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We all make choices, at one time or another, that we come to regret, or at least to feel we should have taken an available alternative. We make choices based on limited information about the benefits and risks. As time passes and we begin to assess the actual benefits that accrue, we may feel our expectations have not been met.
The reason for Business Intelligence systems is to provide as much objective information as possible to facilitate a meaningful risk/benefit analysis. It is something of an irony, therefore, that there is no reliable way to adequately assess the risks and benefits of investing in one Business Intelligence tool versus another. This is not to suggest that any one BI product is generally superior to any other, but rather that the attributes of some products will be more appropriate in a given context than attributes of other products.
As with any tool, one size or configuration of Business Intelligence product does not fit all circumstances. But unless a decision maker has direct experience with the available options, he will select one over another based on his comfort level with what he is being told and by whom.
There may be sources of information one could turn to for information to fill the gaps. But they are awfully hard to find. I’ve tried. For example, this article from IT ToolBox (click here) gives a brief rundown of some key features for about half a dozen products. CAMagazine (click here) published this feature-comparison grid in PDF format comparing eleven products sold in Canada, including Cognos, Hyperion and Informatica but excluding Business Objects and Oracle. Both of these examples date from 2004, and competition being what it is, much may have changed in the intervening three years. Neither is sufficiently comprehensive to be of much use.
I know I would find it tremendously helpful if there were a website I could go to that provides up-to-date comparisons of product features for all the current BI software offerings. It would also be helpful to find comments from the user community, including both IT and non-IT decision makers who have used two or more products, that contain insights into why one product turned out to be a better choice for them than any other. I’d like to know what made them choose the original product, what made them decide to change, why they chose the second product, and so on.
Since I haven’t found any place I can go for that, I’m opening up the floor in this blog. If any of my readers know of a good source for this information, please post the URL. If you have any experiences to relate, please post them.
I’m not looking for product endorsements; “best/worst product ever” just isn’t going to fly. A tool that didn’t work out well for one decision maker may be perfect for another, for both objective and subjective reasons. And frankly, all the tools on the market today are thoughtfully designed, powerful, and effective, and I have no desire to disparage any of them, implicitly or explicitly. None, however, is perfect for every user, and I’d like to see if there are identifiable guidelines for making the right choice.
This is not a contest. There is no prize for the most compelling story. The only reward I can promise is that the experiences you describe here may be helpful to someone else. In order to do that, postings should contain the following minimal information, along with any commentary you feel is beneficial.
- A brief description of the project for which the tools were selected
- A brief description of the project environment, including operating system, database, the industry, and the target audience.
- The tool that was selected first, and the criteria on which the selection was based
- The tool(s) selected later, and the reasons for those selections
- A summary assessment of the results to date.
In the summary assessment, it would be helpful to know if any of the original selection criteria were later determined to be invalid or irrelevant. This would include, for example, mid-project changes in focus or direction, or other environmental changes, as well as those determinations resulting from experience with the product(s).
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