Halo Software

Halo has unlocked the data from the Dynamics AX safe

Prior to having a BI solution we were like many other companies I am sure. Exporting data straight from our ERP system into mostly Excel based reports. This was not only time consuming but also led to many errors in reporting, often having more than one version of the truth. That is why we decided to explore what our options were with BI. During our evaluation of many different BI vendors/software we quickly saw Halo rise above the rest. Halo Source is everything you need from a data warehouse, and cube creation perspective. On top of that, it is using full Microsoft based technology which makes the learning curve extremely fast, even for those non-developers. A deciding factor for Halo was the data quality module. Everyone has some form of dirty data, but Halo has a solution for that. It was the only company that offered this sort of feature and was a major reason we selected Halo as our business intelligence solution. You absolutely do not need to know how to write SQL to spin up your own data warehouse and cubes for use with Halo Prism. On the topic of Prism it is very streamlined visualization tool. Drag and drop with as many visual options as you would need. Prism has allowed us to gain insight into our data that we have struggled see. We truly believe that this will be one our most successfully projects that has the largest impact since our ERP implementation, and even then this is really the icing on the cake for our complete ERP suite.

Pros

Support from the point of sale and beyond. I have never been sold a product where the vendor kept constant contact even after the sale and install. Halo truly cares about their customers and their product, and we look forward to a long successful relationship with them.
Prism is extremely user friendly, drag and drop measures and dimensions to quickly and easily answer questions about your business.
Only software/solution to address data quality as a key part of the ETL process.
Solution experts who really know my business and our ERP system.
Training was exceptional.
Prebuilt templates to address industry specific needs.

Cons

Wish we could have moved forward with our BI approval faster. This was on us not Halo we just were not sure as a Business what we wanted. But once we had our demo it was clear Halo was our top choice. Power BI put a wrench in this process giving pause from our Executives, but once I tried to replicate some reports in Power BI and saw how large the learning curve was and that it did not include the foundation of any BI solution (a data warehouse) Halo again was where we turned.

Halo exceeds with lstest release of thier BI solution

Halo delivers a premium BI solution that is more that just easy to use, state of Art solution. The products time to value is fantastic you can have BI dashboards available in half the time of many competitors, and can be supported by users in the departments with little support from IT. We really were excited about the pre-built interfaces to many of the standard ERP and CRM solutions, along with Standard view templates by industry and company departments requirements. With the most recent release they know have predictive analytics to allow you to forecast "look forward" trends based upon industry standard predictive models.

Pros

I feel the customer support and quality of the software is fantastic. we have gone through 6 upgrades without issues, and the support was working with us every step of the way, without any extra costs other than the annual maintenance. The other real benefit we experienced was the ability to import data from multiple sets of systems, integrate them into one cohesive data set, validate the data, and deliver actionable prebuild templates for our industry.

Cons

As Halo grows the software is getting better and better, they are investing heavily with industry experts and is becoming a Tier one supplier with more knowledge than just another BI platform.

Halo's latest solution exceeds all expectations

Make sure to take advantage of the proof of concept. This is when you see your data working in their system and it gives you a good sense on how you'll be using it on your daily activities.

Pros

Software and support are great. Our company had several upgrades and we had assistance during each one. The main value is the ability to blend data and use the pre-built dashboards and reports. These allow to see value right away. Whole project was up and running in just a few weeks.

Cons

Their app doesn't have all functions that the desktop version has but considering this type of software we normally use desktop versions regardless.

Halo is our answer to dozens of daily questions about our business!

Best reporting investment we have ever made! Great company to work with. Post support is unparalleled. Response and attention to our questions and issues is prompt and thorough. They keep adding enhancements and pre-programmed modules to keep us on the proactive side of daily business decisions!

Pros

Browser agnostic
Ease of accessibility for Remote employees
Scheduled reporting
Simple, varied Charting functionality
Flexibility of using several types of data sources to combine data in one view

Cons

Pane sizing - views with a lot of measures run out of real estate
Time Dimension response when changing from saved view default

Not just a product, a solution!

Halo BI has developed a fantastic product for solving the analytical problems a company typically encounters. Pairing a strong data engine (data warehouse, ETL) with an easy-to-use front end they've created a solution that we embraced quickly and appeased both the technical data guru's and the data consumers who just want to drag, drop, point and click. Mobile reporting and the ability to handle forecasting round out the offering nicely.

Pros

Easy-to-use front end for dashboarding and reporting. Most users pick up on navigation very quickly and are excited to be able to view their data from many different perspectives. Simplicity in use for end users with a powerful data warehouse and ETL to provide the data to them are a great combination. Having it be a mobile solution as well was key for our user base. Customer support has been excellent to compliment the solution.

Cons

Very good solution overall and a lot to like here. If I had to pick something it would be enhancing formatted reporting, though I haven't seen many solutions that address this well today and also provide the benefits Halo provides in one package.

Halo Prism

The overall experience of this product has been very good and satisfying. It has 2 applications. The webportal and the etl tool. Both are very user friendly and easy to use and develop in.

Pros

The portal is very user friendly with lots of features. The ETL Tool is very good and easier to use than SSIS and other tools. Manu Ikkala has been a very knowledgeable and very prompt in his support.

Cons

The ability to show lots of measures against the time dimension

Using Prism for sales, sampling and stock reporting

Pros

Prism software is easy to use, simple to customise and change reports, data can be taken from multiple sources, reports can be distributed automatically. There are regular enhancements to the product. Halo keep me well informed about new features. Support for modifications is generally prompt.

Cons

No major complaints. A simpler way to email reports or choose specific data from reports and print to PDF or email would be good. Reports with quite a few calculated field can be slow to run. The report updates after every change you make - perhaps might be useful at times to be able to make several changes and then have it update.

Halo makes it easy for use to find to measure performance and find trends.

Halo software and support is great, gives you a good sense of understanding the concepts and functionality. I love it's flexibility and easy to use.

Pros

This software is fast, smarter, and helps our business organize data. No matter how unrefined our data is, this software was created for the purpose to stay organize and track trends that helps companies make faster and smarter decisions.

Cons

Halo offers limited customization. It can be a bit challenging using the integration to other systems. Not user friendly for sync integration. If you pay lower price, then you will get what you paid for it's true functionality.

Halo BI - Useful tool that adds value to our MS CRM Enviroment

Pros

Halo BI has added significant value to our Microsoft Dynamics CRM environment. It is easy to integrate with multiple data sources for 360 views from lead to invoice. From a user perspective, I have found that users find the interface intuitive in building reports to meet their individual needs. The Dashboard graphic capabilities are a big hit with our users.

Cons

Would like to see more robust export capabilities in gathering views into a single report.

Easy to use and well supported.

Pros

The broad range of connectors, and the functionality and flexibility of the product make it great fit for our company needs. The template database makes it easy to build dashboards by incorporating best practice measures by area of business.

Cons

On-premise only means cloud data sources must be replicated or partially extracted locally for inclusion.

Highly usable for programmers and executives alike.

Pros

Prism is powerful and highly customizable. Source data is easily readable in SQL Server. The software is continuously evolving. Service top notch; a quick email asking how to accomplish something is often responded to within the hour.

Cons

A few nuances that have workarounds or functions that aren't intuitive, especially in Source. For some offhand examples: Ctrl+S doesn't save a project. You can't add a SQL Expression field if the datasource is Access (without fiddling with the source fields). Can't delete a range out of the processing log. I think there are occasions when right-clicks don't do what I'd expect. Just really minor things that trip me up for a moment and I don't think about them again until next time.

Halo - great product!!!

Great product - very powerful. If you cant think up an idea, this platform and the guys behind it can make it happen.

Pros

Integrates well, and has plenty of data input options.

Cons

Could still be easier for staff to build views. You have to be a little analytics orientated to drive the backside of this beast.

Easy to use BI tool

Great product overall. Our users have easily adapted to using it and greatly prefer Halo compared with SSRS reports and/or connecting Excel to a cube. It still uses the reliable Microsoft backend (database engine, SSIS, & SSAS) and makes it all usable without having to be an expert in everything.

Pros

Very user friendly for both users and administrators. As an administrator of several applications, I've found this is one of the easiest to learn.

Cons

Loose a little flexibility with charts and other formatting. However, Halo has been in contact with us asking what they could do to improve their product.

HALO Review

As I don't have the kills in-house to complete a lot of the work currently, we've been leveraging the skills of the Darren. Darren is great at understanding what we're asking, and also looking at the bigger picture and offering options for things we hadn't even considered. Moving forward, we'd eventually like to have training for myself and Lauren so we can start to do more of this work ourselves

Pros

It is a tool we've never had before within the company
Once understood, easy to use the date to see what we want to see
Graphical interface
Good update schedule each year

Cons

Speed of some views (however this is related to our server resource)
There are a lot of features for HALO, however we're only scratching the surface with this

Value in all areas we have used this software

Pros

Visibility in inventory production and finance.
Value in planning strategy
Metrics for shop floor goals.

Cons

None so far, this has been great for our planning, company strategy and on time delivery goals. Training users may be an issue when the time comes.

My Experience thus far

From the start of training to support afterward, I've been completely impressed. This product is honestly amazing. I have never seen a company provide the level of support with the almost instant response times from their support team. Not to mention the politeness and knowledge provided. Halo truly provides more than they advertise.

Pros

Ease of use - once you get into using it, you get hooked on what can be done.
Security - as an administrator I decide who sees what and at what level.
Prebuilt to my needs - haven't found what it can't do yet or what the great support team can't help us with.

Cons

What do I like least about this product. Well nothing so far. The only limitation when creating a View is your imagination.

Halo as a great business tool

The Halo team was great to work with and provided superb customer support. We were able to do a quick implementation and were up and running quickly for our leadership team.

Pros

I like the fact that the information provided is in an easy to understand format and you can quickly see if there is a business metric that needs to be investigated. Halo is easy for the leadership team to use and to do their own quick drill downs without having to ask IT for assistance. It is very intuitive. We view BI as a resource to point management to what to focus on and Halo provides an excellent tool to accomplish this.

Cons

There really are no cons. I find it a bit distracting the way we get pop up boxes when navigating the mouse over the charts, but that is a minor thing.

I manage and use Halo on a regular basis.

Pros

I'm a big advocate of Halo Source and use it to integrate lots of our disparate data sources. It was very easy to pick up and learn, after a few hours of training - I was up and running and continue to use it to this day. It's helped us significantly reduce our data integration and report authoring turnarounds. We're using it as a foundation to build our BI/A stack.

Cons

There's nothing I like least - the Halo team is fast and responsive and always keen on solving any and all issues we come across.

Very happy with Halo

Pros

Very good balance between usability and functionality
Relatively simple for business analysts and computer literate users to "own" the cube side of things
Very easy for people with low/medium computer skills to analyse the data (presentation side of things)

Cons

I have nothing negative to say about either Halo Source or Halo Prism

Long time user - have seen the evolution.

Pros

The best thing about this product is how easy it is to train our non-techie users. The vendor has always supported us and have worked to handle our needs and issues.

Cons

There are limited options for getting the training needed to enable internal staff to handle basic changes in the application. There is sometimes over-promise in the selling process.