Gartner and Forrester Research have both pointed to the superior capabilities of a BI platform, citing flexibility and a "consistent view of the truth" as the primary reasons. It is essential to bear in mind that it is impossible to obtain a "single version of the truth" from a product that is not a BI platform.
According to Forrester, only a BI platform product is sufficiently integrated to provide a consistent view of the truth. Since only a BI platform offers a single integrated metadata layer as the foundation for a single reporting and analysis environment, a mix of varying, independent tools could very easily lead to multiple versions of the truth, with serious knock-on consequences for a company running such a product.
Technology research companies apply stringent criteria to the labelling of a product as a BI platform.
Charl Barnard, MicroStrategy GM, Knowledge Integration Dynamics.
Implementation of a BI platform also ensures that organisations have the necessary flexibility to meet all their BI requirements as these change and evolve. In addition, this gives them the security of knowing that the integrated architecture of a BI platform provides one view across the business and in accordance with varying BI needs, ranging from static query and reporting to interactive OLAP analysis.
Why is BI flexibility so critical? An organisation`s BI requirements will invariably change and evolve over time. In order to provide the necessary "future-proofing", a BI platform must be able to support a broad range of varying BI applications - including operational reporting, query and reporting, statistical analysis, interactive OLAP analysis and proactive reporting and event detection. In addition, the BI product must provide sufficient product and application extensibility when all BI requirements are not known up-front.
Technology research companies apply stringent criteria to the labelling of a product as a BI platform. According to Gartner: "BI platforms offer complete sets of tools for the creation, deployment, support and maintenance of BI applications." In addition, Gartner has defined the characteristics of a BI platform as including "a modular, distributed architecture, supporting relevant standards...and providing total Web deployment. It must be open and extensible, so that third-parties are encouraged to and can easily add functionality."
Forrester, in turn, says that a BI platform is defined as "software that provides data analysis and reporting tools to help people - and applications - make accurate, repeatable business decisions". Forrester adds: "BI platforms are superior to poorly integrated best-of-breed products because they provide a consistent view of the truth, are designed so their components work together, and come from a single supplier." In short, a comprehensive BI platform delivers sophisticated multidimensional analysis, reporting and visualisation capabilities.
A BI product that meets the platform criteria defined by Gartner and Forrester is classified as both a "BI platform" and an "enterprise BI suite (EBIS)".
EBIS and BI platforms have different functionality and characteristics and support different types of BI applications. According to Gartner: "EBISs are highly functional but do not have the higher value of BI platforms...BI platforms are high value but typically not as functionally complete as EBISs." In short, functional completeness, high value and the ability to support the broadest range of BI applications can only be provided from a vendor that meets both BI platform and EBIS criteria.
While it is optimal for a solution to be named both a BI platform and an EBIS, few BI products can be classified thus, and so it is important for companies investigating BI solutions to ensure they are aware of the distinction between a true platform and an EBIS. Products that can be classified as both can be deployed as query, analysis and reporting tools and can also be used to develop and deploy BI applications. They can also handle very large databases, while delivering on performance and supporting large concurrent user populations.
Share