What to Consider When Selecting a BI Solution

The world of Business Intelligence has evolved quite a bit in recent years. The hyper competitive business market has driven the Business Intelligence industry to provide analytical information regarding trends and forecasting on the spot. More useful information is needed, and less time is available to derive it. That's why it's important to have a Business Intelligence solution in place that can give you the on-Demand features and benefits that you need.

When selecting an on-demand BI solution there are several factors to take into consideration.

* make sure your Business Intelligence solution is user friendly. Business analysts, corporate executives, and manages are not always technically proficient, so it's important that your BI tool can get them the information they need without having to train them on various technical aspects.

* make sure your BI tool is database platform, and operating system independent. Some BI tools only work with MicroSoft or Oracle, and it may not be in your companies best interest to make a change.

* make sure your BI tool comes with a centralized meta-data repository?. It's important to know who's using the tool, and how long verious reports and cubes take to run.

* make sure your BI tool offers GIS capability or compatibility with existing GIS tools. Mapping data will be a huge part of business intelligence in the future, and you don't want to miss out because your BI solution doesn't support it.

* make sure your BI tool supports complex statistical analysis. Simple straightforward counts don't always cut it, and not everyone has the time to learn SaaS BI.