Dashboards, Reporting & Business Intelligence

Open source BI is gaining popularity as more and more companies start using open source as opposed to commercial software for their businesses. Evaluating an open source product is different from evaluating a commercial product. Because there is no sales force for distribution, gaining comprehensive information on the business intelligence product requires a different approach. Assuming all other things are equal, open source BI shoppers should start by looking at the support forums associated with the community, the source code for the software, and the documentation and training options offered on the website.

The Support Forums

The support forums for any open source software project are one of the project’s greatest assets. By visiting the forums, a CIO can begin to assess whether or not that particular project with work for their company. Each community has its own personality and it is important to learn more about how welcoming the forums are, how capable the main contributors can be, and how active members are in the community.

The Source Code

The nature of the source code is also very important to look at. The source code holds the secrets to what the product is like and what its functionality is.

Documentation and Training

Most open source BI projects will have some kind of documentation that will help those who don’t read code understand how to use the product. Often there are also training options available, as well. If these documents are difficult to understand or if the training is not comprehensive enough, neither will be much use to any company using the open source software.

Once a company finds the open source BI program that they want to use, they have a variety of options on how to proceed with their new product. They can start by actively becoming a part of their community in order to garner good will, with the hope that they can eventually have some influence on the applications that are developed by the community. Although becoming involved is a good idea regardless of a company’s situation, some companies may need to customize the software with urgency. In these cases, the company can use one of their IT people to develop the applications internally. If the applications are developed internally, the company will then need to decide if they want to release the new code to the community or if they should keep it in house. The third option for companies new to open source BI is to hire an outside developer to customize their new open source BI software for them. This option will cut into the upside of avoiding commercial licensing fees, but can end up being a great decision in the end for the right company.

Shopping for open source BI can be a challenge for the CIO who has never dealt with an open source software project before, but it is a task worth taking on. Because the source code is public, the assessment a CIO makes can be more accurate than relying on hearsay or the advertising pitches that are part of shopping for commercial software. The result can be a great program that is constantly improving and offers support and community to its users without a large initial cost.

With open source BI, users have access to the source code for the business intelligence software that they use. This gives them the ability to make changes and add applications in a way that they wouldn’t be able to with an out of the box platform. Commercial software does not give its users access to the original source code, nor does it give them any right to change or make modifications to the product. Users of commercial business intelligence must wait until the provider releases a new version of the platform or a new application to get added functionality for their system. With open source, users are able to make modifications to the code as needed as long as they adhere to the restrictions dictated by the license that governs the original code.

What is Open Source Code?

Open source code is software that has been written by a person or a company and copyrighted, but is also licensed to include a large user population, who is able to make changes and fix bugs in the code. As users need different applications from their open source software, they can change it to fit their demands without facing the repercussions of copyright infringement. There are a couple of different licenses that designate code as open source and users must adhere to the guidelines put forth by these licenses in order to use and modify the software.

Open Source Licenses

There is a variety of licenses that have been approved by the Open Source Initiative or OSI. Two common licenses are the Berkeley License and the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Berkeley License allows users to take the source code and make changes to it before releasing it again under a separate propriety license. With the Berkeley License, the original creators of the code would have to be acknowledged publicly when the new software is released. With GPL, if derivative software is created using the original code, it has to be made available as a GPL product, allowing other users access to the new code and allowing other users to modify it for their needs.

Freeware vs. Open Source

Open source is different from freeware, in that the actual code is made available to users, not just the software. Freeware is software that you can download for free for a trial period or permanently, but has to be used as is without any modifications. There is some very reliable freeware that can be downloaded permanently, but freeware is also used by commercial software providers to entice buyers to buy their product after the trial period is up.

Because they have ability to make changes to the code in open source, users can customize their business intelligence software to best serve their company. Users also have access, the majority of the time, to upgrades and applications that other users have developed, in addition to any bug fixes. This means that there is no waiting on the parent company to come out with an upgrade or develop add-ons.

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.