Do you have a structured software selection process in place?
If there is no structured software selection process at all in your organization, you may find the information below, or the guide, very useful. Even if there is a corporate standard you need to comply with. Or even when you may have a database or reporting tools in place from a specific vendor, and you consider buying a BI tool from the same vendor because you expect that these will integrate better with each other.
7 steps for selecting the right BI platform
Below you can find the 7 steps for selecting the right BI platform:
1. Create a Business Intelligence strategy
Choosing and selecting a Business Intelligence tool is a process that begins with defining a Business Intelligence strategy that is compliant with the overall business strategy and requirements. Without a proper Business Intelligence strategy, buying a Business Intelligence tool would be the same as buying a very nice and expensive car, which runs on a type of fuel that is not available in the country where you want to drive it!
2. Define criteria in business terms
Once the strategy is clear, you can define the business critical selection criteria, like ‘Our business people want to keep track of history’. In that case, you need a Business Intelligence Tool that has standard support for slowly changing dimensions out-of-the-box.
Another example: one of the business strategies is to exchange more critical information with customers and vendors. You need a Business Intelligence tool that performs well with a huge number of users and has a robust infrastructure with load balancing and clustering. By doing so, we make a clear connection between the criteria and the business strategy, an essential factor for success.
Top 11 evaluation criteria
Choose the right BI platform quickly with our top 11 evaluation criteria, listed below:
- Reporting, dashboarding & data analysis in one package
- Zero footprint: 100% web-based, no client-side installs or downloads required
- Support for role-based reporting & dashboarding
- Support for mobile Business Intelligence
- Communication features like notes, comments, and likes
- Updates in real-time: your dashboard is always up to date
- Basket, advanced & predictive analysis – learn more about data analysis
- Support for machine learning and generative AI
- Usability: ease-of-use and ease-of-learning
- Portal integration and support for REST-API
- Insights (graphs, definitions, et cetera) that are reusable across BI applications
All the major Business Intelligence tools in the BI & Analytics Guide are compared on over 250 criteria.
3. Create a shortlist
Once you have all the criteria in place, using the information in the BI & Analytics Guide, you’ll be able to decide which tools match your criteria. From there, you can easily create a shortlist of two or three solutions.
4. Invite vendors for a live demonstration
In this phase of the Business Intelligence selection process, you will invite the vendors on the shortlist for a live demonstration of their solution. We recommend that you prepare this meeting in detail with the vendor, to avoid demonstrations by PowerPoint. If possible, provide the vendors with some company data, so you can easily see the relevance of what is demonstrated and judge how well it functions.
5. Perform a proof-of-concept (PoC)
Doing a proof-of-concept (PoC) is essential for choosing a Business Intelligence tool that suits your organization. So you can test the solution in your own IT environment, and get an idea of the functionality, connectivity, usability, and performance of each Business Intelligence tool.
Define beforehand what has to be done, what the results should be, and what data should be used. Be sure that the data in your source systems is accessible. In general, a proof-of-concept can be done in three to five days. To keep negotiation options open, it is recommended that a PoC is performed with at least two vendors.
The BI & Analytics Guide™ 
This BI & Analytics Guide 2024 will help you choose the best BI Tools for your situation. 100% vendor-independent. Our independent study contains numerous graphs and comparison matrices, so that you can see at a glance which tools best suit your needs. Save money on the long and arduous tool selection process with our useful guide.
6. Negotiate with Business Intelligence vendors
The last step before the end of the selection is to negotiate with the Business Intelligence vendors about the contract, including prices, maintenance, support, training, and terms of use. Many software vendors require you to buy a runtime as well as a development license. Put all the different prices and terms in a spreadsheet, and calculate the costs over at least three years to see which vendor has the best conditions over a longer period.
7. Close the deal
Finally, you want to close the deal with the vendor that has the best support for your Business Intelligence strategy and has the lowest costs. If you want help with the above, please feel free to contact us and ask us to help you with the software selection.
Choose between the different BI tools quickly with our guide
The BI & Analytics Guide 2024 gives you true insight into both the strengths and weaknesses of the most popular Business Intelligence tools. It is 100% vendor-neutral. The guide compares the BI tools on 15 important categories and lists all their features. Drill down and find all the information relevant to your organization.
Daan van Beek MSc, speaker, trainer and author of the BI & AI book 'Data Science for Decision-Makers and Data Professionals'. He is the CEO of the Passionned Group and you can follow Daan on Twitter.
