Anticlue

BI Solutions Buy, Build, or Ignore

An interesting lunch question arose the other day, at which point does one decide that writing a report and delivering via a web tool is just not practical and a larger tool is purchased, ie. Business Objects. To take the question a bit further at what point is the tool no longer applicable, and we go to a vendor provided BI solution.

I think there is a point of epiphany that occurs between each phase, and it really depends on what is important.
For example, is the business community starved for information? Is the IS staff all using languages of choice to create reports? Is there any standardization at all in the reports? What is a new report request delivery time? How are reports delivered? How important is the historical information? Why is it that important? Answers to these questions, can illustrate the need to move to a larger tool.

Next however, once the tool is in place, how to get the data to a informative solution. Sometime a vendor tool has simplified the data intergration aspect. Imagine in healthcare having the clinical, patient management, patient billing, practice billing, ERP, HR and others all in one centralized place. The other benefit is the multitude of canned reports that are delivered as a part of the implementation. The vendor also has the benefit of being an expert, so they can help with planning, implementation, and maintenance. It is nice to have a place to go to ask a question, especially when staffing is a concern. If you do not have the developers in house, its definitely a good route to take. Also if you know you will not have the budget.

Another thought for a vendor solution is to go with something that you know integrates with your other business apps. Have this as a question in the evaluation process.

For the vendor solution, how close is the data load to real time reporting? Is there power in adhoc reporting and being able to drill down and examine the information to identify trends?

After analyzing and reviewing questions like the ones above, the path may be clear to the solution that works for you.