The BI Survey 7: Purchasing Practices

By: Jeff Myhre, Chief Editor (2/15/2008)

There is no way I can discuss in detail the entire 400+ pages in the BI Survey 7 that Nigel Pendse has compiled, but it does contain one very interesting section suitable for this site – the purchasing behavior of firms in buying business intelligence solutions.  In short, it doesn’t make much sense.

In this survey, Pendse found that his respondents focused on functionality and ease-of-use for the end user.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but measured against what he calls “Benefits-Driven Selection Criteria,” those aren’t the best reasons for making a purchasing decision (they happen to rank 9^th and 7^th respectively).  What should be at the top of the decision-makers’ list is range of server platforms supported, followed by fast performance and ease of use for application builders.

He concludes that these data suggest “that all too many organizations are allowing corporate factors to get in the way of successful BI projects.  Successful projects were based on choosing the tool rather than the vendor.”

However it seems that companies that buy business intelligence solutions, even for the “wrong” reasons, are pretty happy with the results.  The survey reports that 71% of respondents stated that their BI projects “largely or completely met their business goals.”  Only 8% said they had received no satisfaction in achieving their goals at all.  This seems to suggest that companies are so desperate for a BI project of any kind that they can be satisfied with a less-than-optimum purchasing decision.

Those wishing to purchase the entire report, or to view a sample chapter, can find both at http://www.bi-survey.com

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