Dashboards, Reporting & Business Intelligence

For both software users and software creators, the advent of open source business intelligence has created much controversy. Since 1998, when the Open Source Initiative was formed, a steadily increasing wave of commercial and non-commercial licensed software has been developed and distributed over the internet. Currently, in the realm of open source BI software, over 60% of companies and governments are active users, with these numbers steadily rising. But even with such statistics, some potential users still prefer closed source software to its open source competition. On the other hand, some new software creators also prefer the world of closed source applications, with little interest in developing software for open source business intelligence.

For these closed source minded software users and creators, there are a few common misconceptions about open source software that should be examined more closely.

Concerns about Open Source Software

In the case of business intelligence, potential users may worry about the safety and security of software that is free for download over the internet. Would valuable and potentially damaging business intelligence information really be safely filtered through free software? Also, such potential users may also be worried about bugs within the open source software, or even a “back door” for the software creator to access the user’s information.

For software creators looking to tackle business intelligence, the open source software model may look like a worthless investment of time and expertise. Why would anybody make business intelligence software available as a completely free download? How would a software creator make any money if the source of his or her labor is freely distributed to anybody who owns a computer?

The Truth about Open Source Software

For those users worried about the safety capabilities of open source business intelligence software, they can rest easy. Since its inception, the creation of open source software has been targeted towards benefitting users, not scamming them. Also, there can be no such thing as a “back door” in open source software, because all of the software’s coding is fully available for everybody to see. If large companies and corporations are using open source business intelligence software, you can be sure that it is a safe and reliable alternative to any of the pricy closed source competition. In addition, open source business software allows users to come together over forums and discussions, where everybody can work together and troubleshoot to update the software into an even better free business intelligence tool.

Hesitant software creators should also realize that they can make big profits from creating something that everybody downloads for free. Unlike closed source companies, open source companies make money by shifting the commercial value away from their business intelligence software “product,” and instead, generate money from something called the “Product Halo.” This means software creators offer the open source software for free, but charge money for such valuable services such as tutorials, technical support, and system integration. Basically, if the open source business intelligence software creator is the most knowledgeable about his or her product, then users and companies will pay them for help in maintaining and updating the free software.

Though closed source software is here to stay, new software users and creators are wise to look into the benefits of the increasingly popular open source business intelligence software model.

To understand the benefits of self-service business intelligence, you first need to know what self-service BI is. It is, as it sounds, a way for business users to easily access the data that they need and create the necessary reports by themselves without having to involve the IT personnel or power users at their company. In essence, it is user-friendly business intelligence that any business user can operate.

Who Can Use Self-Service BI?

The whole point of self-service business intelligence is that anyone who needs to use it can use it. While BI tools are normally used by management or the key decision-makers in a company, it is now also being used by project managers to improve day-to-day performance and by real-time users in an operational capacity. Self-service BI doesn’t cut out the need for your IT personnel: they are still very necessary in creating applications and dealing with the more complicated business intelligence issues. But self-service BI does offer the benefit of streamlining the reporting process and allowing business users to handle much of it themselves.

Taking Advantage of the Benefits

Because self-service BI users don’t have to rely on your IT team to gain access to data and create reports, the decision-making process in your company can become that much faster. When a business user sees a problem that requires data to analyze the problem and strategize for a solution, that business user no longer has to first approach the IT department to access the data and build the necessary report. Removing that step in the process brings your business user to a solution much faster and improves the performance of your company on a much more immediate basis. Another benefit of self-service business intelligence: it frees up your IT personnel to work once again on the larger picture, rather than getting bogged down in the reporting needs of business users.

The Tools You Need for Self-Service Business Intelligence

How can you get your hands on self-service BI tools? Find a vendor that utilizes rich internet applications in its BI software. This allows for a user-friendly interface, web-based tools and reports, and reporting formats that will look and feel familiar to the user.

Business intelligence can be complex, but more and more, vendors are creating tools that are more user-friendly and allow business users to work directly with those tools. Take a look at self-service BI and streamline the decision-making process in your company.