Best CPM and BI software

it is very easy to integrate with the software. also you can link multiple data sources in bi360 datawarehouse

Pros

easy integrations with our Microsoft Dynamics Gp software.

Cons

cloud services got stuck some times but overall its good

BI360, OUT IN FRONT, HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Pros

The thing I like most about Solver, the company that supplies BI360, is that I have found it easy to connect with them on every level from support staff to the CEO. They take my reporting challenges seriously, and they are committed to delivering value to me and my end users. The thing I like most about the BI360 product suite is that it provides exactly the right mix of products I need to deliver information to my users in a timely manner, in the format my users need.

Cons

There are very few things I dislike about this vendor. One minor thing is that they are developing their product suite so rapidly that it is sometimes difficult for me to do the upgrades necessary to keep up! Having said that, I am content to know that what I currently have meets my needs well.

Pricey and difficult to use

Pros

It integrated well with our ERP system. Once the financial statements we created were finalized, it was easy to run them monthly and save a lot of time producing our monthly financial statements.

Cons

If you have intercompany transactions, the "live" database isn't able to report more than one company at a time. This means you have to use the static database, which they recommended we only update once per day. On a tight close, sometimes you catch and make changes the same day as you're producing financials and this can be cumbersome. This was extremely unclear to us before we bought this software. Additionally, I am an ADVANCED Excel user. I am the company's go-to for Excel questions. So imagine my surprise when I struggled helplessly for hours trying to figure out the Excel version of the tool! It is by no means intuitive. We actually had to pay to bring in a consultant to train us on how to use it because the company's 3 divisional controllers (myself included) couldn't create a financial statement despite reading on Solver's website and watching tutorials.

Some growing pains, but overall the best solution to streamline our reporting and budgeting

We are happy to be attending Focus as it gives us an opportunity to learn more about the Bi360 product and network with other users.

Pros

Reporting function, flexibility of product, customer support, and the ability to streamline our existing reports and expand upon our "old" reports and create new reports to satisfy our budget and departmental managers.

Cons

We had a Planning issue where our LID was disappearing from our Data Warehouse. We're not sure what caused this but this resulted in many frustrated customers during our budget input process. Solver has been unable to replicate the issue for us, which is frustrating. We have lost a bit of trust in our planning process.

An excellent product that continues to improve with every new release.

Pros

As a tool, BI360 is incredibly easy to use and quick to implement. We have repeatedly found new uses for the product and it continues to be our go-to solution for data consolidation, reporting and budgeting. As a vendor, we have found Solver to be very responsive, with a genuine commitment to excellence. We like that the warehouse comes with out of the box intelligence around financial reporting. It's not just another cube churning numbers. This allows us to quickly deploy BI360 as a financial consolidation tool.

Cons

Users can sometimes find it confusing that the solution suite is offered via multiple applications. We understand that this approach will change in future releases.

Bi360 has been an amazing time saver for our organization!

Overall, great product. Reporting tool and Planning tool have been invaluable to our organization. Somewhat disappointed in loss of functionality with new version releases.

Pros

I love the Excel based familiarity with all excel functionality available for reporting tool. The online knowledge base is a tremendous resources as well.

Cons

We have had a technical difficulty that the Solver team has not been able to resolve. Very disappointing since we have been very happy with the planning module until we started losing line item detail.

Overall, I am impressed with the software. The Composer interface is very intuitive to use.

Ease of use, scheduling of daily reports, quick daily data refresh, and excellent customer service.

Pros

I like the ability to create reports in Composer, drop to Excel, and share with other users. I use the Publisher tool to generate close to 100 reports daily for the Accounting Team.

Cons

The error messaging is not always clear and concise. There are some limitations on naming tabs when running reports with expanding parameters.

Implementation consultant and report designer

Support services are excellent!

Pros

Flexibility to do any report that you need. Data warehouse is very easy to setup and new fields are available immediately. Fast ramp up time in both implementation and training of new users.

Cons

Planning in web and planning in Excel can't exist in same workbook. Security in system should to go beyond just the dimension codes. Parameter filtering should be multi-level.

Great Functionality and Time-Saving tool.

Extremely Informational

Pros

Solver has the solution our clients use to create effective and helpful reports saving their organizations not only time but money. We hear how over and over the ease of use.

Cons

Sometimes depending on the number of groupings and data, can have rendering issues; timeout when using multi-tab and even the dashboard piece of the solution set is ok but sufficient for larger or more distributed organizations.

Our go-to information development, reporting and budgeting tool

Pros

BI360 is extremely user-friendly and fast to execute. It is our go - to information development, reporting and budgeting option. We discovered Solver to be very responsive as a seller, with a real dedication to competence. Fast ramp up time in both implementation of the tool and training of new users.

Cons

Customer support can be better. We've had a technical issue that they weren't able to resolve.

My opinion of BI360

BI360 is a good product. I'm very happy to see new and improved features added.

Pros

I love the publisher and the fact the report is excel based. It's easy to format and give it the look I want. I also love the ability to schedule my reports to run when I want them to run.

Cons

Something I've noticed that can be time consuming is the switching between design mode and run mode. When designing or modifying a report, switching from design to run to see how the report looks and then switching back to design again can become cumbersome.

Great tool for budgeting and reporting

Overall it is a great tool to use for reporting and budgeting. We have saved time and man power completing our work.

Pros

easy to consolidate. User friendly and ease in navigation. Reports customization is a great tool when it comes to reporting

Cons

Its not easy to troubleshoot problems. We have lost functionality after upgrading. Felt like we took a step back after upgrading. Assignment set up is not as easy as it used to be.

Review for Solver BI-360

Pros

There is a huge learning curve needed to learn this software. However, once you learn how to use it, you will be able to create any kind of reports you want. The potential is limitless.

Cons

I wish there is a "search" function that allows you to easily search for the the tags that you need.

BI360 Has been a great tool for my customers. It has enhance reporting and budgeting and allowed them to add analytics to their reporting

Overall it is a great product for most people in the SMB market space.

Pros

I like the expand-ability to allow multi source data so both financial and operational analysis. One of the best tools I have seen for a typical end user as you do not need IT to create reports.

Cons

Currently some of the date and tree features when in use with excel are difficult to manipulate various reports.

BI360 is easy to use and a powerful tool

John Rayburn is the best!!!! He set us up initially and trained me to be able to make changes and create new reports.

Pros

interfaces with our ERP, works well with the SSI integration, easy to use and customer support is excellent

Cons

sometimes it takes a while to run data extensive reports and forms, when my sales department runs the Final forecast form it takes about 30 minutes to load.

BI360 is an essential tool

Pros

Reports are designed in Excel and users can leverage all Excel functionality. With good ranges and expanding groups, you can design reports that need almost no maintenance.

Cons

Report speed could be improved. Some accountants have a difficult time learning to write reports. Need trees with integrations that run directly on the accounting system.

BI360 has improved our financial reporting capabilities

Pros

Being Microsoft Excel-based, you get to leverage all the capabilities, flexibility and power of Excel.

Cons

There are some opportunities at add functionality that could be added to make the software more powerful, however Solver does a great job of adding enhancement requests, so I'm sure that they will be adding more soon.

Lots of potential but needs dedicated focus to achieve the results (not simple drag and drop)

Pros

The potential and discovering new things that you can accomplish. The Excel add in is great along with the ability to build our own modules in the DWH.

Cons

Learning curve is steep and not as intuitive as advertised. The web portal product is lacking at this stage and seems it has taken a very long time to make the switch to Silverlight. Even though 5.0 is coming out, the emphasis is placed on new customers rather than fixing the problem for current customers.

Such a great program that will save you a ton of time

Pros

I like how easy it is to run revenue and labor reports and how all the data is stored for you. It has saved us so much time on forecasting, budgets and labor reports

Cons

I dont like how easy it is to delete certain things. It would be nice to have a pop asking if you want to delete the item

flexibility, efficiency from integration of data

Pros

report designer, excel interface of budget templates, flexibility of data classification (dimension attributes)

Cons

netsuite integration, customizations in net suite don't allow for automated data feed. Speed and perfomance issues rendering budget templates to Excel.

One software, many uses

Pros

The ease of deployment and training for all users. Love the fact that data warehouse can be used with multiple databases.

Cons

Cost can be prohibitive with smaller customers, and want to have more product bundling for the customers.

Ease of use

Pros

Works with Excel Customer Support Ease of use

Cons

Hours of support are hard to work with when you are on the east coast and support is on the west coast.

BI360 has become my everything

Pros

excel, easy to manipulate, helpful in more ways then just financial reporting, fun to create and build

Cons

speed of reports, support to integrate new systems into the warehouse has become a struggle because techs are to busy

Positive Budgeting Experience

Pros

It is able to adapt to our reasonably complex budgeting process. It is very easy to create new scenarios for future budget periods and has limited overhead required.

Cons

Staff members with poor excel skills struggle to enter data correctly or think there are issues with the budgets when it is user error (however they have struggled with previous software we have put in place)

BI 360 has reduced our month end financial reporting time in half. Great product.

No

Pros

Ease of creating reports, able to create reports on the fly in many different ways, ease of adding in charts.

Cons

Upgrades have not been smooth. At times we lost functionality that we originally had in prior versions

Automation through BI360 Suite saves time and adds value

Pros

The ability to automate report generation, distribution, with reports you can customize to match your needs.

Cons

The 4.0 platform uses Silverlight, but that is about to change with the new 5.0 platform and already live in the cloud format.

Nice Experience

Pros

Great graphical illustrations and reporting functionalities. The various ways we can slice and dice the data.

Cons

Need to make it more user friendly as well as make it more closer to the formats like excel which everyone is used to.

Great product

Need more training conferences such as this Solver Focus 2017. This has been an excellent experience.

Pros

Simple, yet complex. Ease of use takes practice and hands on approach. Having Excel knowledge previously allows for better understanding of the BI360 Suite

Cons

It takes a lot of time to learn and build reports. Trial and error will occur. Need to access the support website and consultants often.

Focus 2017

Solver is a great road map to the next level, and it will provide a foundation for beyond

Pros

Solver is a Comprehensive Applications, the Excel interface is excellent because it builds on known skills

Cons

Learning something new but that is also positive as well, It is also tough to get my team to embrace the change. So application change plan is really helpful.

BI360 Focus 2017

Overall a great product and I love learning new tips and tricks on the software

Pros

Easy to write your own reports. Support is amazing and very knowledgeable if you run into any problems. Solver team takes feedback from customers and works to improve any problems

Cons

Our company doesn't use all of the functions or capability of the product yet so it can seem a bit expensive

BI360 is great

Pros

So easy to use. It has made our departments so much more self sufficient and has freed up critical time for my stretched accounting staff. The departments are amazed!

Cons

The one thing I would say is a con is that it would be better to have a way to print directly from the module rather than downloading it.

BI360 has been helpful in providing our financial reports to our users

Pros

Our IT team is able to create reports easily and deliver to our users through portal with support of our partner and solver.

Cons

I wish there was one place in Report Designer to see all the report settings and an easier ETL tool to upload information from our financial and association management software.

Impactful Software

Pros

My favorite feature of this product is that I can now query data like a pro. I can create reports on the spot which is impressive to all users!

Cons

The setup may be slightly time consuming, but the rewards are totally worth it afterwards. I feel that the training at Focus sets me up for success.

Great software, very customizable

Good stuff!

Pros

customization and the amount of possible applications. Integration possibilities with all systems that companies use

Cons

reporting via data trees doesnt work as expected/designed. tough to implement all pieces of the software without someone experienced in it.

Great Experience with Reporting

Pros

The ease of reporting is great, and I love that I can access relevant financial data to make faster decisions at the click of a button.

Cons

I would like to see better/more informational user guides that give more detailed instructions in various areas.

It's great to have your report based in Excel, very easy to use.

Nice support people to help you through!

Pros

Excel based financial statements, easy to use if you know even basic Excel. The software is costs are reasonable. Easy to learn!

Cons

I do not have a use for composer. Sometimes the reports do not run correctly.

New User That Is Excited About the Possibilities

Pros

Flexibility in doing cross-functional analytics and reporting Ease of distribution and self-service possibilities for report users

Cons

Longer initial design required than expected. Determining best practices are not as apparent as hoped.

BI360 is a key solution set for our customers.

Pros

Powerful reporting with heavy Excel focus - a true BI tool. Love the new BI360 Cloud as this should be a key differentiator for cloud focused clients.

Cons

Report speed needs to be faster for directly integrated solutions - i.e. Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL.

love BI 360

Tribridge is the partner we use and they are awesome

Pros

Very user friendly and has many useful features. We have been very happy in moving to this product.

Cons

sometimes error messages are hard to resolve. Other than that I don't feel there is cons to this software platform

Worth the money - endless capabilities

Pros

BI360 allows the user to run any type of report in excel pulling from fields within the software system. It has a multitude of uses. It is user-friendly and its capabilities are virtually limitless.

Cons

Reports sometimes get stalled and take longer than usual to run, but that does not happen often.

Starting Out

Pros

customizable. several functions are available to help with period calculations One throat to choke for data warehouse, budgets, and financials. Do not have to learn multiple systems to manage each of them from an administraiton prospective.

Cons

There does not seem to be a learning track to really define how to build dash boards and the data warehouse. Beginner and Intermediate courses were too financially focused for my needs but my interests lies in more complex use of the application. I guided set of courses would make things easier to allow you to build up to what you need. Website to access data is present but not well organized to allow a user to go through a learning track.

Poor BI360 Product and Solver support

Daily run errors, reports not available due to running and always patches to be uploaded to deal with errors. Services and support due to USA and SA different time zones non existing leaving the user frustrated. I am sorry that we have selected this product as our data reporting product.

Pros

The dream: The capabilities presented and user capabilities to create and have reporting available.

Cons

Daily running problems - If report data is not available or only running the product is of no use. Partners for installation clearly define Solver support as problematic to deliver. Now I see that all reviews are specifying this.

Top notch product

Pros

The possibilities are endless with this product. The user is able to create customized reports consisting of essentially any data point available within the software program. Very robust program.

Cons

Training is a must, and users must be comfortable with the software from which BI is extracting data and proficient in excel.

Beginning setup issues...more on-track now, but more adjustments necessary

Need better and more timely responses to where Product Suggestions or Enhancements are in the BI360 software development pipeline. I suggest a similar customer portal as Microsoft Connect.

Pros

Great flexibility in configuring the initial SSIS package and also in utilizing virutally any MS Excel feature.

Cons

Extremely challenging to modify SSIS package or ETL once initial configuration is determined. We had a very poor experience in initial scoping and planning before our implementation.

Phenomenal B.I. Tool for the Money

A complete solution for Financial Reporting, Planning and Budgeting

Pros

Love that it runs entirely in Excel, the language of accounting and finance. Data Warehouse is easy to configure, easy to maintain. Has full Excel functionality in report building, dashboards, presentation styling, etc.

Cons

There could be a more robust training and help environment. Most of the users would benefit from a robust catalog of examples, ideas, and exercises to help build proficiency in the tool.

Informative

This software is one of the easiest to pickup and learn, as it's excel based which everyone knows.

Pros

Ease of use, integrations with other 3rd party products, data warehouse, publisher; excel based, so can use excel formulas.

Cons

sometimes depending on amount of groupings and data, can have rendering issues; timeout when using multi-tab.

Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis

Pros

I like the integration with Microsoft suite of products. The flexibility of the period functions is exceptional.

Cons

I would like to see easier integration with Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI. I would like to see the ability to have IF statements within the system. We use the Portal to have our employees run the reports and macros+conditional formatting are not available like in Excel

Great CPM software

Pros

If you need a really good corporate performance management solution that will have everything from budgeting to forecasting. This is your software. With a bunch of different modules available on this software, it will suite most business needs

Cons

Little difficult to learn, not very non tech savy for people like myself. Mostly due to the different modules.

Great tool after you get past the learning curve

so far our company is liking the product. Need more time to learn the software and develop budgeting process.

Pros

Very Flexible, Allows for tons of Customization, Excel Based, nice portal features. The excel features allow us to have several power users .

Cons

Large learning Curve, level of customization means no real set of directions or core reports with product out of the box.

bi360 vacek

more tutorals and hands on training. We purchased this software to streamline our data to management

Pros

easier to use then prior software that we we using in the office. Streamlines the data and creates financials.