MS SharePoint / SQL vs. Zendesk Explore

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
MS SharePoint / SQL
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
MS SharePoint / SQL refers to Microsoft Sharepoint, a web-based collaborative platform, being used in tandem with Microsoft SQL Server to provide business intelligence analytics and reporting. They can provide BI content such as data connections, reports, scorecards, dashboards, and more.N/A
Zendesk Explore
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk offers Explore, a business intelligence and customer analytics tool which integrates with the Zendesk suite featuring ticket analytics, custom fields, dashboards, and other features. Zendesk is migrating customers of the BIME analytics product, which is approaching end of support, to Zendesk Explore in 2019.N/A
Pricing
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Considered Both Products
MS SharePoint / SQL
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
1. Cost affective as it comes with MS 365 Tenant 2. Natively interactive with tools such MS 365 Dynamics ERP, Power Platform etc
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Ease of use being the biggest benefit, speed and availability are right there behind ease of use.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
SharePoint is more reliable in terms of data storage, security, and accessibility by only required users compared to ClickUp. Also, SharePoint is easier to learn and use for any user, as tutorials are easily available online. Also, SharePoint is a product of Microsoft, which …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Simple: MS Sharepoint/SQL is the best and robust databases motor now are incorporating some features in order to improve users and DB admins experience.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
The user interface and search elements are much better than our outgoing data storage method.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Box is a content storing portal where you can host and share documents/files to others. But it does not have [Sharepoint's] capabilities like... versions, automation, email approvals, etc. And Microsoft Exchange is a mailing database that can be used for exchanging data using …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Has better support than MySQL and more developers are familiar with it. Oracle syntax is more cumbersome and less developers are experienced these days with Oracle.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
I have heard that the one that comes close is a tool called Apex. Some of the leading companies are using it instead of SQL.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
If you are looking for a document management and collaboration tool to use as a web portal that comes with SQL data base and easy to manage and something you can learn very quick, look no further than SharePoint but if you need a pure database then this is not for you.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
We use MS SQL more just because of how widely it's used and how popular it is. It's easier to install, maintain, and support compared to the other ones we've tried.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
At the time of the two large projects, SharePoint was the enterprise solution so we were required to use that. We have since lobbied the enterprise teams to review and consider Atlassian confluence and were successful. Confluence is cheaper than Sharepoint which is why we …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
At its core, MS SharePoint (with SQL) is for managing document-based content. It falls just short of being a best in class records manager (it does offer some features for this though), and it isn't the easiest to solution to make great looking modern and engaging web sites. …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
We looked at Google Drive but it didn't have the API and integration that SharePoint has with 3rd party software providers. Also, Google Drive has basic functionality compared to MS SharePoint and how you can customize and build-out.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
I haven't used any other products that compete with it. I started my career at Microsoft and the two subsequent locations have also been Microsoft shops.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Dropbox is a user-friendly product, but Sharepoint is a native Microsoft product that can be implemented into any Microsoft products, which are used mostly in our environment. Finding solutions on the internet is much easier, as it is used commonly by other organizations as …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
I am not familiar with any other products similar to SharePoint, so I am unable to compare.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Mostly, we are a Microsoft shop, and SharePoint and SQL integrate with our other applications. They're easy to use, and not too hard to manage.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
I have used both Google Drive and Zoho Docs which seem similar to MS SharePoint. The main differences I noticed as a user is that the user interfaces in both Google Drive and Zoho Docs were much more intuitive and they were much easier to navigate than MS SharePoint. There …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
We had staff resources able to create, configure, and mange our sharepoint environment, so it made sense for us and gave us greater flexibility than these turnkey solutions. Certainly each solution has its merits and each are completely different price points. We already had …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Most of the applications used within our company have a SharePoint back end therefore I have not used anything other than SharePoint.
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
We evaluated Atlassian Confluence and compared it to our current SharePoint implementation. We felt that the two products were quite similar in the user experience but we chose to keep our SharePoint farms up and running. This was mainly due to the cost of switching and the …
Chose MS SharePoint / SQL
Actually i didnt work with other than ms sharepoint so i cant say how it is stand for others
Zendesk Explore
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore stands out against Freshchat and Freshdesk for it's deeper analytics capabilities and seamless integration with Zendesk ecosystem. While Freshdesk offers reporting, it lacks on the same level of granular insights and customization that Zendesk Explore provides. …
Chose Zendesk Explore
I selected Zendesk Explore only to provide an easy and quick access for my managers and supervisors regading metrics and volume trends. Is not the most flexible nor complete data visualization tool, but works well for day-to-day follow ups.
You need to use another tool if you …
Chose Zendesk Explore
N/A - the company had already implemented Zendesk Explore when I was hired.
Chose Zendesk Explore
What's good with Zendesk Explore is that data is already provided since it's included in the package. We get the data from Zendesk Support and make a report in Zendesk Explore.

It provides suggested templates and report formats also which you don't get on the other platforms. …
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore is more user friendly and the software plus maintenance cost is less. The report section is more detailed and no lag while creating report for a large data source. The report segments and formats are editable which make it more convenient to make a report …
Chose Zendesk Explore
We tried other reporting and Zendesk Explore was by far the best as it was already implemented into our support system we were already using; Zendesk. The main selling point for us, is that all of the reports are customizable and that no coding knowledge is needed to build out …
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore is better than Freshservice Analytics. In Freshservice, even though the interface is more attractive, the functions are not as good as Zendesk Explore. Reports and dashboards are hard to build, and the materials to learn are not as good as the materials on …
Chose Zendesk Explore
For support data, we have only used Explore because it came with our ZenDesk membership. So I can't speak to other solutions! That said, it's awesome to have Knowledge Base and support data in one place.
Features
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
7.7
Ratings
6% below category average
Zendesk Explore
9.0
Ratings
10% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.60 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.30 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
8.2
Ratings
2% above category average
Zendesk Explore
8.3
Ratings
3% above category average
Drill-down analysis7.80 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.00 Ratings4.80 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.60 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
8.9
Ratings
7% above category average
Zendesk Explore
8.4
Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web8.70 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
8.6
Ratings
8% above category average
Zendesk Explore
7.1
Ratings
12% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.70 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.30 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.40 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
8.1
Ratings
5% below category average
Zendesk Explore
9.1
Ratings
7% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)7.90 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.80 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.70 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
9.4
Ratings
18% above category average
Zendesk Explore
7.8
Ratings
1% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.40 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Mobile Application9.40 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
MS SharePoint / SQL
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
Zendesk Explore
5.9
Ratings
28% below category average
REST API9.20 Ratings5.40 Ratings
Javascript API9.30 Ratings5.90 Ratings
iFrames9.00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Java API9.00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.00 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Small Businesses
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Score 9.1 out of 10
BrightGauge
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Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MS SharePoint / SQLZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
As I mentioned in my previous answers, MS SharePoint is very useful as a shared drive for the organization and is very easy to manage. It also helps us import data from SharePoint directly into PowerBI for creating reports. According to my understanding, only share link features should be improved.
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Compared to other analytics functions of other Ticket Management System, Zendesk Explore is the easiest to learn. Moreover, the learning curve is high. Once you pick up the fundamentals, you will be able to create all types of analytic reports. In addition, if you know basic coding or SQL, you can create your own metrics and attributes to capture extremely specific elements such as the tickets that contain a certain word or etc.
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Pros
  • Flexible - able to make any changes we would like vs traditional service desk system.
  • ROI - We were already using SharePoint for internal intranet, so we are simply getting more use out of licensing we had already committed to.
  • Easy to use for end users.
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  • As with most "suite" products, if you already use other Zendesk features (Chat, Talk, etc), then Zendesk Explore adds an extra facet to the customer experience. The more we know about our clientele, the better we can understand/anticipate their needs.
  • I like that we can get as in-depth as we feel is necessary. For example, is just one customer having an issue? Or are many experiencing a similar problem? We can better rack this type of trend using Explore.
  • Our team can dive deep into the data based on exactly what we're looking for. If the marketing team wants a certain kind of segment, we can give them that info. If we want to sort by date or another set of parameters, we can do that as well.
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Cons
  • It is hard to setup and nightmare
  • It requires a of infrastructure, thus it could be costly because of requirement and licensing required for everything to run smoothly
  • If it is not setup and organized properly from the beginning it could be maintenance nightmare
  • It is hard to have "test" environment to do patches or similar
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  • More detailed pieces of training on where to find datasets/queries.
  • Have demo reports to do live trainings; instead of watching videos.
  • Have a key as to what all of the datasets mean.
  • Have a pop-up that analyzes the data "looks like your csat dropped this week!" etc...
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Likelihood to Renew
This was a long-term buy-in from a corporate perspective, to remain in the SharePoint space. Migration is certainly possible, which is good for planning and having options further out. At this point, the only planned migration is to eventually move the architecture up to SharePoint/SQL 2013. At that point, we will be able to leverage some greater efficiencies, some enhanced content design and management features, and some more current social features. It is well worth a full consideration in any shop looking at a new implementation of or migration to SharePoint (although you will probably be considering 2013 versions or beyond in those discussions), but the platform should be a strong competitor to any alternatives. Realizing the capability of a fully-branded and customized website was not part of the original choice for the architecture at Lincoln, but seeing it implemented and functioning now with this capacity far beyond original expectations has certainly cemented plans to continue using it.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
I gave this rating due to MS SharePoint being a big help with our userbase. We have a lot of users that are just old enough to not have much technical skills or they have been in this industry long enough to where they haven't really needed to utilize much technology. MS SharePoint helped us move beyond that barrier without too many bumps and bruises.
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I rate Zendesk Explore 8 out of 10 for it's overall usability because it offers powerful reporting and analytics with an easy to navigate interface and intuitive dashboards. It helps improve customer satisfaction by providing valuable insights into ticket handling, agent performance and customer satisfaction. Though the complex query builder can be challenging for non technical users.
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Support Rating
I've only had to call in to support on one occasion but they were able to work though our issue and find a solution that did fully resolve the issue in a timely manner. I can't always say the same about support from other companies so it was a refreshing change to have support that did help.
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Zendesk Community is extremely useful for Zendesk Explore beginners. The live support provided by Zendesk will also help a lot. If you don't know anything you can ask live support right away. However, one drawback of Zendesk Community and Support is the creation of complex reports on Zendesk Explore. Zendesk Community and Support cannot really help you much if you are trying to build a complex report as they are not a complete expert on it as well.
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Implementation Rating
Mo major insight regarding the implementation if very well documented for standard products.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
At the time of the two large projects, SharePoint was the enterprise solution so we were required to use that. We have since lobbied the enterprise teams to review and consider Atlassian Confluence and were successful. Confluence is cheaper than Sharepoint which is why we wanted to bring that in. The enterprise has now made Confluence an enterprise solution as an alternative to SharePoint. After using both I think SharePoint has many more add-ins than Confluence. It has much more customization ability than Confluence. SharePoint is not good for mobile readiness. Confluence is so there is a difference that might lead you to Confluence over SharePoint. I would also say that SharePoint is very document-centric and that Confluence has better KM than SharePoint does. even with the use of SQL Server. We were told that we could not use Google Drive even though it had features we liked.
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Zendesk Explore stands out against Freshchat and Freshdesk for it's deeper analytics capabilities and seamless integration with Zendesk ecosystem. While Freshdesk offers reporting, it lacks on the same level of granular insights and customization that Zendesk Explore provides. Compared to Freshchat which focuses more on live chat and conversational analytics Zendesk Explore excels in historical trend analysis and comprehensive dashboarding. We choose Zendesk Explore for it's robust reporting and drill down capabilities.
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Return on Investment
  • ROI for ms SharePoint/SQL considering that is the best database engine with excellent features that help you to have all information in your hand.
  • Something negative could be license format.
  • These are the best relational databases in the market with powerful features that complement your system.
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  • Positive impact of around 5 hours/week in Dashboard building and visualization
  • 10 hours from Product to review dashboards and find potential patterns
  • Enabler to find opportunities based on agents´ occupancy rates
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ScreenShots