When considering business intelligence (BI) software, it is essential to be aware of underlying issues that can seriously impact on your bottom line. In a country where most businesses have information stored in several different databases, it’s no secret that the BI strategy you choose will affect your profit and loss target. From data collection and integration to data analysis, the holy grail of Business Intelligence software combines your disparate databases to provide a decision support system that will enable you to make key conclusions using all of the available information. This is clearly a huge bonus to those companies searching for ways to surpass their competitors. However, in today’s landscape, managers and executives in “small to midsize” organizations are at a significant disadvantage where business intelligence is concerned. Their business intelligence data and needs are similar to their Fortune 500 and Global 9000 counterparts, but their business intelligence budgets are not. So how do you find the right Business Intelligence vendor—one that provides concurrent access to all available types of information with a simple, user-friendly interface at a cost that makes sense? Simple: Avoid these top five common obstacles and purchase only what your company will use.
1. Usability verses feature bloat
We’ve all experienced it-–we want only the best. The most technically sound flat screen TV on the market. The newest cell phone with the most ring tones, Web access, and email. A membership to the most popular gym filled with the most technically advanced machines and highly-educated trainers. But does too much of a good thing become more overwhelming than beneficial?
Simplify. Are all the bells and whistles necessary? Be selective about the BI programs you choose and only buy what you’ll use. Carefully consider the expensive BI products and do your research. There are companies in the BI marketplace that provide decision support systems tailored for the small to mid-size company, without the unnecessary, expensive add-ons. With a little legwork, you can identify BI software that enables users to integrate, publish and analyze enterprise data across disparate databases – without expensive ETL technology.
2. Enough already about metadata!
Metadata is literally data about data. It can range from timestamps to icons to free-text comments and much more. Because of the need to distill the useful information from the mass of information available, it’s typical to invest in a large BI company that ensures consistency by manually creating your metadata, which in turn can add value, but also adds tremendous cost. However, it is often possible to leverage companies’ existing metadata – a fact that many big BI companies overlook. As such, it may not be necessary to spend the extra money to manually create these metadata schemes – the info you need may already be there. As with anything else, the key is about finding balance—too much or too little data is not useful. Good business intelligence means balanced information.
3. Consulting
Don’t buy it if you don’t need it. Many BI products require substantial consulting projects as part of their launch process, often costing as much as the software itself. Take a close look at your company’s needs and determine whether or not this additional support is necessary. Unlike the business intelligence products of Big BI, there are niche BI companies with software that installs and runs without expensive consulting – yet they still provide concurrent access to any combination of enterprise databases in a single user request; can be installed in a matter of hours; and include user-friendly tools for query creation, reporting and data analytics.
4. Licensing, Upgrades and Maintenance
Traditionally, business intelligence software requires upgrade and maintenance fees (for support, upgrades, improvements, etc.) beyond the initial expense for the license. These are billed as a function of the “list” license fee. However, that list price can change dynamically as your organization changes the number of user licenses, and the number and speed processors on the server. Before you know it, your overall “maintenance” costs can increase exponentially. Alternatively, a little research will show that there are companies out there that only charge a flat fee per year – no maintenance fee increases – regardless of how you change your infrastructure. By adopting a decision support system with a flat fee model, you save money, time and other resources as well. Avoid the situation where your BI choice has become so big that it’s controlling you and you’re not controlling it.
5. Resume Building
Beware of Business Intelligence recommendations made for the wrong reasons. Choosing a BI company by its popularity, ubiquity in the marketplace or by its clientele may mean choosing a company that does not align with your needs, goals or budget. While the name may look impressive on paper, the cost may outweigh actual benefits. A little more legwork will unearth BI companies that will provide BI enterprise power without the enterprise cost.
With the proper business intelligence software in place, you can finally move beyond viewing "customers," "workforce," "supply chain" or "finances" (for example) as separate entities, and begin considering all the core elements of your business as a single, integrated whole. The result is a system that enables you to measure the accuracy and success of your goals and objectives from various perspectives, and make intelligent decisions based on quantifiable analytics. For these reasons and more, making the right BI choice is key to keeping your P&L on track. By avoiding the five pitfalls mentioned above and keeping your company’s needs and objectives top of mind, you’ll be well on your way to finding a decision support system that is the perfect fit.
