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Когда дело доходит до выбора BI-инструмента для отчетности – глаза разбегаются и даже профессионалы часто приходят в замешательство от огромного количества альтернатив, доступных сегодня на рынке.
Определиться с поставщиком решения становится все сложнее, учитывая тот факт, что неправильно сделанный выбор может крайне негативно сказаться на результатах бизнеса. Эксперт Саймон Ту дает очень здравые советы, как принять правильное информированное решение. (Материал опубликова на английском языке)
Как правильно выбрать BI-инструмент. Советы эксперта
15 ноября 2012Know Your Business
When buying a new BI tool, you first need to have a clear understanding of your business needs and business requirements. Always answer these questions before you look into the technology:
Keep in mind that the demo always looks great. After the purchase, you might discover that the application you build with the tool doesn’t look as slick as the demo. You might realize that you can’t really build a production-grade “real world” BI solution in a few hours. That’s because your actual business requirements won’t be as simple as a “Hello World” demo. The vendor demo never has to worry about inter-operability, data cleansing, user security and data security issues. You need to make sure you have the right expectations.
Change Your Vendors Wisely
In this tight economy, businesses are highly competitive. Their need for analytic tools is growing more than ever. And each business’ needs are moving very fast. But very often, your existing software vendor is so busy playing catch-up that it isn’t up-to-speed with the right tool for your business need. When this occurs, it’s common for businesses to look for alternative solutions from other software vendors.
Answer the following questions when considering a change:
About the author:
Simon To: I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects tool for more than 10 years and I have been an active contributor in the BusinessObjects community. Currently my community roles are SAP Mentor, ASUG BusinessObjects Strategic SIG Chair, and ASUG DFW Chapter Program Chair. You can find me on Twitter as @substring, and you can also find me on Google+ and Facebook.
Source: the-decisionfactor.com
When buying a new BI tool, you first need to have a clear understanding of your business needs and business requirements. Always answer these questions before you look into the technology:
- What infrastructure does your company currently have?
- Will this new tool work well with your existing infrastructure?
- Does this new tool require additional hardware?
- Do you have the necessary skill set in-house to develop BI solutions using this tool?
- Are your evaluators and decision-makers technologically competent enough to analyze the BI tool without depending on what the salesperson is telling you? If you like to rely on the salesperson, I have a bridge to sell you.
Keep in mind that the demo always looks great. After the purchase, you might discover that the application you build with the tool doesn’t look as slick as the demo. You might realize that you can’t really build a production-grade “real world” BI solution in a few hours. That’s because your actual business requirements won’t be as simple as a “Hello World” demo. The vendor demo never has to worry about inter-operability, data cleansing, user security and data security issues. You need to make sure you have the right expectations.
Change Your Vendors Wisely
In this tight economy, businesses are highly competitive. Their need for analytic tools is growing more than ever. And each business’ needs are moving very fast. But very often, your existing software vendor is so busy playing catch-up that it isn’t up-to-speed with the right tool for your business need. When this occurs, it’s common for businesses to look for alternative solutions from other software vendors.
Answer the following questions when considering a change:
- Are you switching software vendors permanently?
- If the answer is “yes”, you need to:
- Go through the aforementioned questions on buying a new BI tool. Determine how much it’ll cost the company to rebuild all the reports and BI solutions with the new tool.
- If the answer is “no”, you need to ask:
- Is this an interim solution until the existing software vendor is ready to provide the right tool?
- Will it be an easy transition when the existing software vendor is ready to provide the right tool? Or will you dig yourself into a deep hole by using this new tool?
- Does your existing software vendor have a BI solution that, though not perfect, can cover about 75 percent of your need? Will that work for you?
About the author:Simon To: I have been using the SAP BusinessObjects tool for more than 10 years and I have been an active contributor in the BusinessObjects community. Currently my community roles are SAP Mentor, ASUG BusinessObjects Strategic SIG Chair, and ASUG DFW Chapter Program Chair. You can find me on Twitter as @substring, and you can also find me on Google+ and Facebook.
Source: the-decisionfactor.com
