What does it take to implement a business intelligence solution? BI tools alone do not do the trick. While there are a few scenarios where it makes sense to just point a BI tool at a transactional database, most situations require that the information be extracted into a separate data store for reporting and analysis to prevent impacting the operational applications. Thus, most BI solutions require implementation of not only the BI tools, but a data mart or warehouse to store and manage all of the information for reporting and analysis.
In most scenarios, reporting and analysis requires a different view of the information than what has been delivered in the transactional applications, requiring different meta data schemas and data models. And unfortunately, no one has reached the nirvana state where all of their information is coming from one place. As a result, most BI solutions also require more advanced information integration capabilities, including the ability to aggregate data from multiple sources, cleanse the data for improved quality and reliability, and transform the data in preparation for loading into data marts or warehouses.
And to really ensure you can trust the reports and analysis being generated, and know that those 3 sales are all really for the same customer, or the same product, it is becoming increasingly important to manage master data across your operational and analytic systems.
So, BI is not just about the BI tools (e.g. query, reporting, analysis, dashboards, scorecards, etc.). It also requires data warehousing capabilities, information integration and master data management. A complete platform to establish accurate, trusted information AND the tools to report on and analyze that information. And this is why we are seeing a lot of acquisitions and consolidation in the BI space. Both the vendors and the customers are realizing that they need more than just one piece of the puzzle to deliver business intelligence.
And if you want to really complete the puzzle, then you will need the underlying hardware to run all of these components (ideally, hardware that is optimized for the different components), expertise to help you establish the appropriate strategy and implement the solution successfully, and if possible, accelerators for your particular industry and the business domains of importance to you.
This is what is required to implement a BI solution.
