For those considering on-premise BI solutions, compared to on-demand BI solutions, estimating the cost against industry standards is a typical item in the business case. The following tool may provide you with the answers you seek.
A 2008 TDWI BI Benchmark Report, based on a web survey of 392 BI professionals, found that the median capital budget spending on BI in 2008 was $260,000 while median BI maintenance costs were $235,000.
To benchmark your BI costs against TDWI Median across:
BI Software Costs – BI Software, Database technology, Updates & Upgrades, Annual Maintenance
I was just completing my upcoming book “Getting to Cloud” and decided to use BI as a great example as to how Cloud computing will enable more innovative BI.
One of the innovative developments Cloud enables, that supports self service BI is BI Mashups. Virtualization infrastructure enables a continuous background task to run searching for new data sources and fresh updates from existing sources to support BI mashups
Once a new data source is discovered, it is transformed to a common semantic model, and published to a BI-mashup registry. Users simply drag and drop BI reports, dashboards, and other analytics to their desktop.
Automated discovery is key to both the concept of BI mashup, and also to the concept of trustworthy data. It helps detect and remediate anomalies across disparate data sources.
Current vendors of automated source discovery include Composite Software and Exeros [recently acquired by IBM]. Other areas of innovation around BI will drive further consolidation in the BI market, as Cloud acts as the enabler of sourcing and transforming aggregated data into common formats for consumption across the complete set of BI tools.
Want a super cool way to look at how the different Web 2.0 technologies are being engaged by businesses, and which ones have grown in adoption over the past two years? McKinsey has recently launched a user definable, interactive to allow you to gain insight into many aspects of Web 2.0. For instance, find out the most powerful business tools in use today. Move the slider on the right
to see how each tool has gained in adoption since 2007.
I watch a lot of webinars and every now and then I come across one that really stands out. And one I really would like to recommend is:
A Guide to Building a Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Solution in the Cloud
Recorded on July 9, 2009 by Open-source BI vendor Pentaho, Cloud DBMS vendor Vertica and BI Cloud systems integrator OpenBI, Ithe webinar provides a very insightful overview how any concerns around performance and security with Cloud have been overcome for use with BI applications. In particular, the webinar covers:
Cloud overview (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud)
Operational expense vs. capital expense project funding
Technology selection
Provisioning BI hardware and software in the Amazon EC2 with Vertica and Pentaho
How a BI demo was created and lessons learned using Pentaho and Vertica
New BI opportunities enabled by the economic advantages of cloud computing
A segment I found especially helpful was the configuration considerations when setting up BI in the Cloud. This included security, cost management, user access, ETL, performance etc.
A new partnership recently announced between four open-source and proprietary vendors heralds a big step forward along the BI Cloud roadmap. Vendors Jaspersoft, Talend, Vertica and RightScale have formed an alliance to lead the integration stack of open source BI into cloud environments.
Jaspersoft – open-source BI
Talend – data-integration technologies
Vertica’s – analytic database
RightScale’s – management software for cloud-based application deployments.
At first light it appears the integration is at the technical and sales levels only. Customers will have to form form contractual agreements with each vendor; each vendor naturally responsible for supporting their own technology. This signals a hiccup in such a fast paced IT integration society.
But the good news is that customers will be able to use the pay-as-you-go pricing model integral in cloud computing. The offer is expected to be attractive to smaller enterprises that do not have a full developed BI capability and to smaller resellers or consultants who will add their domain expertise.
Cloud is also used by larger enterprises for periodic BI projects or experimental analytics outside their enterprise analytical framework.
Whilst on the topic of Business Intelligence on Mobile – most BI Vendors are in the process of rolling out capability for small screen devices.
Recently, BI software vendor MicroStrategy announced that it will provide its business reports and dashboards on Amazon’s Kindle DX reader. Kindle is a simple platform for downloading and reading books provided by Amazon and other subscription content such as newspapers. Since it’s launch, software developers have been quick to look at what applications are viable on this platform.
Since Kindle is easy to use, easy to read and built on 3G connectivity, it makes sense as a delivery platform for business intelligence data.
Microstrategy already has an iPhone app to allow mobile access to reports and the dashboard, so Kindle is another step along the convergence chain between mobile and business intelligence. When BI becomes more accessible, it will become more acceptable. Since Kindle has significantly more power than most smartphones, hopefully Kindle BI is another push along the path to accessible BI.
I expect to see many more business intelligence applications to appear on mobile devices in the very near future – so keep watch at this blog or follow me on Twitter.
the future of mobile business intelligence the future of mobile business intelligence.
A Dutch startup called Layar has launched a mobile augmented reality for Android-based phones. The phone uses its own internal GPS and internal compass. Using the phone’s camera, the user chooses a ‘layar’ of information [house prices, local jobs, nightclubs, etc.], point it anywhere you like, and it shows you information about whatever you are looking at.
The possibilities for consumer BI are evident, but it may also be valuable in the corporate environment when combined with other services such as RoamBI.
On a small window and augmented reality browswer adds clarity to the information by placing it in a visual context. In this instance, it is information on buying a house. The software on the phone works in the same way as the software that identifies what music is playing when you are out at a club. By using your video function to view the houses around you, the screen will highlight those properties currently for sale and provide you with the key data. Users can set their own ‘purchase profiles’ in terms of price range etc to help filter out unwanted properties. And with a one touch call to the realtor, you are more than one step ahead of competing purchasers.
It astounds me that even in these disquietening times that businesses are not leveraging their assets as well as they should be. In spite of investment in BI remaining reasonably steady, the business utilization of BI solutions remains relatively low. After a review across studies and articles to validate my own findings the general status quo is:
Business executives are still not recognizing the strategic competitive advantage that analytics tools provide, and only half of executives admit to being reasonably technology savvy in using the tools they have
Of those users who are engaging with BI tools – only slightly over 10% are using them effectively
And only one quarter of executives consider themselves sufficiently educated in business technology
For many companies today – the power is in the information they have about their markets and customers. Yet for most companies it seems that power is neither tapped or controlled. Until executives recognize the need to gain more insight into advanced technology and how it can be used to energize their current performance, this situation is unlikely to change. Too many still see technology as an underlying corporate facility that manages communications and hosts standard operational software. Yet IT has quietly bubbled its way up from the basement to the boardroom, to be one of the most powerful strategic assets a business can have.
I guess if todays older executives refuse to engage with their technology assets, companies will have to suffer the bland performance of today, until their current executive team is replaced by younger generations who recognize the value and engage enthusiastically with IT.
BI tools have developed significantly over the past few years, and one positive move is the ability of end users to create and publish their own dashboards. The benefits of self pubishing dashboards include:
Rapid deployment of BI tools to meet individual needs – no input from IT is required
Customization of the dashboard to a user group of 1
Instant update of dashboards to meet changing needs
However, there are also a few drawbacks. Firstly, KPI clutter – too many KPI on a single dashboard. This is a common mistake my many new users of dashboards as they seek to add more and more value. In reality, they are reducing the value by reducing the visibility of primary KPI with a lot of clutter. Just as we saw the aptly name ’spreadmart’ fever, we are now seeing evidence of the KPI Crazies.
The number of KPI depend very much on the type of business, department or role. However, as a general rule of thumb the max is 10. Many dashboards provide all the necessary information in just 4 KPI. The key is to recognize the difference between KPI and KRA. KRA refer to key results areas. KRA’s are more operational in that they refer to key activities and people contributing to a process, whereas KPI are more exact, referring to the outcome of processes that contribute directly to strategic goals.
Consider Albert Einstein’s quote:
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
One of the biggest constraints about enterprises moving data and services into the Cloud is Trust – trust that access will be reliable and available, and trust that their data is safe. Trust is a key attribute of brand, and preivous behaviour of brand owners either contributes to or erodes brand.
It is this very trust issue that puts me in two minds re Dells latest rollout of a Cloud enabled SaaS package to European businesses.
Whilst I am a great supporter of getting applications with low frequency usage and high processing requirements into the Cloud, I worry about Dells ability to deliver. The reason for my concern is lack of trust.
In my opinion, Dell has failed to adquately manage the power their laptops, so why would I trust them with assuring availability of a whole data center in which I would trust such important services as Distributed Device Management, Software Inventory, Online Backup and Restore, Laptop Data Encryption, Email Management and Crisis Management.
I would like to clarify that I am a fan of Dell computers in general, my own laptop is a Dell as are the laptops of my partner and mother – all procured with the assistance of moi. No other provider gives more bang for the buck.
But the power management systems in these Laptops have been problematic from Day 1. And Dell has consistently failed to accept responsibility for this issue. As I said earlier, brand is a big part of trust – and we would like to think that when something goes wrong that is critical to business continuity, we don’t have the vendor shutting down the issue with ‘not our problem’.
Dell – if you are the Cloud service provider it is your problem. And the issues with the power management in your laptops is your problem – so is the very poor quality of the laptop batteries which last little longer than a year.
With availability and reliability key elements underpinning the trust a client puts in their Cloud vendor, I suggest that Dell needs to be more consistent in managing that trust.
When I am happy with trusting Dell with my laptop power, then and only then will I trust them with Cloud services. And that day is not today!
