Once upon a time at 5000fish, before we created Yurbi, we were Business Intelligence (BI) buyers. Our experiences purchasing BI software ranged from good to terrible, and at the time we wished there was information available about how to navigate the BI buying process. During our buying journey, we made a few mistakes that we hope you’ll avoid. Keep reading for the top five common mistakes people make when buying BI software:
- You haven’t determined your use cases. A use case is defined as the set of goals for the BI software from the business user or stakeholders’ standpoints. The use case outlines the business user or stakeholders’ problems and how the BI solution will help solve these problems. Determining use cases is a critical first step to make before purchasing a new BI solution because it answers the question, “What problems will this software help us solve?”
- You haven’t developed user personas. A user persona is the description of a stakeholder and end user that captures the stakeholder’s skills, expectations, behavior patterns, and environment. Developing user personas is an important part of the BI buying journey because you will clearly understand for whom you are purchasing the software.
- You haven’t defined your usage profile. Your usage profile outlines how your users to need to access and use data in order to meet the goals of the use case. This includes determining criteria such as whether you will need ad-hoc or static reports, the amount of security you will need, how reports will need to be formatted, and whether your data needs to be updated in real-time. Your usage profile will give you greater insight into which BI solutions on the market meet your needs.
- You haven’t defined your data profile. Another big step in the BI buying process is defining your data profile. Your data profile outlines the types of data your BI solution will be pulling and from where the tool will access your data. Your data profile will outline criteria such as whether you have structured or unstructured data, and the location of your data. These criteria influence which BI solution will work best with your data.
- You haven’t determined your budget. If you let the market define your budget, you will always pay more. This is why it’s smart to determine your budget before you begin searching for BI software. To determine your budget, ask the question, “How much money is each use case worth solving?” Once you have that answer, you will have your budget.
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