“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion” – it sounds harsh, but the American economist W. Edwards Deming made a good point during his career.
In large enterprises, the data is often already there for safety analytics. However, the key question is – how do you make sense of all the information? Data that’s coming from different sites and thousands of employees?
You’re not alone with this though. Looking at the Verdantix’ Global survey from 2023, making Business Intelligence (BI) more efficient is on top of the list of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) leaders.
There are lots of software vendors out there that help with EHS reporting. At Pro-Sapien, we integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Power BI. However, Qlik Sense is another popular analytics tool our customers are either using, or replacing.
We decided to take a good look at both Power BI and Qlik Sense to see which one is better for large companies. We’ll talk about:
- What is Qlik Sense?
- What is Power BI?
- Which one is better for making reports, looking at three factors:
- How well they can handle lots of data (Scalability and Performance)
- How well they work with Microsoft apps (Integration)
- How easy they are to use and customize (Ease of Use and Flexibility)
- And finally, which one we think is the best for EHS reporting
First of all, let’s learn a bit more about both Qlik Sense and Power BI.
What is Qlik Sense?
Qlik Sense is a standalone analytics platform that provides users with interactive insights. Originally founded in Sweden, it expanded quickly and is now headquartered in Pennsylvania.
It’s commonly used by large organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Raytheon, and Santander. In 2023, it was named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for the 13th year in a row. It’s therefore often the go-to platform for many enterprises.
What is Power BI?
Power BI is Microsoft’s flagship for business analytics and visualizations. Despite having also been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report (and for the 16th time!) and being the top vendor with the highest number of installs, it’s still not yet on the radar of many EHS professionals.
Similar to Qlik Sense, Power BI aggregates, analyses, and visualizes data sets. Exxon Mobile, Apple (interestingly), Nestle, and L’Oréal are just a few examples of Power BI users.
What’s better for EHS reporting?
Both Qlik Sense and Power BI are recognized analytics platforms – but which one is better for the EHS reporting of large organizations?
During our research, we came across a lot of platform-owned guides and content.
Therefore, to get a more balanced view, we turned to community groups like Reddit and Gartner reviews to hear from those who know these platforms best – the actual users.
To ensure the relevance of their feedback, we only considered comments made within the past 12 months.
Let’s have a look at the first important question: How well can the platforms handle lots of data?
1. Scalability and Performance:
Qlik Sense:
Qlik Sense is popular among tech-savvy users due to its robust capabilities and the flexibility to code around data issues. Users highly regard it for its extensive data modelling and its ability to merge data from various sources into a virtual data warehouse.
However, opinions vary when it comes to processing speed with large datasets. One user pointed out that it tends to slow down, often requiring data filtering on a separate page before viewing tables or graphs. At the same time, another user praised Qlik Sense’s ability to load millions of rows in a short time.
In summary, while there are differing views on its performance speed, users generally agree that Qlik Sense boasts an impressive associative engine that excels at handling large data sets and complex data relationships.
Power BI:
A lot of comments mention how Power BI has evolved significantly over the past 4-5 years. It’s now standing in a class of its own in terms of scale, integration, and functionality.
Users highly praise the data modelling capabilities of the tool, especially the use of Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) and consider them superior to other BI tools. Power BI Desktop doesn’t have a hard limit, and any performance issues usually link back to the data model and import mode, not the tool itself.
When you use EHS software on Microsoft 365, data import becomes a non-issue as it automatically feeds into Power BI. Discover how Pro-Sapien makes Business Intelligence quick and easy.
Winner for Scalability and Performance:
Both platforms are built for large data sets and can handle them reliably. So, in this category, we’d say it’s a tie. Both platforms demonstrate robust performance and cater well to large organizations.
2. Integration with Microsoft apps
Qlik Sense:
Unfortunately, with Qlik Sense you can’t add live reports to PowerPoint or Microsoft Excel. To include reports, you need to export the data first, and then add them as visualizations or tables.
However, during our research into Qlik Sense’s Microsoft integration, we came across a downloadable Qlik app that you can install on Teams.
Setting it up requires some technical expertise though. For instance, you must add a Microsoft 365 tenant in the settings and modify user roles in Qlik Sense’s permission tab before installing the app on Teams.
Once you’ve done that, you have an Insight Advisor Chat that looks like a person you would chat to on Microsoft Teams.
It assists in exploring data through natural language insights. In other words – you can chat to Qlik over Teams, and for example, ask about gross sales this year. It will respond with a graph and a description of it. It’s not quite the same as automatic live reports, but it proves handy for obtaining a quick overview of a specific statistic.
Conversational Analytics on Microsoft Teams with Qlik
Power BI:
Integration is Power BI’s strong suit. You can easily add it to Microsoft Teams by simply clicking “Add” in the Apps tab on Teams.
Unlike Qlik’s Advisor Chat, Power BI displays live reports that you can directly add to Teams channels, eliminating the need for requests.
Moreover, if you want to add live reports to PowerPoint and Excel, you can easily do that too.
Using the Power BI add-on, you have the flexibility to add either individual visuals or entire report pages to your slides, all featuring live data.
Adding live Power BI data from Power BI chart on Teams to PowerPoint
Winner for Integration:
In this category, we have a clear winner and that’s Power BI. Since it’s built by Microsoft, it can fully integrate into all your everyday apps such as PowerPoint or Teams without a hassle.
3. Ease of Use and Accessibility/Flexibility:
Qlik Sense:
On Qlik Sense, you can create extensive customized reports to specific EHS metrics and requirements. However, Qlik Sense’s ease of use has been a topic of debate among users.
Some find the service complex, especially when it comes to achieving even the simplest data manipulations. The embedded language and set analysis are seen as unintuitive, with users expressing frustration over the lack of comprehensive documentation.
Each dashboard in Qlik Sense has its initial challenges, but users suggest that it’s a better tool for exploring data compared to Power BI. However, while it seems to allow a better dig into the data, users call out that it’s hard to give other users access to custom reports.
Power BI:
Power BI offers a familiar interface for users who are already using Microsoft’s suite of tools. It’s accessible via desktop, web, and mobile apps which means you can access critical insights anytime, anywhere.
Looking at users’ experiences, Power BI is praised for its low barriers to entry. Users can download it from the Microsoft Store and it start working immediately. The platform is seen as useful even for those with basic knowledge, enabling them to automate and share reports that would otherwise have to be manually updated every week.
One user describes it as “It’s a bit like Mario Kart. A 5-year-old can pick up and play, have a good time and understand the basics. But there are depths reaching far and wide that you’ll need to understand if you are to become any good”.
Therefore, another user suggests that you might hire a data analyst if you wanted to build complex reports from scratch involving multiple views, transforms, and data sources. (Luckily, at Pro-Sapien we provide EHS reports in Power BI for you!)
Winner for Ease of Use:
In terms of customization and flexibility, Qlik Sense allows users a detailed data exploration – unfortunately, at the expense of ease of use.
Power BI’s user-friendly interface and navigation mean it has a simple learning curve for nontechnical business users, who are empowered to create data visuals with a few clicks and no programming experience.
That’s why Power BI takes the lead in this category. After all, EHS managers are not Business Intelligence experts and also shouldn’t spend time on becoming data analysts.
Moreover, with Pro-Sapien you don’t need to configure dashboards yourself. Depending on your needs, we configure the most important EHS reports for you. However, Power BI’s drag-and-drop interface and range of pre-built visuals empower you to take control when you want to. Find out more about the ways Power BI is best for EHS analytics.
Power BI is best for EHS reporting in large organizations
When comparing both Qlik Sense and Power BI for EHS reporting, we found that both platforms demonstrate robust capabilities and strengths in different areas.
Qlik Sense shines in its ability to handle large data sets and complex data relationships, offering extensive customization options. However, it falls short in user-friendliness and integration with other applications.
On the other hand, Power BI stands out for its seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and its familiar, easy-to-learn interface, making it a more EHS-manager-friendly choice.
Moreover, it ramped up over the last few years and is now on the same level in terms of scalability as “BI-dinosaurs” such as Qlik Sense. Power BI can reliably handle large data sets for large organizations with EHS data coming from thousands of employees across the globe.
So overall (and we’re not just saying this because we’re all about Microsoft 365), Power BI has grown into the better choice for the EHS reporting of enterprises. However, the final decision always depends on your specific needs and the context of your organization.
Curious about Power BI now? Head to our whitepaper where we explore how Power BI helps EHS leaders both to understand performance insights and to raise EHS awareness at all levels. Discover it today:
