Holistics - Detailed Review
Data Tools
Holistics - Product Overview
Overview
Holistics is a modern Business Intelligence (BI) platform that simplifies data access, analysis, and reporting for organizations. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:Primary Function
Holistics is built to enable self-service data access across an entire organization. It allows data teams to pre-define business metrics and data logic, which business users can then use to perform self-service data exploration and build their own visualizations and reports without needing to write SQL queries.Target Audience
The primary target audience for Holistics includes data teams and business users within organizations. Data teams use Holistics to define business metrics, datasets, and reports, while business users consume these predefined reports or build their own using intuitive visual report builders.Key Features
Data Integration and Automation
Holistics streamlines data integration by automatically syncing production data into reporting databases without the need for custom scripts. It supports various data sources, including Google Spreadsheets, Excel, and CSV files, and allows for easy data mapping and filtering using simple JSON configurations.Visualization and Reporting
The platform offers a powerful chart library with strong customization options, enabling users to create interactive dashboards and reports. Users can build different metrics and KPIs for various departments and analyze data on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Advanced filters and drill-down capabilities allow for deeper data analysis.Automation of Reports
Holistics allows for the automation of report delivery via scheduled email reports that include charts, data tables, and Excel/CSV attachments. Reports can be shared with individual users or groups, with access controlled at the report, row, and column levels.SQL Workspace
The SQL Workspace is tailored for SQL analysts, allowing them to write and run SQL queries intuitively. Features include abstracting duplicate SQL snippets into reusable query templates and articulating business logic using Holistics’ data modeling language.Data Modeling and Exploration
Data teams can define business logic in one place, ensuring consistency across all reports. Non-technical users can explore datasets to build reports and dashboards without writing SQL queries. The platform also supports derived models, allowing users to build complex analyses step-by-step and reuse datasets created by colleagues.User Access Control and Timezone Handling
Holistics provides tight control over data sharing at multiple levels and intelligently handles timezone differences between the database and user locations. Additional features include built-in time-period comparisons, data alerts, and support for modern SQL databases.Conclusion
Overall, Holistics aims to make data access and analysis more accessible and efficient for both technical and non-technical users within an organization. Holistics - User Interface and Experience
User Interface and Experience of Holistics
The user interface and experience of Holistics, a self-service Business Intelligence (BI) platform, are crafted to be intuitive, user-friendly, and highly interactive, particularly for business users who may not have technical expertise.
Ease of Use
Holistics is designed to make data access and analysis simple for non-technical users. The platform allows business users to explore data and build reports without needing to write SQL queries. Users can interact with pre-defined datasets and reports created by the data team, using visual report builders that simplify the process of data exploration.
User Interface
The interface is characterized by its visual and interactive elements. Users can build reports by selecting from predefined datasets, and they can customize these reports using drag-and-drop tools. The platform offers features like filtering, drilling down into data, and comparing data across different time periods, all of which are accessible through an intuitive interface.
Interactive Dashboards
Holistics enables users to create and interact with dashboards that are highly interactive. These dashboards can be customized to match the user’s application style, using a unique canvas layout that allows for pixel-perfect design. This feature is particularly useful for embedding analytics into external applications, ensuring a seamless and consistent user experience.
Self-Service Capabilities
The platform is built around the concept of self-service BI, allowing business users to perform ad-hoc data exploration without relying on the data team. This reduces the workload on data teams and empowers business users to get the answers they need quickly.
Future Enhancements
There is an ongoing consideration to incorporate Natural Language Processing (NLP) interfaces into the platform. This would enable users to ask questions in natural language, making it even easier for them to access the data they need without worrying about the technical aspects of data querying.
Security and Access Control
Holistics also includes strong user access control features, allowing administrators to tightly control how data is shared at the report, row, and column levels. This ensures that users only see the data they are authorized to access, enhancing security and compliance.
Overall User Experience
The overall user experience is focused on coherence and consistency. Holistics aims to provide a seamless and predictable experience by aligning all aspects of the user interface and interaction. This includes ensuring that the platform is adaptable to different contexts and usage situations, making it relevant and effective across various devices and environments.
Conclusion
In summary, Holistics offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies data analysis for business users, promotes self-service data access, and provides a highly interactive and customizable experience. The platform’s focus on ease of use and comprehensive features makes it an effective tool for data exploration and reporting.
Holistics - Key Features and Functionality
Holistics: A Self-Service Business Intelligence Platform
Holistics, a self-service Business Intelligence (BI) and data analytics platform, offers several key features that make it an invaluable tool for businesses looking to transform raw data into actionable insights. Here are the main features and how they work:
Data Connection and Integration
Holistics connects directly to your SQL database, allowing you to build insightful reports without the need to store your data elsewhere. It supports various modern SQL databases, ensuring seamless integration with your existing data infrastructure.
Self-Service Data Access
Holistics enables business users to access and explore data independently, without needing to write SQL or bother the data team. Data teams define business metrics, datasets, and reports, which business users can then consume or use to build their own reports using visual report builders.
Centralized Business Logic
Data teams can define business logic in one place, ensuring consistency across all reports. When business logic changes, the update is reflected automatically across all related reports, eliminating the issue of inconsistent numbers from different reports.
Report Building and Visualization
Non-technical users can build reports and dashboards using intuitive visual tools. They can filter data, drill through existing dashboards, and compare data between different time periods. This interactivity helps in deep data exploration and visualization.
User Access Control
Holistics provides tight control over how data is shared, allowing administrators to manage access at the report, row, and column levels. This ensures that sensitive data is only accessible to authorized users.
Smart Timezone Handling
The platform intelligently handles timezone differences between the database and the users, ensuring that data is displayed correctly regardless of the user’s location.
Data Alerts
Holistics offers advanced data alerts that notify users when significant changes occur in the data, based on predefined conditions. This feature helps in real-time monitoring and quick response to data changes.
Collaboration and Sharing
Users can share insights and reports easily with stakeholders via various methods such as Slack, email, and webhooks. This facilitates communication and decision-making across different departments.
AI Integration
While Holistics itself is not primarily an AI-driven product, it does automate several processes that would otherwise require manual intervention. For example, it automates the updating of business logic across all reports, ensures data consistency, and provides real-time alerts. However, it does not incorporate advanced AI features like machine learning or predictive analytics. The focus is on making data analysis and reporting more accessible and efficient for non-technical users.
Conclusion
In summary, Holistics is a powerful tool that empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions by providing a user-friendly, self-service BI platform that streamlines data exploration, reporting, and visualization, all without the need for extensive technical expertise.
Holistics - Performance and Accuracy
Evaluating the Performance and Accuracy of Holistics
To evaluate the performance and accuracy of Holistics in the AI-driven data tools category, we need to focus on the specific metrics and methodologies that assess model performance, particularly those related to data analysis and machine learning.Accuracy Degradation Factor (ADF) and Accuracy Degradation Profile (ADP)
While the provided sources do not directly discuss Holistics, we can apply the concepts of Accuracy Degradation Factor (ADF) and Accuracy Degradation Profile (ADP) to understand how any data tool, including Holistics, might be evaluated.Accuracy Degradation Factor (ADF)
This metric helps identify the point at which a model’s performance starts to degrade significantly due to changes in the dataset. A lower ADF value indicates a more robust model against dataset shifts.
Accuracy Degradation Profile (ADP)
This method evaluates how the accuracy of a model changes as the dataset size is reduced. It helps in identifying neighborhoods within the dataset where the model’s performance drops noticeably.
Application to Holistics
If Holistics employs machine learning models for data analysis, these models’ performance could be evaluated using ADF and ADP.Performance Evaluation
To assess Holistics’ performance, one would need to apply ADP to see how the accuracy of its models changes with reductions in the dataset. This would highlight any areas where the model is less robust.
Accuracy
The accuracy of Holistics’ models can be measured by comparing predicted labels against actual labels, similar to the example provided in the ADF and ADP context. Localized performance variations can indicate where the model might need improvement or additional data.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
Data Quality and Size
Models used in Holistics, like any other machine learning models, are highly dependent on the quality and size of the dataset. If the dataset is noisy or small, models may suffer from overfitting or poor generalization.
Feature Engineering
The effectiveness of Holistics’ models could be improved through better feature engineering, ensuring that the most relevant features are used to train the models.
Model Selection
Choosing the right model for the task is crucial. For example, LSTM models are good for time-series data but require large datasets and are computationally expensive. SVM models are good for classification but may struggle with noisy or large datasets.
Conclusion
Without specific information directly from Holistics or its documentation, we can infer that the performance and accuracy of its AI-driven data tools would benefit from:- Regular evaluation using metrics like ADF and ADP to identify potential performance degradation.
- Ensuring high-quality and sufficient data to train and test models.
- Continuous improvement in feature engineering and model selection based on the specific needs of the data and the tasks at hand.
Holistics - Pricing and Plans
Holistics IO Pricing Overview
Holistics IO, a self-service business intelligence (BI) platform, offers a variety of pricing plans to cater to different business needs. Here’s a detailed outline of their pricing structure and the features included in each plan:
Free Trial
Holistics IO provides a 14-day free trial, allowing users to explore its features and functionalities without any cost or the need for a credit card.
Entry Plan
- The Entry plan is the most basic option, starting at $100 per month.
- It includes core self-service analytics features, such as the ability to build reports without SQL knowledge.
- This plan is suitable for proof of concept (PoC) or analytics beginners.
Standard Plan
- The Standard plan starts at $720 per month when billed monthly, or $600 per month when billed yearly, saving up to 20%.
- This plan includes everything in the Entry plan, plus additional features like embedded dashboards, custom charts, and advanced as-code capabilities.
- Add-ons for the Standard plan include $120 per month for embedded workers and $15 per month for additional users.
Security Compliance Suite (SCS) Plan
- The SCS plan starts at $960 per month when billed monthly, or $800 per month when billed yearly, saving up to 20%.
- This plan builds upon the Standard plan by adding security features such as single sign-on (SSO), role-based access control (RBAC), and IP access restrictions.
- It includes 20 users, unlimited reports, and 3 embedded workers.
Custom Plan
- The Custom plan is designed for businesses with unique requirements.
- Pricing for this plan is not fixed and requires contacting the sales team to get a quotation.
- Features can include user activity monitoring, unlimited users, and white-labeling options.
Summary
In summary, Holistics IO does not offer a free plan beyond the 14-day free trial. Each plan is structured to meet the varying needs of businesses, from basic analytics to advanced security and customization options.
Holistics - Integration and Compatibility
Holistics Overview
Holistics, a self-service Business Intelligence (BI) platform, integrates seamlessly with a variety of data sources and tools, making it a versatile solution for data analytics and reporting.
Database Compatibility
Holistics supports a wide range of SQL databases, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Snowflake, Presto, Clickhouse, and more.
- Each supported database has its own set of features, such as table and SQL model creation, persistence modes (full, incremental, upsert), and data modeling capabilities. However, not all functionalities are supported uniformly across all databases.
ETL and Data Warehouses
For integrating data from various sources, Holistics recommends using dedicated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools. For example, you can use Stitch’s ETL solution to integrate and transform data from multiple sources, which can then be connected to Holistics for analysis and visualization.
- Holistics works well with modern data warehouses and does not require storing your data, allowing it to connect directly to your SQL database.
Non-SQL Data Sources
For NoSQL data sources (like MongoDB, CouchDB) and application data sources (such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Facebook Ads), it is recommended to use an ETL tool to load the data into a data warehouse before connecting it to Holistics.
Integration with Other Tools
Holistics can be integrated with other tools and platforms to streamline data analytics. For instance:
- Panoply Integration: By integrating with Panoply, Holistics can benefit from automated ETL pipelines, secure data management, and efficient data transmission.
- Lyftrondata Integration: This integration allows for connecting data from ERP, CRM, legacy databases, and over 300 other sources, enabling instant analytics and streamlined data processes.
User Access and Interactivity
Holistics provides features that enhance user engagement and interactivity:
- Self-Service Data Access: Business users can access and explore data without needing to write SQL or bother the data team. They can build reports, dashboards, and perform ad-hoc data exploration.
- User Access Control: The platform allows tight control over how data is shared at the report, row, and column levels.
- Interactive Dashboards: Users can interact with dashboards through filtering, drilling down data, and comparing data between different time periods.
API and Sharing Capabilities
Holistics offers API capabilities, allowing for seamless integration with other systems and tools. Users can share insights and reports via Slack, email, webhooks, and other methods.
Conclusion
In summary, Holistics integrates well with a variety of databases and tools, supports ETL processes, and provides a user-friendly interface for non-technical users to access and analyze data. Its compatibility across different platforms and devices makes it a flexible solution for various data analytics needs.
Holistics - Customer Support and Resources
Support Channels
Holistics primarily offers email support, which is the main channel for contacting their support team. You can reach out to them via email at.
Contact Support Form
For convenience, you can also fill out the Contact Support form directly within the Holistics platform. This form helps you provide the necessary details to expedite the resolution of your issue.
Severity Levels and Response Times
Holistics categorizes support requests into three severity levels:
- L1 (Critical): Issues that significantly impact business operations, with a response time of 1 business day.
- L2 (Major): Issues that degrade system function and performance but do not completely halt operations, with a response time of 2 business days.
- L3 (Minor): Non-critical issues that affect non-essential functionality, with a response time of 3 business days.
Additional Information for Support Requests
To speed up the investigation and resolution process, it is helpful to provide specific details in your support email, such as:
- Report ID(s) or Definition ID(s) affected
- Job Run/Execution ID(s) affected
- User ID(s) affected
- Indicative time-period of the issue
- Supplementing information
- Screenshots of error pages
- Relevant attachments
Status Page
You can check the current status of Holistics on their Status Page at.
Live Diagnosis
In cases of critical bugs, Holistics may initiate video calls for live diagnosis by their engineers. You will be informed about the support method to be used.
By utilizing these support channels and providing the necessary information, you can efficiently resolve issues and get the assistance you need from Holistics.
Holistics - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Holistics
Accessibility and Compatibility
Holistics is highly accessible, as it is a 100% browser-based platform that works seamlessly on all operating systems, including Mac, Linux, and Windows. This makes it more versatile compared to tools like PowerBI, which are heavily Microsoft-centric and require installation for full analysis and reporting capabilities.
Version Control and Collaboration
Holistics integrates seamlessly with Git version control, allowing data models to be defined as code and tracked for changes. This enhances maintainability, governability, and collaboration among data teams by enabling code branching, code reviews, and accurate analytics workflows.
Ease of Use
Holistics offers a soft learning curve, especially for those familiar with SQL. Data consumers can create charts and dashboards without writing SQL using a drag-and-drop interface, while data and technical teams only need SQL knowledge to use the platform effectively. This makes it easier for both technical and non-technical users to explore data and create reports.
Semantic Modeling Layer
Holistics features a central semantic modeling layer built on top of SQL, allowing data teams to transform raw tables into reusable data models. This layer enables the definition of business metrics and analytics logic once, which can then be reused in multiple reports, ensuring consistency and accuracy across different analytics use cases.
Data Delivery and Sharing
Holistics allows for easy sharing of reports and dashboards through shareable links that do not require viewers to have a Holistics account. It also supports native integrations for automated email delivery, Slack schedules, and SFTP export schedules, making data delivery more efficient and convenient.
Self-Service Capabilities
The platform is designed for self-service data exploration, enabling business users to build their own reports and customize their setup of dimensions and metrics without relying on data teams. This reduces the dependency on dedicated analysts and enhances productivity.
Disadvantages of Holistics
Learning Curve for Some Users
While Holistics is generally easy to learn for those with SQL knowledge, some users may still face a learning curve, particularly if they are transitioning from other BI tools. For instance, some users have noted that the learning curve was quite hard, especially for those without prior SQL experience.
Integration Limitations
Users have suggested that Holistics could improve by expanding its integration capabilities and enhancing data transformation functionalities to handle more complex business requirements. Currently, it is more suited for cloud SQL databases and may lack some of the advanced features needed for more intricate data workflows.
Customer Support
While Holistics is praised for its ease of use and features, there is limited information available on potential issues with customer support. However, the platform does provide a standard Data Privacy Agreement and is compliant with GDPR and SOC2, which indicates a commitment to customer data security and support.
In summary, Holistics offers significant advantages in terms of accessibility, version control, ease of use, and self-service capabilities, making it a strong alternative to other BI tools like PowerBI and Tableau. However, it may require some learning for users without SQL experience and could benefit from expanded integration and data transformation capabilities.
Holistics - Comparison with Competitors
Unique Features of Holistics
- Semantic Modeling Layer: Holistics allows users to maintain a central store of analytics, defining metrics and analytics logic once and reusing them in multiple reports. This layer enables the creation of reusable models, dimensions, and metrics, which can be described as code.
- Analytics As-Code and Version Control: Holistics supports defining models and building reports using code, with the option to check in Git for version control and go through a code review process. This feature is particularly useful for data teams that need to ensure consistency and reliability in their reports.
- Self-Service BI: The platform enables business users to self-serve data without needing to write SQL, making it accessible to a broader range of users.
Potential Alternatives
Tableau
- AI-Powered Analytics: Tableau offers AI-powered analytics through its business science capabilities, which bring data science to business domain experts. It uses AI, machine learning, and statistical methods to solve enterprise challenges. Unlike Holistics, Tableau is more focused on interactive data visualization and is part of the Salesforce ecosystem.
- User Interface: Tableau is known for its user-friendly interface, which is particularly beneficial for users who prefer visual analytics over coding.
Qlik
- Active Intelligence Platform: Qlik provides an Active Intelligence Platform that integrates AI and machine learning to auto-generate insights and predictions. It allows open-ended exploration and is cloud-based, which is different from Holistics’ focus on a semantic modeling layer.
- User Accessibility: Qlik’s platform is designed for users at any skill level, enabling real, AI-led discoveries without the need for extensive technical knowledge.
Sisense
- AI-Driven Analytics Cloud: Sisense offers an AI-driven analytics cloud platform with pro-code, low-code, and no-code capabilities. It helps create intuitive data products and drives engagement and solution value. Sisense Fusion provides the AI and analytics foundation for product differentiation, which is a different approach compared to Holistics’ focus on semantic modeling.
- User Engagement: Sisense is known for its ability to drive user engagement through its intuitive data products.
Databricks Unified Data Analytics Platform
- Unified Open Analytics: Databricks provides a unified open analytics platform designed to build, deploy, share, and maintain enterprise-grade data, analytics, and AI solutions. It is particularly strong in supporting generative AI and other machine learning models, which is a broader scope than Holistics’ focus on self-service BI and semantic modeling.
- Technical Depth: Databricks is favored by technology and software companies due to its ability to handle complex data and AI solutions at scale.
Other Considerations
- KNIME Analytics Platform: KNIME is an open-source, low-code analytics platform that supports over 300 data connectors and integrates various components for machine learning and data mining. While it offers a modular data pipelining approach, it does not have the same level of focus on semantic modeling as Holistics.
- Google Cloud Smart Analytics: Google Cloud Smart Analytics is a flexible, open, and secure data analytics platform that leverages Google’s innovation in AI. It provides a wide range of analytics services but does not have the specific self-service BI and semantic modeling features that Holistics offers.
In summary, while Holistics stands out with its semantic modeling layer and self-service BI capabilities, alternatives like Tableau, Qlik, Sisense, Databricks, and KNIME offer different strengths such as AI-powered analytics, user-friendly interfaces, and broader data analytics capabilities. The choice between these tools depends on the specific needs and preferences of the organization.
Holistics - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about Holistics
Does Holistics store my data?
Holistics is a cloud-based solution that connects with your SQL database, but it does not store your data. Instead, it accesses and analyzes the data from your connected databases. For more details, you can refer to their documentation.Is Holistics a cloud-based or on-premise solution?
Holistics is a fully cloud-based solution. There is currently no on-premise version available. However, if you have a need for an on-premise deployment, you can express your interest, and the Holistics team will contact you if there are any developments on this front.How difficult is it to plan and budget for Holistics for a big enterprise?
For large enterprises, Holistics offers simplified pricing plans based on your specific needs. You can contact their team to work out a customized pricing plan that suits your enterprise requirements.Does Holistics offer white label analytics and OEM embedded dashboards?
Yes, Holistics does offer white label analytics and OEM embedded dashboards. You can contact their team to discuss how this can be implemented for your needs.Can business users create reports and visualizations without technical expertise?
Yes, Holistics is designed to empower business users to create their own reports and visualizations without needing to write SQL or disturb data teams. The platform allows users to transform business logic into data logic and create reports independently.How does Holistics support data-driven decision-making?
Holistics supports data-driven decision-making by providing an intuitive environment to connect, model, and visualize data. It enables users to track customer behavior patterns, financial trends, and other key metrics, helping organizations make informed investment choices and refine marketing strategies.What are the key features of Holistics?
Holistics offers several key features, including data modeling, intelligent reporting, ad-hoc queries, ad-hoc reports, profitability analysis, and the ability to share insights via various channels like Slack, email, and webhooks. It also supports benchmarking and trend analysis.Is there a free trial available for Holistics?
Yes, Holistics offers a free trial. This allows you to test the features and see if the platform meets your needs before committing to a subscription.What are the pricing options for Holistics?
Holistics offers premium plans based on subscription or quotation. The entry-level plan starts at $100-$120 per month, and there are additional costs for extra users and embedded analytics.Is Holistics considering the integration of NLP-based interfaces?
Yes, Holistics is considering the feasibility and potential benefits of incorporating NLP-based interfaces to enhance the self-service experience for business users. However, they are currently focusing on building foundational elements like Dashboard as Code and Data Exploration as Code before integrating NLP features.How does Holistics handle automated reporting and data visualization?
Holistics allows data analysts to script reports once, and the system automatically creates reports on a periodic basis for regular queries. The reports are customizable, and the data can be configured as needed. The platform also combines and visualizes data from multiple reports using dynamic charts and graphs, and it includes an email scheduler to send reports and dashboard snapshots to users periodically. Holistics - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Holistics in the Data Tools Category
Holistics is a comprehensive self-service business intelligence (BI) platform that stands out for its ease of use, flexibility, and the value it brings to both technical and non-technical users.Key Benefits
- User-Friendly Interface: Holistics offers an intuitive environment that allows users to connect, model, and visualize data without extensive technical expertise. This makes it ideal for companies seeking a self-service solution where business users can generate comprehensive reports independently.
- Efficient Data Analysis: The platform simplifies the self-serve process with pre-built datasets, reducing the time and effort required for data analysis. It also minimizes the need for writing SQL queries, making it accessible to a broader range of users.
- Customizable and Interactive Dashboards: Holistics allows users to create interactive dashboards with customizable visualizations, filters, and texts. This feature enables business users to consume and explore data in a more natural and engaging way.
- Integration and Version Control: The platform integrates deeply with tools like dbt, allowing for metadata to be surfaced to the BI layer. It also supports version control through Git, ensuring that analytics logic is maintainable and repeatable.
- Automated Alerts and Notifications: Holistics provides automated alerts and notifications, which help in monitoring KPIs in real-time and making informed decisions promptly.
Who Would Benefit Most
Holistics is particularly beneficial for:- Non-Technical Business Users: Those who need to analyze and report on data without having to learn SQL can greatly benefit from Holistics. The platform’s ease of use and self-service capabilities make it an excellent choice for non-technical teams.
- Data Analysts and Engineers: Technical users appreciate the flexibility of SQL and the ability to define analytics logic using code. The integration with dbt and version control through Git are significant advantages for data teams.
- Small to Large Enterprises: Companies of all sizes can leverage Holistics to streamline their data analysis processes, reduce the data request queue, and enhance decision-making with real-time insights.