Translation of Incuriosando‘s article about Vizubi. We have no affiliation with Incuriosando or with the sfero.net website in any way.  The article was translated by Syntes.

I’ve got to admit that when I first heard about Vizubi and I figured out it let users do Business Intelligence inside Excel I got goosebumps (and not in a good way).
Like most IT managers, I normally associate Microsoft tools to total data anarchy, liberty for all and truth for none, to blue screens and the uncontrollable explosion of dimensions. I think of the hours spent trying to recover data, racing to “secure” data and logic hard wired through years of Excel spreadsheets which have now become mission critical and therefore need to be centralized.
Even if none of the visions of the apocalypse I described above were to become reality, sooner or later Excel just can’t handle the load that users put on it and therefore the need arises to create and maintain macro on top of macro on top of macro (I call it the Big Mac-ro).

So long story short, when I think about spreadsheets, implicitly I envision having to pick up the pieces.

At least until now.

What Syntes tried to tackle was how to satisfy the two seemingly opposing requirements of user on the one hand who value simplicity and IT on the other which is concerned with security and data consistency across users.

If Vizubi isn’t 100% on the mark, they’ve gotten pretty close.

In fact, with the Vizubi project, Syntes is developing a series of features which allow users to manage data inside Excel. Spreadsheets, in fact, have everything that users need to manage numbers and show analyses from these numbers. What is missing is a single repository from which to get data so that users can’t modify them by mistake (or by mistake on purpose…). What’s missing is data consistency and guidelines.

A local database was created (based on a columnar model of data storage) with connectors to various data sources which include other databases as well as Excel workbooks, text files etctetera. Vizubi is the only product (other than QlikView) that can read files in .qvd format (QlikView data files)
The thing that distinguishes Vizubi from other products is ease of use and the Excel centric philosophy; users should be able to do everything.
Even data import is an activity which does not require users to have systems or programming capabilities. Thanks to the use of templates, wizards and drag and drop functionality, it is possible to create a business intelligence program even if one is not a programmer taking into consideration, obviously, that what you are doing is business intelligence analysis.

Launch Excel and click on the Vizubi tab and start importing data using the data import wizard which guides users in preparing data for analysis. Forget about SQL queries; it’s all visual including the creation/modification of dimensions of the data cloud (the technique Vizubi uses rather than classic OLAP cubes) which will be the basis for reports and graphics. In particular it is important to note that time dimensions are managed automatically by the product obviating the need for repetitive and error prone tasks on the part of the user.

Once I’ve prepared my data, I’m in Excel so I can use templates, filters, graphics and formulas, add and remove columns; it feels like a a normal spreadsheet with static data. But actually the data is dynamic; every action is actually carried out at the level of the Vizubi DB and on the definition of the data structure. Ease of use (anyone who uses Excel can do BI analyses) and data consistency (Vizubi maintains its data aligned with the source data).

How is Vizubi meant to work?

Let’s not forget that it’s based on the Excel workbooks which are on the local machine on which you are doing your analysis. I can imagine putting Vizubi database files on a network drive but access is exclusive; only a single user can access the file at one time.

Clearly considering the architecture and price point Vizubi is not meant to manage the data of a large multi-national but it works well at the department level. A few users who need to create a data structure and analyze data and many users who need to consume the output. In a sort of client server environment.

So let’s think about a complex office; how could we manage that? Easy. Vizubi can import data from other Vizubi databases!
I can create hierarchical centralized data marts which aggregate portions of enterprise databases at multiple levels to create an enterprise wide vision.

Here’s a concrete example:
• Giovanni creates sales reports and analyses; Marco does the same for purchases and Luca on production flows. Each has a personal Vizubi database which loads data from portions of the enterprise IT system.
• Michele needs to monitor production from components to shipping. His datamart is built from the Vizubi database which is used by Giovanni, Marco and Luca.
• And on and on for cost of quality, R&D down to financials. In this way each user can work without slowing down anyone else.

This is for those who need to product analyses. For consumers of analyses, there are a series of possibilities. I can share static Excel worksheets based on Vizubi data, or I can share workbooks plus data for those who need to navigate reports dynamically. There are also Vizubi APIs being developed to allow other applications to use the Vizubi engine. This could further simplify the scenarios I just described.

If you are curious and want more information on how to do BI with Vizubi, there are a series of tutorials on the Vizubi YouTube channel; here’s an overview:

The other videos you can see on the YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Vizubi

Finally, it’s possible to download a full featured free 30 day free trial from the Vizubi website:
http://www.vizubi.com/download-free-trial/

Translation of Incuriosando‘s article about Vizubi. We have no affiliation with Incuriosando or with the sfero.net website in any way.  The article was translated by Syntes.

I’ve got to admit that when I first heard about Vizubi and I figured out it let users do Business Intelligence inside Excel I got goosebumps (and not in a good way).<0}

{0>Da bravo addetto ai lavori sono abituato ad associare il tool microsoft all’anarchia, alla liberta per l’utente di fare tutto ciò che non deve, ai crash dovuti all’esplosione incontrollata delle dimensioni, alle ore perse a recuperare dati essenziali, alle corse per “la messa in sicurezza” di una serie di logiche cablate negli anni in excel e divenute patrimonio aziendale, quindi da centralizzare.<}0{>Like most IT managers, I normally associate Microsoft tools to total data anarchy, liberty for all and truth for none, to blue screens and the uncontrollable explosion of dimensions.  I think of the hours spent trying to recover data, racing to “secure” data and logic hard wired through years of Excel spreadsheets which have now become mission critical and therefore need to be centralized.<0}

{0>Anche perchè, se anche non si avvera nessuno degli scenari apocalittici su descritti, prima o poi excel diventa insufficiente per gestire tutto quello che i suoi fautori/utilizzatori hanno in mente e quindi ti vengono commissionate macro su macro su macro.<}0{>Even if none of the visions of the apocalypse I described above were to become reality, sooner or later Excel just can’t handle the load that users put on it and therefore the need arises to create and maintain macro on top of macro on top of macro (I call it the Big Mac-ro).<0}