The Three Flavors Of Business Intelligence
Yes, it is more like Baskin Robbins… but lets focus on the big three
#BIMadness2018 is underway. We launched our final four bracket over the weekend. Four competitors that well define three major flavors of Business Intelligence. Power BI from Microsoft and Looker each integrate well with Azure and AWS respectively. Qlikview is a solution that requires and is often pushed by trained service providers. Tableau is the desktop power house. Three distinct types of BI tools, not in what they do… but How they do it.
Avid readers know I am a big fan of How. I believe it defines real and great analytics. So why not use it to define How the Business Intelligence market seems to be differentiated?
Let’s start with Vanilla.
It has a connotation of boring, but we are more working from it more basic properties. It is the essense of ice cream. Rich, creamy, sweet — you get it. Think French Vanilla, if it helps. The analogous BI tools are those that are platform-based. Think IBM, SAP, Oracle, and Looker.
These tools may be powerful in their own right, but their integration with major cloud and database platforms is what puts them over the top. A bit like vanilla ice cream, this also makes them acceptable to your IT shop. Inherited security models, easy integration, no proprietary data stores… just wonderful vanilla.
Platform-based Business Intelligence Tools offer easier integration and ramp times.
Typically, they offer easy (though not always cheap) enterprise licensing models. They can be spun up quickly, assuming you utilize their base platforms. And hiring for talent tends to be easier and cheaper, although AWS is stretching that lately.
Next up — Strawberry.
Strawberry is much more unique than vanilla. Perhaps less popular — but that is not where we are going. The best has little chunks of fruit.
In the BI world, I liken the desktop tools to strawberry. Full of flavor but not always great in bulk or in every situation. Sometimes it takes a little getting used to. Think Tableau or many of the pivot table tools and the old excel add ins.
Desktop-based Business Intelligence Tools offer affordable options with easy learning curves.
These tools operate on shoestring budgets, in limited quantities. They often lack enterprise models. Your IT team is inclined to ignore them, lest they get a headache (brain freeze?). A few years back their security features were suspect, though that is no longer the case (in theory).
They offer easy learning curves but long ones, too. Low level talent is bargain price but master practitioners are another story entirely. These tools are often light weight and multi-channel friendly. And they often co-exist with other tools… just like strawberry ice cream.
It is time for Chocolate.
Everyone loves chocolate, right? Ok — but Death by Chocolate is a thing, too. Personally, I prefer the chocolate model in BI but it can be a budget breaker. Chocolate here is the end-to-end, high service models like Qlik and Information Builders.
These tools are also secondary to the service. Their practitioners work from soup to nuts, data to viz, ice cream to cherry. Full service tools for full service providers. They try to be platform agnostic. They provide security via internal and integrated options.
Service-based Business Intelligence Tools provide more holistic but often pricey support.
But they sticker high. Their learning curve is steep. Their talent pools can be pricey. Their pricing models try to offset this a bit, but they can only go so far. And they can only be great at so much, each trades off certain weaknesses for different strengths (if that surprises you, you must be new to this…). All that said, I still think they taste better… budget and business allowing.
Everybody thinks they’re Neopolitan
I can hear the BI providers arguing now. No segmentation is perfect, so… perhaps. But if you want this analogy, just remember, no Neapolitan mix is almost ever right. There is almost always too much or too little of something.
Thanks for reading! And best of luck with whichever flavor you chose. Be sure to chose your favorite BI solution in our competition here:
For help plotting your course:
