A business is no longer limited to the marketing and production of their products. This is because the competitive world requires much more than that for a business to prosper. Tools, software applications, and programs are constantly developed and used by businesses to outsmart their competition. This helps them get a competitive edge over their competition and ascertain their dominance in the industry. This is where BI tools come into the picture for various businesses. Often also known as Open Source Business Intelligence (OSBI) software applications, these do a kind of job that normally people cannot do themselves.
Apart from analyzing data that is available it processes the data and helps interpret it to the human mind. Often these are huge volumes of data that would take days if not weeks to process for a human mind. However, these software applications known as business intelligence tools do it much faster for businesses and give them an edge.
Top 5 business intelligence software applications
Since there are many open source BI tools that are available in the market it may be confusing for a person to choose one. We have made attempts to make the job simpler for you by providing the top among the lot. So, here we have a list of the top free and open source business intelligence tools that you can choose to use for your business.
1. Jaspersoft BI tools
Introduced first in the year 2014 this is known to be one of the most popular OSBI tools that are available in the market today that comes for free. Jaspersoft BI tool is primarily considered as a Java tool for reporting and can have reports sent to different sets of files and formats. This helps in generating dynamic content that is suitable for viewing for almost anyone in the organization who has access to the program.
2. Zoho Reports
ZOHO program is another that gives you the best OSBI platform with certain restrictions. However, all the data of their clients are primarily stored in the United States. Some of the greatest brands in the world are said to use this application for their BI needs. With dashboards and reports obtained from raw data, it makes life simpler for anyone using ZOHO program. The sharing of information from this platform is also relatively easier when compared to other competitors.
3. BIRT
Using the BIRT program can be easy even for a person with basic computer skills. This stands out for its competitiveness and a robust interface to go with it. BIRT primarily works with Java and Java EE as its base. The information obtained from this program can be sent across to different web applications with just a few clicks. BIRT makes this BI program one of the leading in the industry by all means.
4. KNIME Business Intelligence Tools
With cloud integration, the KNIME tool stands out among the top five among different business intelligence software in the market. It is possible for users to not just manage data from different platforms but also make it accessible for others using data science. A modular data pipelining concept is what is being used by this program to make this possible.
5. Pentaho Community Edition
Using the Pentaho Community Edition tool is possible for businesses of any size from around the world. This also uses Java as its primary working platform with the capability to upload it and share it across different platforms. There are two variants available with this application with the enterprise coming at a cost with additional features. This business intelligence tool has been recognized by various organizations and has received rewards for its competence too.
These are the top 5 business intelligence software applications that many businesses use from around the world. Although all of them differ in one way or the other they provide almost the same results that a business wants. Each of them has their own upsides and downsides that you should be aware of before choosing them for your business. This would ensure that you are not wasting time downloading some BI software applications and trying it out without getting the required results for a business.
