Hound of the BI-skervilles

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January 14, 2009

What makes value in business intelligence software?

When I think of value, I think of a see-saw. How much you can leverage on the other side using as little weight as possible determines value. Doing or getting much with little effort is good value, while the opposite constitutes, well, the opposite.

When we look at business intelligence solutions, what constitutes good value? To answer this question, we need to look at what's at either end of the "see-saw." On one side, what are we trying to get? On the other, what are the measurable kinds of effort required to get it?

What we want in business intelligence software
In the simplest terms, the "goods" in business intelligence solutions are nothing but the tools to see, understand and act upon corporate data. All other things being equal, the more sophisticated and powerful the tools, the more valuable the application.

The points of effort required in business intelligence
The other side of the equation, there are three main points of effort.

1 - Cost of ownership for the BI application
2 - Licensing costs
3 - Setup effort, measured in man hours and opportunity cost

Determining the value of a BI solution entails a careful balancing of these variables. Any decision maker evaluating business intelligence who does not have a clear picture of this is going at it with one boot off.

I will delve deeper into each of these points in the next few days.

Posted by Hound of the BI-skervilles at January 14, 2009 11:45 AM

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Posted by: Anethythymn at May 15, 2011 6:45 AM

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