ZAP Business Intelligence Review

PROS: ZAP is very easy to use. While you would need some database knowledge to fully leverage the system, the drag and drop interface is slick and I get to provides answers to the business significantly faster than before. The services team is top notch, and working with them is always enlightening.

CONS: The depth of the software is immense. There are some aspects of the software that is really tough to figure out on your own. Learning the software can be a challenge though the learning curve can be quick.

PROS: The best thing with ZAP BI is the simplicity of creating a cube for business intelligence reports. You don't need a crash course in computer programming to create and make cube data modifications for reports. A software that's highly intuitive. The UI allows for quick and easy training of employees. Advanced functionality allows for reporting depth that couldn't be done with a typical report-creating platform.

CONS: No undo button is available for creating a report within the software. This isn't really a big issue. But it can be a nuisance when report makers are accustomed to this availability in a majority of today's software.

PROS: ZAP's Cube Express lets us build any custom, simple to understand report easily. It does an amazing job of reading the relationships and having them ready for you when you go to build. Support has been very helpful to us as well.

CONS: I would have liked that the migration was covered if it is done within a certain number of months. That's not a deal breaker by any means though. We also haven’t upgraded to the latest version yet so we have yet to comment of any problems.

PROS: ZAP is a product that worked reall well. As of now, we're smack in the middle of the Go Live implentation process. We're already deploying ZAP for production reporting, financial, and sales analysis. We used to operates as a non-SQL vendor and the partnership made with ZAP allowed us to overcome that during the Go Live process. ZAP is already an awesome product, and their people are even more tremendous in so many ways.

CONS: The only gripe I have is actually myself. I rarely have the time to fiddle with the product on my own. So far, that's the only negative thing that I can come up with.

PROS: Ease of use. You'll need a bit of database know-how to leverage the system completely. The drag-and-drop UI is nice and lets me answer to the business a lot quicker comapred to before. Customer support is excellent and I've yet to be disappointed. I never miss out in any of their tricks and tips since they gave me ta chance to influence future releases in a major way.

CONS: Basic functionality has a swift learning curve. Software depth is huge by any scale. You'll soon realize there's a lot to learn. The last few percentage of knowledge can be nailbiter to figure out by yourself.

PROS: The best part of ZAP is how easy it is to build the cube data to be used for your business intelligence reporting, with no programming experience needed. The training and user support are both excellent. The user interface is also powerful and very intuitive which allows us to quickly and easily train employees.

CONS: When designing a report in the BI software, there is no undo button. This is not a major problem, but it is an annoyance. Report designers are used to having this available in most commonly used software applications but it is not present in this software.

PROS: I love their UI. It's really simply to understand. Going through the menus is smooth and inuitive. As a Microsoft Excel user, it'll give you that familiar feel. When connections to cubes have been made and relatioships are creative in between, ZAP would give us the chance utilize info from different databases for report building.

CONS: There's really nothing to hate with the program. I'm really looking forward to learn more about its features. I might even find something worth using in the future.

PROS: It's easy to do more than just making use of the Dynamic AX cube/scheme in writing everything whether it's reports to professional-level dashboards. I like the simplicity of modifying its pre-installed cube for including tables/data source. It's now easy to make your very own cubes.

CONS: There's really nothing negatively major that come to mind. They happen to be one of the best software vendors that I've come across over the years. It's simple to implement. We were able to get up and running after one class. We're impressed with their quick response time (even if we didn't need much help from them in the first couple weeks or so).

PROS: What's best with ZAP BI is the amount of time it saves in task completion. We were able to significantly minimize our time on financial statements from 4 hours to a measly 5 minutes via ZAP BI. The ZAP staff is really great and are always there for assistnace. ZAP is highly recommended for anyone.

CONS: I'll need to go back to memory lane in this case, but I feel you can't add footers in reports. The report pack feature is basic at best. It was mentiond that we'd have the ability create our monthly financial statements within the software. But we ended up e-mailing reports to our e-mails and making via Adobe. Their cell calculations need to be improved.

PROS: ZAP is "AOT Aware". It provides us huge time savings when it comes to upgrades or updates to AX and having the schema available for use in the cube. It is also easy even for "non-IT" folks to quickly begin developing and deploying reports.

CONS: Some of the familiar nuances within tools like Excel, easy filtering, subtotaling, grouping etc., are more difficult to implement within analysis reports. Other than that, we have no major issues to report on this one.

PROS: The instructor who helped us in installing ZAP was very well versed in her knowledge and rexperience with the tool. She was also interested in what we wanted to know and was willing to take the discussion further after class was done to help. I found the training to be spot on in addressing my need and not hard to understand.

CONS: My biggest challenge was the sudden changes as we are not on the newest version of the application. Being a few versions behind, they don't offer in class training on older versions. I do not fault ZAP for keeping up while my company has yet to do so.

PROS: Like any good product, there is a basic learning curve. But once you are past that, ZAP is intuitive and powerful. Support is always readily available if needed. The product works extremely well and is heavily used in our business.

CONS: I would say the lack of a strong user community where beginning to power users can ask each other how to work through a problem. Support is always willing to help, but a strong community where users can talk to people just like them would be very helpful. As of now the ZAP end users using it are limited.

PROS: Probably the best thing about ZAP is the time-saving functionality. We saved time running financial statements from about 4 hours to just 5 minutes using ZAP. There is also a great support team that is always there when you need them.

CONS: I don't think you can put footers into your reports. The report pack functionality is also pretty basic. t was advertised that we would be able to build our entire monthly financial statements, but the report feature is very basic; it just emails the reports to ourselves and then build them in Adobe. Another improvement hey should do is to turn cell calculations into Excel where you can type formulas into a cell.

PROS: It's very easy to use. Like any robust software, there's a bit of a learning curve. But once you're able to make it past that, you have product that's powerful and highly intuitive. Customer support is constantly around when you need them. I can't imagine not doing anything without ZAP.

CONS: It's pretty difficult to have dislikes for for a product like ZAP. But if there's one lacklustre thing about it, it's not having enough power users who can help each other in dealing with problems. While customer support is always around to give a helping hand, having a strong user community would be a tremendous help. ZAP actually created a user community, but at this time, the number of users is still small.

PROS: ZAP's Cube Xpress and Modeler are intuitive ETL systems that provide enough flexibility to assist with our integration efforts for the companies we acquire. The Help function is a great tool for both new and advanced users. Technical support has also been a great help in our success using the product.

CONS: There is no good way for consumers/designers to share resources with other users, which is a burden. Also, the error messages users receive when building reports could have been made much clearer/easier to understand. While the personal training sessions are great, as a large company we cannot afford to send everybody to the ZAP classes. Lastly, administrators should have greater control on consumer and designer interactions.

PROS: It is easy not just utilizing the baked-in Dynamics AX cube/schema to quickly and easily write everything from basic reports to executive-level dashboards. I also love how easy it is in ZAP to both modify the built in cube to add additional tables/data sources. It is also easy for me to create your own purpose-built cubes.

CONS: Nothing substantive comes to mind. They are one of the better software vendors I've dealt with over the years. Implementation was very easy.

PROS: I felt the instructor knew what was being discussed as well as having previous experience with the tool. She was all ears in what wanted to inquire about. She walked us through plenty of examples from where we worked. She took the discussion after class and it helped plenty. The training directly answered my needs and had the chance to put them into practice.

CONS: One big hurdle was in the recent ZAP changes since weren't on the latest app version. Being a bit behind, there weren't any training for previous versions. So there was a time that I used it that couldn't do for the company I'm working for. I didn't pin the blame on ZAP for keeping up while my company hasn't. I did respect the part where the instructor recognized new functionality and took note of it for those who are still using previous versions of the product.

PROS: It's a tie-breaker between consultants and Cube Express. The biggest issue we came across when dealing with AX is reporting and creating a customized report in SSRS. It's never user-friendly or easy to understand when facing an AX table structure. Cube Express is amazing in seeing through relationships and getting them set up when you're ready for building. Consultants ranging from customer support to training to sales are far and beyond excellent.

CONS: We've yet to make an upgrade to the latest instance. We're still in this-version-just-came-out-so-we'll-stick-with-this-for-now mode although we were recommended to opt for the matured variant available. We would've prefered a bit of wiggle room where migration is covered if accomplished within a certain number of months. Safe to say, this isn't a deal breaker by any means.