BI Vendor Selection

covEr story | BIneighbour’s envy, it Managers’ Pride Go by the BIAmidst constraints, IT managers are candid about thevalue creation with BI by creation of profit opportunityfor business groups. Those who have implemented BI, Functionality, not byvouched for the benefits that it provided in meeting man-agement’s business needs. iYogi Services which has over 5000 employees hasimplemented Microsoft BI tools and Cognos to addressvaried functions. iYogi’s Mehrotra has deployed Cognos Low Hanging Fruitsolutions for query and reporting which ensures that Techniques combined with appropriate investmentusers are equipped with the information they need to plan and business value, will help in selecting themake fact-based decisions in a system that is simpler, right vendor for Business Intelligencefaster and easier to manage. Analysis tools from Cognos thave enabled iYogi to explore information easily andintuitively to drive smarter business decision. “Cognos he biggest challenge that enterprises are facingscore carding has helped to capture corporate strategy today is the growth in data and information, which isand communicate it at the operational level,” reiterates growing in a geometrical progression. As a corollary,Mehrotra. Besides, the solution has helped executives IT managers are scouting for the right tool/tools toand managers to provide quantifiable goals and targets. strengthen the information value chain. After having arrived at According to Mehrotra, the BI tool has allowed the a point where many of the technical challenges and trade-offsmanagers to track performance across business units, of business Intelligence (bI) are at least well understood, it isoperating subsidiaries and geographic regions. The imperative to manoeuver to land into safe hands that can meetdashboard capabilities have allowed users to access, your requirements at your proposed cost structure. Given the plethora of solutions and the ambiguity surrounding the selection process, IT managers cannot overlook certain aspects of bI selection. For instance, focussing only on bI tools like customised bI solutions, open source or SaaS-based bI tools is indeed a Herculean task. Criteria for SeleCtion The primary task is to perform a basic evaluation of the current organisation system with the help of a bI expert. This would help you understand the best tools that can be implemented. How many will use reporting and what kind of users are going to use the bI tools? There are many types and kinds of reporting that can be produced for different levels of users; and not everyone wants to see the dashboards or KPIs. “Business users need to develop the habit of depending on data-based analytics as against the practice of experience-based perception” —Satish Pendse, President, Highbar technologies

The next step would be to segregate the users and check for the the executive to the ceo and cIo levels. If the IT manager best of breed bI tools, with users going in for ad hoc analysis, has plans of using embedded bI, there are cases where he drill down and drill through, predictive analysis and so on. read or she needs to embed bI reports into java or dot net appli- about and check out the size of the vendor company and its cations. The reporting tools should generate reports from support level commitment, and run customer reference checks multiple data sources like excel and multiple database. before getting actively involved in Poc (proof of concept). CoSt faCtor It would be important to check whether you are already running Price factor always plays a major role in decision-making. an application by the same vendor. For example: if your company The cost variation would depend upon the option to go is already using SQL Server or oracle, you can check out the Mi- in for either user licence or concurrent licence. You must crosoft bI or oracle bI, since it will be easy for the connectivity gauge the situation whether you can invest in customised and reporting. Also make a note to check with other bI vendors. bI or open source solution, or SAAS-based bI solution, browse through the recommendations and ratings of the bI besides taking into account cost of user-based training. For vendor or the bI tool by the research groups. Not to forget, the instance, in case of large enterprises, multiple deploy- solution should be easy to use and deploy. ments will cost more for customised bI tools, with licens- ing and support. Manpower cost to build skills also adds to the investment. It is important for the IT manager to “While scouting for the right opt for a solution that addresses all the functionalities and vendor, the IT manager needs provides good support rather than just the cost ratio. to take into account the ChallengeS and BuSineSS BenefitS functionalities for which BI IT is important to outmanoeuvre the worst of the challenges taking cognisance of the future requirements and sup- tool is necessary” port techniques. To take maximum advantage of the bI, the IT manager needs to develop reports out of multiple data sources such as erP, relational data source and others. funCtionalitieS that Matter While scouting for the right vendor, the IT manager needs to The bI tool should have the capability to extend to next take into account the functionalities for which bI tools are level of bI reporting such as mobile bI and deployment in necessary. For instance, ad hoc reporting analysis, drill down tablets. It is ideal to invest in better support system and and drill through, ability to develop dashboards using KPIs train in-house technical support team. A clear agree- and metrics are the key. end user-friendly interface ment needs to be signed to avail 24x7 support 7% and ease of use are important. You also need to for the tool from the bI vendor. check whether the reporting tool supports all kinds of reporting functionalities for your rajasekar Nonburaj, bI consultant & Head, organisation’s needs at all levels, right from bI Professional Group, Sydney CAGR satisfied with its output, the tools that we interact and personalise content in a way expected have deployed take data from the ERP and that drives quick decision-making. on Bi SQL databases. The data is then presented Mehrotra says, “Depending on the functions platform in specified formats. Structured reports, and features required, implementing a BI solution which users require at different frequencies, are calls for an investment of Rs 50 lakh to 2 crore, which by 2014 provided to them. Some users require the data on –Gartner includes hardware, software and user licenses.” their BlackBerry instruments, which is met usingPHoto GrAPHY: j Iten GAndHI Swaminathan has initiated implementation of these tools. We require certain information to be SAP BW and Microstrategy BI tools within the TVS pumped to users at various frequencies, which we group to take advantage of the drill down reporting, are able to do, he adds. dashboards, publishing data on BlackBerry Swaminathan observes that the investment on instruments, alerts through mails and so on. BI would be anywhere between Rs 2 to 3 crore, Explaining the modus operandi of the BI working if its full potential is to be realised, which would process, Swaminathan says, “Though we are not very be towards hardware, software licenses and persons o c T o b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext 19

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BI Vendor Selection

by Rajasekar Nonburaj on Oct 13, 2011

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BI Vendor Selection — Document Transcript