuration and some additional training for admins and advance …
Chose Clari
Clari is the only forecasting tool we looked at.
Chose Clari
Clari's UI was easy for our sales team and customer success team to use and to adapt and utilise effectively. The Pipeline Management of Clari provides real-time insights into our sales pipeline, enabling us to track progress in real time and make correct decisions.
We selected …
Chose Clari
The only other forecasting tool I've used is Salesforce, and Clari comes out on top without a doubt. It's way more user friendly and I love the user interface.
Chose Clari
Clari is the most user-friendly platform in my opinion, and I've had the best customer service experience with my support team. Clari has continued to prove its ROI after each sub-platform we've implemented, and has built trust and adoption from the AEs to C-Level mgmt.
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
MSBI for my company is a like using a car that has a good balance of features, is easy to use, has good support, and works well with other things or requirement you may have.
We specifically chose it because it is one of the promising platform whose support team will never let …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Better integration with Microsoft products is one of the advantages of using Business Intelligence (BI). It's simple to understand, and plenty of resources are available to outsource it. Many of our existing clients have Microsoft licensing agreements. It's an obvious path when …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Outsourcing work is easy to understand, and there are plenty of resources available in the marketplace. It is expensive, but it is still significantly less costly than the alternatives. Results from Microsoft BI (MSBI) are dependable; therefore, there is no problem with trust. …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
MSBI is great for data collection and reporting, but it lacks the visual appeal and features of Power BI. Even though it's still useful, it falls short of Power BI in terms of features. There's no reason to doubt MSBI's findings. MSBI has a proactive customer service team that …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Easy data load through Excel.
Data load using standard API is possible.
Data synchronized and harmonized.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
BI is a little more user-friendly along with tighter integration with Microsoft apps.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Each of the solutions has their pros and cons, but Microsoft's BI offerings provide the best "bang for the buck." Few solutions available offer the breadth of feature functionality in a single package, with BI and database generally being sold as separate offerings. However, …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
The biggest player against Microsoft BI (MSBI) was Tableau, which was acquired by Salesforce. Recently there have been other standalone software/applications that provide similar functionality to Microsoft BI (MSBI). Because my company is a Microsoft shop, we have not explored …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Tableau's feature set is comparable to Microsoft BI at a potentially lower cost, however, Microsoft provides better integration into a Microsoft Environment and more flexible deployment options. Microsoft also provides better enterprise support than Tableau (although this may …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Tableau is very slow, and it's very complicated to use, whereas Microsoft BI is faster and more efficient.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Ease of use and it's fluent with Office products for exporting and presentations of data.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
A lot of our existing client base has licensing agreements in place with Microsoft, couple that with decision-makers wanting to achieve the outcome with the least amount of additional licensing costs added, and it becomes an obvious path, however, it is very crucial to first …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Unlike Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (OBICS), Microsoft BI offers a good range of visualisation options. However, it falls behind in terms of data management capabilities. If your requirements are more data intensive and less reporting intensive, then Microsoft BI …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Oracle BI Foundation Suite
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
We initially considered Google Analytics, but eventually decided against it due to the licensing terms and the associated software that we would need to incorporate. IBM Cognos is great at what it does, as long as you are trying to integrate with software that is on their …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Specific data displays are some of the strongest aspects of Microsoft BI when compared to alternate programs. It also does a superior job in compatibility with many programs, especially those from Microsoft. Since my company primarily uses Office 365 and other Microsoft …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
The other programs listed are excellent. I have always been a fan of Google products because they are user-friendly and easily accessible by most. They also produce excellent data outputs. Google is still great for companies of any size but I believe Microsoft BI is an even …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
To be honest, I have never used anything similar to PowerBI. I have seen reports that come from Whatagraph, but I have never used it myself, so that is the only application that I can sort of compare it too. Just looking at the visuals from both, PowerBI reports are better …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Easy to understand, resources easily available in market to outsource the work.
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
SQL server allows for a member of the database administrators team to assist the end users with queries designed to pull information out of the back end databases. With Microsoft BI the end users can be given connections that allow them to create their own queries, pull the …
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
The software stacks [well] because it has more graphics resolution and the colors are fresh and actualized. On the other hand, there is the Microsoft family software and this is an advantage. Microsoft has a lot of users around the world and it's like everyone knows how to do …
Features
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Sales Forecasting Features
Comparison of Sales Forecasting Features features of Product A and Product B
Clari
9.9
Ratings
14% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Quick Dashboard/Forecast10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Visuals10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Forecast Templates9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Forecasting Factors10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Forecast Review10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Forecasting Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom Forecast Models10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Record of Previous Sales Forecasts10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Forecast Collaboration:10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Data Import10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.7
Ratings
6% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
Ratings
9% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.0
Ratings
8% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.0
Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.5
Ratings
8% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Clari
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
REST API00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Small Businesses
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ClariMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
It's well-suited for sales and customer service processes where the intent is both to sell the product and give customer or technical service post-sale. It is best to search for calls with different phrases. However, as far as I am concerned, it is less suitable for processes that are not defined. Like sales inbound, where we may not know the conversation direction.
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The Microsoft BI suite of tools, which comprises tools from the SQL Server suite, provides end-to-end features and functionality for businesses of any size. Users who need dashboards and reports fast will benefit from this tool. It’s simple to connect to databases, cloud storage systems, and CSV files of any type. This makes the dashboards suitable for a more rapid presentation workflow because we can easily incorporate them into PowerPoint presentations. Enterprise and standard editions are both available for some tools.
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Pros
  • Sales pipeline management: Clari provides real-time visibility into the sales pipeline, enabling sales teams to track the progress of deals and make informed decisions.
  • Revenue forecasting: The platform integrates with existing sales and marketing tools, giving organizations a comprehensive view of their sales pipeline and enabling accurate revenue forecasting.
  • Advanced analytics: Clari uses machine learning and advanced analytics to provide actionable insights into sales performance and help organizations make informed decisions about their sales strategy.
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  • The layout of Power BI is very intuitive. Someone that is familiar with Excel and working with Charts and Graphs in that environment will find the learning curve a rather short one to start using Power BI.
  • I like the way Power BI fits an assortment of users and how the functionality that you engage is replicated in Excel, that being Power Query and Power Pivot. So what you learn in one tool can be readily applied towards the other which allows you to more effectively apply your training.
  • I appreciate how Microsoft is working to develop tools that go a long ways to empowering the end user. Prior to Power BI I would have had to consult with a "BI" professional to develop a dashboard. With Power BI I don't have to consult with anyone, I can work to put together the dash board I want and using a tool set that is really robust and allows me to engage an enormous amount of data. It's provides a great deal of flexibility and the types of data I can connect to.
  • Updates...Microsoft is working diligently to keep Power BI current with monthly updates. They do a really good job of listening to the end user, if there is functionality not currently present just give them a month or so.
  • Just to be clear, even though it's easy to get going right out of the gate with Power BI it provides plenty of opportunities to create some really sophisticated reporting solutions. With DAX in Power Pivot and M language in Power Query, you are provided with plenty of head room to do some really amazing things in Power BI.
  • Training...there are resources across the web for learning and growing your skills and Power BI. And what's even better is the majority of those resources are free.
  • Data engagement, when presenting the data to the end user Power BI goes a long way to allowing that end user to engage the data and begin to identify root cause by simply interacting with the graph/chart/data set. It allows for really fluid engagement. Prior to Power BI so many times during the presentation of data we often times ended the engagement with that data with more questions than what were answered. With Power BI, more often than not, the end user is able to get answers to the questions by simply clicking on the data in the graph/chart/dataset to see the details. This tool really does have the capacity to make you look like a rock star.
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Cons
  • When there is maintenance done in the backend our total numbers disappear so would be great to not impact production environment when doing improvements on the backend
  • I think Clari can train more the champions at customer to drive utilisation rates in your customers
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  • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
  • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
  • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
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Likelihood to Renew
I will renew my Clari Subscription for many reasons. 1. Streamlines Sales - Clari automates many manual tasks like note-taking and transcripts. This frees my sales team so they can focus on closing deals. 2. Increased customer retention - Clari helps me identify potential churn risks and take proactive measures. 3. AI-Driven Insights
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Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
Clari is very good when it comes to usability as I'm accessing it on daily basis as long as I'm on my Notebook, it helps a lot having visibility on my business status and progress on achievement. I can estimate my weekly, monthly, and yearly opportunities closure and revenue. I have some saved views which are so useful to get what I want to see.
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Usability is great. This product will make most feel right at home. I feel like this question should be asked from two points of view: 1. Creator of reports, Data Models, Views etc: Most Advanced users will still rate the usability as very high. Its capabilities are still robust. However when compared to other Enterprise Class products it will not do many of the advanced application queries. 2. End user, Consumer: All end users will feel right at home. Many will be able to create connections to already created data models and other external publicly available sources like twitter, Facebook, World Health order etc... These connections are then in turn very very easily available to publish to SharePoint and Power BI. It took me a while to understand what I think is Microsoft's strategy. This will handle all but the most of robust needs. Much like many American made cars and my favorite Corvette, Microsoft is fast, has it own break downs from time to time but all of these are really to tolerate when the price is considered and the next one up that can out perform it is three to four times as much money makes this an easy one to still recommend
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Reliability and Availability
During the last 5 years, we have never faced unplanned outages
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Reports are stable and always avaiable when needed.
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Performance
The system is usually fast and loads quickly. Occasional slowness is observed during processing heavy uploads or downloads.
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SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
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Support Rating
Clari is very willing to jump in and build out use cases. They will work to do anything for you. That said, their follow up is not great. We have had to reach out for follow up several times on a project, which is still not complete. I wish they taught us how to complete what we want, rather than doing it in house for us
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While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
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In-Person Training
We had one session of in-person training conducted in our office.
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This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
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Online Training
Clari has good training materials, videos, and documentation.
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I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
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Implementation Rating
No more the better there is a plan and technical support the business needs and functionalities can be created for the company to use it like that
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We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
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Alternatives Considered
Gainsight was clunky. We had a dashboard for CS renewals but it was difficult to update. If you typed something and didn't save, and you started updating another opportunity's notes, your previous notes would not save. With Clari it auto saves
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MSBI for my company is a like using a car that has a good balance of features, is easy to use, has good support, and works well with other things or requirement you may have. We specifically chose it because it is one of the promising platform whose support team will never let us down. Plus all the features of MSBI are A1 and productive according to my team's analysis.
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Scalability
Clari is worth the investment with its advanced forecasting and pipeline management. They have a unified revenue platform that serves as a single source of truth for revenue data.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • I no longer spend hours reconciling spreadsheets or guessing which opportunities are real - Clari shows me exactly where to focus to drive results.
  • I have consistently hit my quota the last 3 quarters thanks to Clari's precision and detailed insights.
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  • As it came "in the box" with necessary SQL Server RDBMS purchases, the ROI for the BI components are high as there was no incremental cost.
  • Has provided standard reporting for most of the organization available via highly formatted PDF or Excel versions.
  • Has provided ad-hoc analytics using SSAS in conjunction with Excel.
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ScreenShots