Business Intelligence apps: build vs. buy

Business Intelligence apps: build vs. buy

I gave this a passing link in our Oracle BI and PeopleSoft post last week, but I’m staring at it again and think it deserves its oracle-bi1own post.

Here’s Jeff McQuigg, writing for IT Toolbox, on the total costs of Oracle’s BI apps vs. 100% custom:

When you add everything up, we estimate about a 7X effort increment to deliver a similar piece of functionality as the BI Apps. Although this seems high, when you really sit down and think about all of the moving parts that are needed, plus all of the complexities and start-up costs, the numbers become more realistic.

In other words, if you want to build your own BI apps — complete with all requirements gathering, data models, ETL, reports, and dashboard definitions — you’re looking at a cost, in sum, that’s seven times what you’d pay for Oracle’s excellent BI apps.

BI isn’t just technology, it’s a great deal of process engineering and planning.  If you look at it as merely a technology exercise, you may indeed get a functioning BI system, but will you legitimately get something above and beyond a few new reports?  Or will you get a platform on which your senior officers can make real-world business decisions?

Cost is a major factor, but solution value is the end game.  Keep that in mind when you’re juggling BI cost numbers.

(Thanks Larry Z.)

Related whitepapers (PDF):

MiPro’s Business Intelligence Manifesto: Six Requirements for an Effective BI Deployment

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