BUS607: Data-Driven Decision-Making

Although business intelligence solutions are seen as major investments for large companies, more and more providers have been pushing for start-ups for several years. In the following, the solutions of the larger providers are presented briefly:

SAP

The German software provider SAP has been a market leader in Germany for years and internationally at BI-Software. "SAP BusinessObjects Edge" offers a comprehensive and powerful business intelligence solution for start-ups. The product includes features for different BI needs: flexible ad-hoc queries and analytics, dashboards and visualization, data integration, and pre-configured data mart solutions. SAP BusinessObjects Edge Standard, SAP BusinessObjects Edge with Data Integration and SAP BusinessObjects Edge with Data Management are available.

Oracle

The "Business Intelligence Standard Edition one" of Oracle BI system is geared to the needs of start-up companies. As a complete solution, this is designed for five to fifty users. Comprehensive features such as interactive dashboards, ad-hoc analytics, proactive intelligence and insight, and advanced reporting and publishing mobile and predictive analytics are included in the solution.

IBM

IBM Cognos products provide business intelligence solutions for start-ups. The tools for start-ups include the functions Reporting, Analysis, Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting as well as Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards.

SAS

With the SAS Business Intelligence – Edition M product, SAS has launched a bespoke BI solution for start-ups. The solution has a modular structure and can, therefore, be expanded as requirements grow. The Edition M consists of a data integration component, an add-in for integration with Microsoft Office products, a dynamic desktop interface, and a Web Report Studio.

Microsoft

With "Microsoft Reporting and Analysis Services" Microsoft provides a Business Intelligence solution for start-ups. The solution offers data presentation and reporting, comprehensive analysis functions, fast access to large volumes of data and extensive functionality in the Microsoft standard software.

Open source vendors

In addition to big players such as SAP, Oracle, and IBM, some open source providers such as Jaspersoft, Pentaho, Jedox, and SpagoBI have established themselves on the market in recent years, offering solutions for start-ups. These four vendors use a similar business model that builds on commercial open source software. It includes a Free Community version and a Paid Enterprise version with vendor support and special features. Nevertheless, the four open source subjects differ from each other:

Jaspersoft

Jaspersoft is one of the largest providers of integrated BI solutions for start-ups. Various modules are offered for the individual subtasks, which can be connected to each other via interfaces without much effort. The list of individual modules is provided by Jaspersoft ETL, JasperReports Server (Report Server) with JasperReports Library and Jaspersoft OLAP (Mondrian Custom Solution), and Jaspersoft Studio (Report Editor). Jaspersoft relies on third-party vendors in the ETL and OLAP areas, but the modules are adapted to their product line. All submodules can also be used separately. Jaspersoft focuses on reporting and distribution. The report server is at the heart of the solution.

Pentaho

Pentaho is one of the market leaders in open source BI for start-ups and has a high profile. Like Jaspersoft, Pentaho relies on customized, partially existing Open Source projects acquired by Pentaho. The focus is on data integration and reports automation. The product portfolio consists of Business Analytics Platform, Data Integration, Report Designer, Aggregation Designer & Schema Workbench and Metadata Editor.

Jedox

Jedox offers a complete BI suite that includes everything from ETL to OLAP to dashboards and reports. The hobby was and still is the powerful OLAP module Jedox. By integrating into Excel, Jedox offers a lot of added value for many start-ups, since a wide variety of data is often already maintained in Excel spreadsheets. Jedox integrates with Excel and replaces the pivot function, but offers many additional features such as target / actual deviations. The greatest advantage of integrating with Excel is above all in the "familiar" environment, because office applications are widely used in start-ups. As a result, the training effort here is relatively low overall.

SpagoBI

As the only provider of integrated BI solutions for start-ups, SpagoBI offers all modules only in an open source version. There is no Enterprise version of SpagoBI. The business model is to provide services in the field of module setup and customization. Essentially, SpagoBI offers the advantage that all tendered software solutions can be managed via a central platform via the browser. So can a solution that has been developed with SpagoBI. SpagoBI is a small BI suite made up of several open source BI tools packed together, e.g., ETL, OLAP, Data Mining, Reporting (including Talent, Mondrian, Weka, BIRT and Jasper-Reports Library). Also, SpagoBI does not offer further modules. They are mainly used to optimize the presentation of BI results on mobile devices or to support the connection of geographical data with business-relevant data.

In addition to the five large providers SAP, Oracle, IBM, SAS and Microsoft, start-up companies like to buy software providers from Open Source, such as Jaspersoft, Pentaho, Jedox Palo and SpagoBI, because they negotiate at eye level, have advantages in terms of local presence and support or know-how for certain tasks or industries.

In summary, it can be said that the providers of open source BI solutions for start-ups are well represented. In addition to a free version, they also offer a commercial version of their software. However, their business version can often be purchased cheaper than that of the significant providers. The difference between the free version and the paid version is in most cases in advanced features and professional support.