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Business Intelligence for the SMB Market
by John Kyle
VP of Marketing, LogiXML
July 16, 2006
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Special Considerations for BI in the SMB Market
If you are considering the purchase of a BI product, there are several things to keep in mind. Here are a few tips:
- Don’t be afraid to try BI. You may have heard that some companies have spent hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on BI. With price tags like that, you may think that your company could never even get started. You can build a comprehensive reporting and analysis environment (for unlimited users) for much less than you might think.
- Don’t try to build it all at once. Mature BI environments can have hundreds of unique reports. Start with just a few reports and build up in phases. Have a vision for the future, but stay focused on the problem you have. Don’t let a vendor convince you to solve a problem you don’t really have. The famous movie line, “Build it and they will come,” is the road to failure with business intelligence applications.
- Plan for user growth. Historically, corporate reporting was for a tiny group within a company. Data, trend and performance analysis was done by an even smaller group. Today, the model is different. People need insight to do their jobs. Over time, a successful BI environment will expand to meet the needs of more and more people in the organization.
- Encourage cross-functional teaming between report developers and end users. Businesses today need a combination of tech-savvy business people and business-savvy tech people. Report developers should not work in a vacuum. They need to work closely with those who will ultimately use the reports they design. Cross-functional teaming will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long-run.
- Don’t be trapped by architecturally limited solutions. Buzz-words like “in memory BI” sound appealing because they imply simplicity. Simplicity is great. By all means, go for simplicity. But, in an effort to get simplicity, don’t feel that you have to sacrifice sophistication. Finding the right solution is a matter of balancing current needs, future growth, price and ease-of-use and operation.
- Leverage the Web. Go with a solution that will grow with you without forcing you to spend more every time you add new users. Go with a solution that can be maintained centrally, by a smaller IT staff – no plug-ins and no desktop software. The Web is ubiquitous. People are very comfortable with a Web browser, which means Web-based software requires less training.
Small and medium-sized companies stand to benefit a lot by deploying comprehensive reporting and analysis tools. Fortunately, they are no longer forced to buy legacy technology that has been “shoe-horned” down for smaller companies or glued together from the consolidation of various older companies and products. There are very good options for the SMB market.
If you’d like to learn how the Logi 8 Business Intelligence Platform is a great fit for small- and medium-sized companies, please contact us.
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