- How are vendors and products selected for inclusion in the scorecards?
- Do vendors sponsor this research?
- How are products evaluated?
- How long have you been evaluating BI products?
- Who thought of the scorecard approach?
- What are your biases?
1. How are vendors and products selected for inclusion in the scorecards?
Vendors are selected based on a combination of market share and mind share. Marketshare is not easy to determine as many research firms define the BI market in different ways, so then I rely on mindshare, or which vendors companies seem to be evaluating most frequently. This initial round of six vendors was selected based on feedback from existing customer evaluations and from The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) course attendees.
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2. Do vendors sponsor this research?
No, although they may subscribe to the web site.
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3. How are products evaluated?
Product are evaluated hands-on. I also rely on vendor documentation, customer references, news group postings, and vendor briefings.
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4. How long have you been evaluating BI products?
I've been evaluating BI products for more than 15 years and have implemented several of the products reviewed (and some products not yet reviewed here). The content on this web site represents intense research since March 2003.
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5. Who thought of the scorecard approach?
My gratitude goes to Wayne Eckerson,
director of research and services
for TDWI., who thought of the scorecard approach when we first began co-teaching "Evaluating BI Toolsets." I resisted, thinking it would introduce too much subjectivity and vendor animosity. The hands-on approach has helped to minimize subjectivity and ensure the products are evaluated consistently. As for the vendor animosity, well, clearly the yellow and red scores can be contentious! However, if I can't figure out how to do something or the feature is not well documented, then I'm skeptical that customers will be able to take advantage of the functionality either. Bottom line - end customers have been enthusiastic about the scorecard approach!
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6. What are your biases?
I take a buy versus build approach as I think this is more sustainable for most companies. In this respect, I look for out-of-the box functionality rather than capabilities exposed through APIs or SDKs. As a consultant, I like BI tools that are easy to implement (no budget over runs) and don't require a lot of baby sitting (customer stays happy).
As the author of Business Objects: The Complete Reference, I've been asked if I am biased towards Business Objects. Did the vendor pay me to write the book? No. The publisher, McGraw Hill, hired me to write the book. The book discusses how to use Business Objects and not how to evaluate it or whether to select it.
In selecting BI tools, I believe in a best fit that not only considers the product features and vendor strategy, but the customer's capabilities, standards, and infrastructure.
In order to minimize potential conflicts of interest, I do not own stock in any BI vendor nor do I resell software.
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