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January 26, 2009
The Six Points of Effort in Business Intelligence Software
Small and medium-sized companies who evaluate the purchase of a business intelligence software solution worry about the effort required. However, decision-makers completely new to BI often have a slightly distorted view of what effort really is--specifically, of what exactly the element or points of effort are. With a better understanding of these factors, the decision-making process will be smoother and more informed.
So, which are the points of effort in business intelligence software implementation? The main ones are six:
1 - Upfront costs, or the costs the vendor charges for the software
2 - IT architecture costs, for example, a new database or data warehouse if required
3 - IT man-hours in setting up the application and building the reports
4 - Licensing costs, since most BI vendors still license by the number of users
5 - Training for the end-users
6 - Hidden costs or future costs, for example, maintenance costs or cost of upgrading to a new version of the software
If the decision maker uses these parameters to evaluate a BI vendor, it will be much easier to quantify the value of a solution and to project ROI in the short, medium and long term.
Posted by Hound of the BI-skervilles at January 26, 2009 2:15 PM
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