For many years now I have been using SAP Business Objects Enterprise Infoview and SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence Reports in a corporate setting. The product has delivered a professional interface with solid operational performance. I am glad to say that I never encountered a bug or functionality deficiency ever (unlike operating systems!).
In parallel I have also been involved in a programme to mentor and help post-graduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds. For them using analytical and BI tools would be a big benefit. It would help to enhance their learning and give hands-on experience. Until recently the cost of a good analytical tool often meant that students could not afford to get their hands on the right products. SAP Lumira is an enabling technology that can help students.
Students and Universities in partnership with companies now have the ability to work on small learning projects and get a flavour of the analytic tools that were normally reserved for the giants. The free version of Lumira would be a good starting point for students before moving onto using the standard version later. To top this the SAP Lumira Cloud account is a bonus!
Currently I am taking a MooC course on the subjects of economics and politics. The course assignment involved analyzing and commenting on various dimensions and metrics provided freely by various United Nations Agencies, including the World Bank. Lumira is an excellent product for performing this analysis. The ability to load spreadsheets and the drag and drop interface makes the process very easy.
Here is an example dataset load from a Microsoft Excel source from the MooC course:
After the data has been loaded we can proceed to create a combined column line graph:
Use of the interface is intuitive and painless. A few clicks is all it took. In fact it only took
me a couple of hours to download, install and create the above!