Dashboards – represent a big trend as they provide data representations and metrics in a visually interactive way. Many organizations like dashboards due to their highly interactive nature. Vendors offer varying levels of analytics within their dashboards. Some only visualize the data meaning that it needs to be stored with associated business rules separately, while others also offer analytical capabilities.
Operational intelligence – some organizations require near real-time access to information. In these cases, operational intelligence becomes important so that relevant metrics can be updated on a regular basis with the flexibility to reflect the needs of the business. This means that different use cases will have different latency requirements.
Advanced analytics – this is a broader category and could be divided further but for the purposes of this overview, it can remain a single category. A variety of analytics exist. Some organizations have complexities that require the management of many business rules and statistical algorithms while others want predictive and what if? capabilities. Certain solution providers provide targeted analytics while others are considered generalists – meaning they offer general capabilities but not many niche analytics.
Data Warehousing – although some businesses are moving away from traditional data warehousing, the reality is that companies require a way to consolidate, centralize, and manage their analytical infrastructure. In some cases, a data warehouse is the most effective way. Even if it's not, every organization evaluating BI should look at their data to identify how it needs to be managed.
Data integration – helps transition data from one source to another. Within BI applications, it also serves as a transformation engine, can help provide quality control, and work towards providing a cohesive view of information assets both internal and external to the organization.
Some or all of these areas may apply when looking at advancing a BI initiative. The reality is that selecting the right solution means first getting the category right – selecting a reporting solution when advanced analytics are required will only lead to failure. Organizations need to be prepared to identify what their business and technical requirements are and how the market can best serve them – otherwise the risks for failure are too high.
Mid-market organizations have always been familiar with service-based (hosted) offerings. Whether Salesforce, or ERP, Accounting, etc. types of applications, these organizations are used to hosted applications that store data off-site. What this means is that the new push to the cloud, isn't necessarily so new for all organizations. Many are starting to take advantage of what the cloud has to offer, while other businesses are simply continuing or expanding their cloud deployments. The two things that have changed are the number of solutions available and the understanding of those offerings.
Although there is more awareness about cloud offerings, not all organizations want to have their data hosted or outside their firewall. In addition, some organizations misinterpret the concept of cloud-based offerings by not understanding the difference between where the data resides and whether it is just hosted or if services are attached. For instance, I have been told by more than one organization that they do not use any cloud offerings, only to find out through more analysis that a number of applications are cloud-based but not hosted as a service – in essence creating a differentiation between the level of control the customer has over the data they use.
Basically, a lot of the hype around cloud adoption and expanded offerings, simply means that SMBs have more choice when identifying the best way to leverage technology and find value through their data assets.