Business Intelligence software automates the process of selecting data from different source systems, transform that data into valuable information and combine it in a single report or dashboard. This type of software helps organizations to achieve efficient reporting and can deliver “intelligence” to people who need it to make better decisions than yesterday and better decisions than their competitors.
An overview of the major vendors of this type of software can be found in the list of Business Intelligence software which is provided and maintained by the Passionned Group, a 100% vendor independent research & consulting firm based in Europe. Business Intelligence solutions are widely used for reporting, business analytics, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), data mining, data visualization and for creating easy to understand dashboards containing relevant indicators.
Four different categories
Many of the solutions are able to create pixel-perfect reports, but some can do a lot more and have features on board for corporate performance management, mobile Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Data Discovery and advanced Statistics. There are four categories:
- Enterprise Business Intelligence software;
- Database and packaged products;
- Data Discovery and Visualization software;
- Innovative, new and Niche products.
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Another classification can be made as we look at how the software is created: open source versus closed source, or commercial software. Open source does not mean that you don’t have to pay for the software; it does only tell you that the source code is developed by an open source community. Often it is then exploited by a commercial company for example Pentaho or JasperSoft.
The list of Business Intelligence software solutions, closed source as well as open source, provides an overview of all the major software solutions in the market, like SAP Business Objects, IBM Cognos, Microstrategy, Microsoft BI and WebFOCUS Information Builders (IBI).
A 100% independent comparison
The differences between the major Business Intelligence software solutions in the market are examined in our Business Intelligence Tools Survey.
In this 100% vendor independent research paper, 16 solutions are compared on 169 evaluation criteria and 12 categories.
