1. Chapter 7: Business Intelligence Tools and Vendors

2. Outline BI tools BI vendors
Relationship with capabilities and solutions
Customization and standardization
BI vendors
Types of vendors

3. Outline BI vendors Type basis Ability to execute (ATE)
Completeness of vision (COV)
Type classifications
Leaders
Challengers
Visionaries
Niche Players

4. Business Intelligence Tools?
Application software which enables BI
Facilitates access, analysis of data and presentation of results
Complement traditional ITs (DW, data mining, transaction processing systems) to enable 4 BI capabilities

5. Business Intelligence Tools Differ from BI Capabilities
Organizational memory
Information integration
Insight creation
Presentation

6. Business Intelligence Tools Differ from BI Solutions
Utilize BI tools acquired by an organization
Draw upon existing data from traditional ITs, and other information to support the BI process by delivering information and knowledge to facilitate decision-making
The four BI capabilities come together in BI solutions

7. Figure 7.1: BI Tools in Relation to BI Capabilities, Solution, Product, and Process
BI Product
Data and Information (External & Internal; Structured & Unstructured)
Information (that leads to knowledge and/or enables decision making)
BI Process
BI Solution
BI Capabilities
Organizational Memory
Information Integration
Insight Creation
Presentation
BI Tools
Other Technologies (e.g., Data Warehouse, Data Mining)
© Sabhewal & Becerra-Fernandez

8. Figure 7.2: A Variety of BI Tool and Technologies
Text Mining tools
Knowledge Repositories
Web Mining tools
Data Warehousing
Visualization tools
Enterprise Resource Planning systems
Business Analytics tools
Environmental Scanning
Scorecarding tools
Real-time Decision Support tools
Digital Dashboards
OLAP tools
BPM tools
RFID
Document Management tools
Digital Content Management tools
Data Mining
© Sabhewal & Becerra-Fernandez

9. BI Tools Classified into Categories
Reporting, data mining, OLAP (Baars and Kemper)
Increasing: cost, functionality, BI complexity & Decreasing: # of users (Keydata)
Supports: data, information, knowledge, decisions (Olsak and Ziemba)
BI tools and technologies map into four BI capabilities
Drawn from other arenas to support BI capabilities
Emerged with development of BI

10. Figure 7.3: Classifying BI Tools and Technologies Based on Supported Capability
Organizational Memory
Information Integration
Insight Creation
Presentation
BI Capabilities
Data Warehousing
ERP
Knowledge Repositories
Digital Content Management tools
Document Management tools
Business Analytics tools
Data Mining
Real-time Decision Support
Text Mining tools
Web Mining tools
Environmental Scanning
RFID
OLAP tools
Visualization tools
Digital Dashboards
Scorecarding tools
BPM tools
BI Tools and Technologies
Note: The highlighted tools have emerged along with development of BI, whereas the others have been
adapted from other technologies to support BI.
© Sabhewal & Becerra-Fernandez

11. Customization vs Standardization of BI Tools
Could lead to wasting time on tools rather than business tasks
Could lead to creating queries that are not useful to all
Standardization
Could be overly restrictive
Could inhibit some of the major benefits from BI

12. Customization vs Standardization of BI Tools: Recommendations
Tools supporting organizational memory capability should be standardized
Tools supporting information integration should be customized only with respect to roles
Tools supporting insight creation capabilities should be customized with respect to roles and tasks
Tools supporting presentation capability should be customized with respect to roles, tasks, and individuals

13. Figure 7.4: Customization and Standardization of BI Tools and Technologies
Standardization becomes more important
Customization for users/situations becomes more important
Customization for roles, tasks, and individuals
Customization for roles
Customization for roles and tasks
No customization
Organizational Memory
Information Integration
Insight Creation
Presentation
BI Capabilities
Data Warehousing
ERP
Knowledge Repositories
Digital Content Management tools
Document Management tools
Business Analytics tools
Data Mining
Real-time Decision Support
Text Mining tools
Web Mining tools
Environmental Scanning
RFID
OLAP tools
Visualization tools
Digital Dashboards
Scorecarding tools
BPM tools
BI Tools and Technologies
Note: The highlighted tools have emerged along with development of BI, whereas the others have been
adapted from other technologies to support BI.
© Sabhewal & Becerra-Fernandez

14. Four BI Mega-Vendors Oracle (including Hyperion)
SAP (including Business Objects)
IBM (including Cognos and SPSS)
Microsoft

15. Six Major Independent BI Vendors
SAS
Micro Strategy
Information Builders
TIBCO (including Spotfire)
Qliktech
Actuate

16. Other Notable BI Vendors
Teradata HP
arcplan
Board International
Panorama Software

17. Classification of BI Vendors … #1
Basis of classification
Ability to execute (ATE)
Completeness of vision (COV)
Four types
Leaders (strong in ATE, strong in COV)
Challengers (strong in ATE, limited in COV)
Visionaries (limited in ATE, strong in COV)
Niche Players (limited in ATE, limited in COV)

18. Classification of BI Vendors … #2
Evaluation in industry surveys
BI Mega-vendors
Oracle (including Hyperion)
G’08: Leader; G’09: Leader; F’08: Leader
SAP (including Business Objects)
G’08: Leader; G’09: Leader; F’08: Leader
IBM (including Cognos)
Microsoft
G’08: Leader; G’09: Leader; F’08: Strong performer
Major Independent Vendors
SAS
G’08: Leader; G’09: Leader; F’08: Leader
Micro Strategy
G’08: Leader; G’09: Leader; F’08: Strong performer
Information Builders
TIBCO (including Spotfire)
G’08: Visionary; G’09: Visionary; F’08: Strong performer
Qliktech
G’08: Visionary; G’09: Visionary; F’08: Contender
Actuate
G’08: Niche player; G’09: Niche player; F’08: Strong performer
Note: “G’ and “F’” refer to Gartner and Forrester classifications, respectively. ‘08 and ‘09 refer to classifications in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

19. Products Offered by BI Vendors
Oracle (including Hyperion)
Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Plus; Oracle BI Suite Standard Edition One; Oracle BI Publisher; Oracle Business Activity Monitoring; Oracle Crystal Ball; Oracle Data Integration Suite; Oracle BI on Demand
SAP (including Business Objects)
SAP Business Objects Enterprise; SAP Business Objects Xcelsius Enterprise; Crystal Reports; Netweaver BW (Business Warehouse)
IBM (including Cognos)
IBM Cognos 8, delivering numerous BI capabilities on a single service-oriented architecture: reporting, analysis, scorecarding, dashboards, and extending BI
Microsoft
Microsoft SQL Server; Microsoft SharePoint Server Microsoft Office Performance Point Server; Microsoft Excel
SAS
SAS Enterprise BI Server; SAS Analytics; SAS Visual BI; SAS Web Report Studio
Micro Strategy
Intelligence Server; Intelligence server extensions; User interfaces; Development/administration tools
Information Builders
WebFOCUS BI platform; iWay software suite of pre-built integration components; host-based reporting (FOCUS)
TIBCO (including Spotfire)
TIBCO Spotfire; TIBCO Spotfire DecisionSite; TIBCO Spotfire Analytics Server; TIBCO Spotfire S+
Qliktech
QlikView; QlikView Server; QlikView Publisher
Actuate
Actuate BIRT tools; Actuate e.Reports; e.Spreadsheet

20. Recap
We have:
Discussed BI tools, examined them in relation to BI Capabilities and solutions, and illustrated them
Identified and classified major BI vendors and the tools they offer

21. Key Terms business intelligence tools business intelligence solutions
business intelligence vendors
mega-vendors
independent BI vendors
customization of BI tools
standardization of BI tools
©  Sabherwal & Becerra-Fernandez