Book
Analytics & BI Tools
The four layers of the analytics stack, then Power BI, Tableau, Looker and Alteryx each in practice — what they are genuinely good at, where they hurt, how to choose with real scenarios, the licensing models that bite, and making analytics actually get used.
Written to be comparative rather than promotional. The recurring argument is that most tool disputes are really disputes about which layer owns the metric definition.
CHAPTER 1
The analytics stack, and what each tool is for
Four layers. Most tool arguments are really arguments about which layer owns the metric definition.
CHAPTER 2
Power BI, in practice
The volume leader, for reasons that are mostly commercial. What it is genuinely good at and where it hurts.
CHAPTER 3
Tableau, in practice
The strongest visual analysis tool, and the one whose cost model surprises people.
CHAPTER 4
Looker, and the semantic-layer approach
The tool that took the opposite bet — model first, visualise second. Why that matters more than it sounds.
CHAPTER 5
Alteryx and the preparation layer
Where analysts build pipelines without calling them pipelines — and what that means five years later.
CHAPTER 6
Choosing, with real scenarios
Five situations, and what actually fits each. The answer is rarely the best tool.
CHAPTER 7
Cost, and the three models that bite
BI licensing is priced in ways that punish specific shapes of organisation. Know which shape you are.
CHAPTER 8
Making analytics actually get used
The failure that no tool prevents: dashboards nobody opens, and numbers nobody trusts.