Helical IT Solutions is pleased to announce the release of Helical Insight version 5.2.1, the latest upgrade to its Open Source Business Intelligence (BI) platform.
This updated version provides a powerful and affordable BI solution that is poised to transform the global analytics landscape. Helical Insight continues to differentiate itself from other BI tools like PowerBI, Tableau, and Quicksight by offering superior flexibility and functionality.
At the core of Helical Insight’s mission is the ambition to democratise analytics. By offering flexible deployment methods and a simple flat-rate pricing structure, the platform enables businesses to expand their analytics without the rising costs commonly associated with traditional licensing models. Its user-friendly, browser-based interface allows both internal teams and external clients to engage easily in self-service analytics.
Helical Insight’s range of enterprise-grade features sets it apart. From embedding and white-labelling to seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) integration, the platform integrates smoothly into various business environments. This is particularly beneficial for product-based companies looking to embed custom dashboards and analytics within their products. Other advanced features include broad data export options, dynamic email bursting, row-level security, advanced drill-down and drill-through functionalities, efficient data caching, intuitive pagination, native support for Docker and Kubernetes, high-availability load balancing, and a diverse set of visualisation tools to meet varied analytical needs.
Version 5.2.1 brings several key improvements, including enhanced support for a broader array of data sources. One notable new feature is direct API support, which allows users to analyse data from any API. Additionally, the update provides an easy-to-use interface for working with flat file formats such as Excel, CSV, TSV, Parquet, JSON, and Google Sheets, without requiring third-party software. These files can also be hosted on cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, and GCP.
Responding to the demand for more customised visualisation options, Helical Insight 5.2.1 introduces new chart types, including Treemap, Waterfall, Radar, Bullet, Gauge, and Tiny-Ring charts. The update also includes advanced customisation features, such as sorting and filtering in tables, displaying totals in tables, rotating data label colours in Axis Charts, and placing totals in the centre of Donut charts with prefix and suffix options for static values, SVG, icons, or URL images. The new “Measures” functionality and additional filter options further extend the platform’s analytical capabilities.
The latest update also enhances dashboard functionality, providing users with greater flexibility to create visually striking dashboards. New features include Tabbed view dashboards, Overlays, custom dropdowns, and Margins, along with advanced options such as custom HTML and filter dashboard variable access. Additionally, new export options, including beta versions of PPT and image formats, have been introduced.
Nitin Sahu, co-founder of Helical Insight, commented: “At Helical Insight, we are investing heavily in future. We are already working on GenerativeAI (GenAI) integration, thus allowing a chat based data analysis capabilities. It will also support prescriptive and descriptive analytics and many more very exciting features.”
Nikhilesh Tiwari, co-founder of Helical Insight, added: “We are on a mission to provide a feature rich Open Source BI product as an alternative to other costly proprietary BI tools with features like canned reporting, dashboards, embedding, SSO, row level security, exporting, email scheduling etc. We are one of the rare BI tools which is fulfilling all kind of analysis requirement which includes pixel perfect canned reporting, drag drop self service dashboards and now GenAI powered chat based analysis capabilities that we are integrating.”
In today’s fast-paced business environment, BI is key to enabling data-driven decision-making. Industry forecasts predict significant growth in the global BI market, with Fortune Business Insights estimating an increase from $24.05 billion in 2021 to $43.03 billion by 2028, reflecting a CAGR of 8.7%. However, BI adoption remains limited, with only 26% of organisations currently using BI solutions according to 360Suite. As small businesses increasingly turn to BI to gain a competitive edge, Helical Insight is poised to lead this transformative movement, helping organisations of all sizes unlock the power of data to drive actionable insights.
