Fast, flexible, and affordable — three words never used to describe a major business intelligence deployment. That’s why BI software as a service stands to transform the market.
“Fast” applies to deployment cycles in SaaS more than to speed of analysis. With all the complexities of building data warehouses and developing reports, conventional BI is notorious for months-long implementation projects. The delays can be trying for the largest companies, and the IT burden has prevented many small and midsize firms from embracing BI.
SaaS-based BI vendors, with their multitenant data warehouses and industry- and application-specific data models, promise to get customers up and running within days or weeks. Electronics manufacturer Vicor had an aggressive eight-week schedule in mind when it decided to replace its spreadsheet-based budgeting and planning approach in late 2007. SaaS vendor Adaptive Planning customized a data model and made an online performance management application accessible to 65 employees across the United States, Japan, and various regional sales offices. Employees were able to enter, review, and approve the 2008 budget within six weeks.
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