| In a market of tight investment parameters and little | | | | months |
| tolerance of mistakes, businesses are seeking out | | | | - Measurable performance improvements |
| greater transparency and insight into their | | | | - The ability to update and change information required |
| performance, and they want it NOW. This is leading | | | | at a quicker rate than when dealing with internal IT |
| many large organizations to put aside their current | | | | departments |
| plans for large scale BI implementations and instead | | | | - Custom focused solutions to meet specific |
| seek out mid market solutions - either on-premise or | | | | departmental or operational needs. Traditional business |
| on-demand. | | | | intelligence is still perceived to lack flexibility, so that cut |
| Mid-market BI Solutions | | | | down features typifying on-demand solutions are no |
| Small and mid-sized companies already take | | | | longer such an issue. Lower cost and low maintenance |
| advantage of business intelligence without paying high | | | | solutions present new opportunities to offer BI as a |
| prices or needing to have a strong internal IT | | | | service and/or with low cost subscription fees can |
| infrastructure, driven by: | | | | take advantage of this market because they already |
| - Ease of use | | | | have the structure in place to implement solutions |
| - Quick implementation times | | | | quickly. |
| - Lower total cost of ownership (TCO) | | | | Organizations don't need the difficult to obtain |
| - Diversity in deployment methods and licensing | | | | on-premise expertise, and ongoing support is a fraction |
| - Lower price points and easier payment structures | | | | of the cost of large-scale implementations. They still |
| Most mid-market BI solutions [on-premise and | | | | get the same basic features and functionality of |
| on-demand] are designed to provide end users with | | | | traditional BI counterparts. |
| the ability to customize and change how they view | | | | With the typical large enterprise having disparate data |
| and analyze data. This means the solutions are | | | | silos supporting departments or single processes, BI on |
| typically more intuitive, aimed to support end users who | | | | Demand solutions can be deployed at this level without |
| do not have access to internal IT staff. Within a short | | | | the constraint of needing complex data integration at |
| time, some end users even move beyond | | | | the enterprise level. Whilst this approach fails to meet |
| customization to develop new applications. | | | | some key BI principles such as a 'single version of |
| Enterprise BI Solutions | | | | truth', the alternative of having no BI capability is no |
| The ability to apply mid-market strategy and solutions | | | | longer acceptable. |
| to enterprise organizations is becoming a valuable | | | | Overall, adopting mid-market BI solutions now means |
| choice as a first step to BI competence. Organizations | | | | that each department can interact with their BI |
| are no longer willing to invest time in high investment, | | | | capability independently, developing applications that |
| longer implementation time projects - they just don't | | | | best suit their requirements, and manage their own |
| have the time, money and resources required to | | | | data sets, whilst still sharing accurate and relevant data |
| develop a full scale in-house BI and data warehousing | | | | across the organization. Care must be taken that this |
| application/toolset. This is driving them to seek out | | | | independence does not deepen the existing 'silo' |
| solutions that will provide rapid payback in both | | | | mentality currently existing in many large organizations, |
| productivity and profitability, meaning: | | | | and that tools and processes are available to |
| - Deployments in hours or days rather than weeks or | | | | collaborate and share data across the organization. |