Looker vs Dundas BI: Which BI Platform is Best for Data Visualizations?

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, data isn't just a byproduct of operations; it's the cornerstone of strategic decisions. Leveraging data to derive actionable insights is crucial, and the ability to visualize data effectively can significantly influence business outcomes. Today, we'll dive into a comprehensive comparison of two leading Business Intelligence (BI) platforms—Looker and Dundas BI—to determine which is best suited for data visualizations.

Understanding the Contenders

Before we delve into the specifics, let's get an overview of these two powerful BI platforms.

Looker: Acquired by Google in 2019, Looker is a data exploration and business intelligence platform that emphasizes real-time data exploration and ad-hoc analysis. With its proprietary LookML modeling language, Looker offers a robust interface for data analysts and business users alike to interact with data directly from live databases.

Dundas BI: Dundas BI is an enterprise-ready BI and data visualization platform known for its flexibility and customizability. Unlike Looker, which leans heavily on a consistent development environment, Dundas BI aims to provide a more tailored experience, allowing for extensive custom dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

Usability and Learning Curve

Choosing a BI tool starts with how intuitive and accessible the platform is for both technical and non-technical users.

Looker:

• Ease of Use: Looker's interface is user-friendly and well-organized, making it easy for users to navigate through data exploration tasks. Its modern design helps even non-technical users feel comfortable.
• Learning Curve: LookML can be challenging for those without a programming background. However, the effort is well worth it as it allows for centralized definitions and reusable metrics, reducing the risk of inconsistencies across reports.

Dundas BI:

• Ease of Use: Dundas BI excels in flexibility, offering a drag-and-drop interface for creating dashboards and reports. This is particularly beneficial for non-technical users who want to dive into data without coding.
• Learning Curve: While Dundas BI’s drag-and-drop feature makes it accessible, mastering its full capabilities can take some time. However, this steep learning curve comes with the advantage of powerful customizations.

Data Integration and Connectivity

Effective BI solutions must integrate seamlessly with various data sources to provide actionable intelligence.

Looker:

• Connectivity: Looker supports multiple data sources, including SQL databases and cloud data warehouses like Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, and Snowflake. Real-time analytics are made possible because Looker queries data directly from these live sources.
• Data Modeling: LookML shines here, allowing for complex data transformations and modeling that occur within the data warehouse rather than post-extraction. This ensures data consistency and security.

Dundas BI:

• Connectivity: Dundas BI also supports a wide range of data sources, including SQL databases, OData, Excel files, and more. Unlike Looker, Dundas offers both in-memory and direct data querying capabilities.
• Data Modeling: Dundas BI offers powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities for data preparation and integration. This platform is highly customizable and lets you tailor data extraction processes in ways that meet complex business requirements.

Visualization and Reporting Capabilities

The core of any BI system lies in its ability to transform raw data into insightful visualizations and reports.

Looker:

• Visualizations: Looker has a broad range of built-in visualizations and offers additional customization through third-party JavaScript libraries like D3.js. Users can build dashboards that are highly interactive and visually appealing.
• Reporting: Looker provides powerful reporting features, allowing users to create, schedule, and share reports seamlessly. The platform supports pixel-perfect reporting, ensuring the precision needed for financial and operational tasks.

Dundas BI:

• Visualizations: Dundas BI is highly regarded for its rich, customizable visualizations. Users can build intricate, interactive visualizations tailored to their specific needs. The drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, allowing for the creation of complex dashboards without requiring extensive coding knowledge.
• Reporting: Dundas BI offers extensive reporting capabilities, including the ability to create paginated reports suitable for printing. Its report generation capabilities are highly flexible, making it easier for businesses to meet specific formatting requirements.

Customizability and Flexibility

BI solutions must adapt to unique business needs, which requires a degree of customization.

Looker:

• Customizability: Looker’s customization primarily revolves around LookML and its API. While this does provide a structured approach to customization, it leans more towards technical users.
• Flexibility: Looker is highly flexible when it comes to data modeling and real-time querying. It is designed to provide a unified approach across various departments within an organization.

Dundas BI:

• Customizability: With its extensive options for custom scripting and visualizations, Dundas BI arguably offers more customizability out of the box. Users can create intricate and unique visual elements along with custom data interactions.
• Flexibility: Dundas BI is exceptionally flexible, providing multiple ways to achieve almost any type of customization the user can envision, whether through its UI or deeper coding capabilities.

Pricing and Scalability

Cost and scalability are crucial factors that influence the selection of a BI platform.

Looker:

• Pricing: Looker operates on a subscription basis, with pricing depending on the number of users and the scale of deployment. It’s generally positioned as a premium service, reflecting its robust features and Google Cloud integration.
• Scalability: Designed to handle large volumes of data, Looker scales efficiently. Its cloud-native architecture ensures it can grow alongside your business without significant performance issues.

Dundas BI:

• Pricing: Dundas BI also adopts a subscription model but tends to offer more flexible pricing options depending on the deployment scale and feature set. This can make it accessible to a wide range of business sizes.
• Scalability: Dundas BI is highly scalable, capable of supporting large enterprise requirements while being flexible enough for smaller teams. Its hybrid approach (in-memory and direct queries) ensures it can manage varying data loads efficiently.

Customer Support and Community

Reliable customer support and an active user community can significantly enhance the user experience.

Looker:

• Customer Support: Looker offers robust customer support options, including a comprehensive knowledge base, community forums, and direct support channels.
• Community: Being part of the Google Cloud ecosystem, Looker benefits from a vibrant, active community of data professionals, which makes finding help and best practices easier.

Dundas BI:

• Customer Support: Dundas BI provides extensive support resources, including detailed documentation, training materials, and direct support options. Customer support is known for being responsive and helpful.
• Community: While smaller than Looker’s, the Dundas BI community is dedicated and supportive, focusing on deeper customizations and integrations.

Conclusion

Choosing between Looker and Dundas BI largely depends on your organization's specific needs, technical proficiency, and business goals.

Choose Looker if you need:

• Seamless integration with Google Cloud services
• A robust, consistent data modeling approach
• Real-time querying and analytics with a focus on data consistency

Choose Dundas BI if you need:

• Highly customizable dashboards and reports
• Extensive data integration capabilities including in-memory options
• Flexible and scalable solutions tailored to unique business requirements

Both platforms offer a wealth of powerful features that can elevate your data strategy. At Deploi, we understand that selecting the right BI tool is a nuanced decision. With years of experience in delivering complex projects with speed and innovation, we are here to help you navigate the technological landscape and make informed choices that drive your business forward. Contact us today to discover how we can assist with your BI needs and ensure you unlock the full potential of your data.