Senior management teams are constantly trying to maximise efficiency and lower costs. Data analysis is a key area for most enterprises, making close scrutiny of expenses here vital. This leads to many CEOs and CIOs asking: is business intelligence (BI) software worth the cost? While the answer depends on an enterprise’s existing data analytics tools and processes, business intelligence software is so named for its ability to help customers make smarter use of data.
Cast Solutions has helped clients in dozens of industries across Australia to enact long-lasting improvements to operations with the aid of leading data tools. We can safely say that business intelligence software IS worth the cost, especially when this software is moulded around your enterprise’s needs and systems. But we’ll let the data do the talking in this article!
What is business intelligence software?
Business intelligence software helps users to draw meaningful insights from raw data sources. This is done through data integration and data analytics processes formulated with your organisation’s key goals in mind. Information is then displayed in such a way that users can manipulate the data needed when required. Business intelligence software is best paired with BI services offered by business and data analysts to give further, specific context to proprietary information.
BI services link datasets and the insights which enable users to use this information to its fullest. Business intelligence software can undoubtedly help users to derive key next steps for projects. However, without expert data analysts trained to use these tools, in-house data will remain an underused resource.
The Cast Solutions team is adept at using many of the leading software packages, giving businesses ample return on investment for the cost of business intelligence software.
Breaking down the costs of business intelligence software
It’s difficult analysing the cost of implementing business intelligence software due to the variables involved. This can include:
- The size of your company.
- The data analytics infrastructure you have.
- The degree of software customisation you need.
- The types of users who need the software.
- The operational requirements of your business.
Business intelligence software plans are also typically divided between perpetual licensing (typically for large-scale, on-premise deployment) and subscription hosting (using tools accessible in the cloud). Perpetual licensing is an attractive option for larger businesses with more complex systems that want to maintain control of their software and data security oversight. Meanwhile, subscription hosting suits more agile organisations that want to choose specific features of business intelligence software.
A business intelligence tools comparison should also account for whether customers are billed monthly or annually, and by number of users or the type of data analytics package. Enterprises should also factor in the time and financial expense of ongoing training and support required.
The average cost of business intelligence software can therefore range from a few dollars per user every month for basic cloud-hosted systems up to hundreds of thousands for a once-off, on-premise roll out of advanced, customised BI platforms.
With all this considered, it’s often more useful for businesses deciding whether to purchase business intelligence software to weigh up positives and negatives, rather than a dollars-and-cents cost. This way decision-makers can more closely align the needs of the organisation to any expenditure, rather than looking at it as purely an arbitrary yes/no choice.
BI software in practice: do the benefits outweigh the expense?
Luckily Cast Solutions has decades of experience on the ground to help you make a decision.
In water utilities
We helped our client who was engaged in a $2 billion state- and federal government-funded project to perform the most significant upgrade to a region’s irrigation infrastructure in a century. They were looking at a $500 million blowout and a five year-delay on completing the project. They needed to:
- Replace ageing irrigation infrastructure;
- Automate the water delivery network; and still
- Meet measurement compliance requirements.
Cast Solutions built a proof of concept for achieving this data integration and project reporting automation within a week. The team then worked tirelessly to ready the business intelligence software to work within the parameters of the project’s data analytics requirements inside two weeks. The new software allowed our client to bring together disparate datasets and pinpoint areas for improvement as well as enabling timely reporting to project stakeholders. After a few months the project was back on track and within budget.
In building surveyance
This client has worked in surveyance for more than 35 years, issuing the first building permits in Melbourne and Sydney, and establishing emergency planning and OHS practices in the 1990s way ahead of the times. They were ready to take the next step even as the rest of the industry lagged behind in the uptake of new automation in the mid-2000s – so we stepped in to help.
The Cast Solutions team worked collaboratively with our client to build a custom digital data platform. Using business intelligence software from a leading provider, we created a system which could easily manage diverse data sources and visualise data dashboards. This greatly streamlined communications and expectations between our client and their end users.
In infrastructure management
Our client wanted to develop a Central Asset Management System in partnership with RMIT University, as well as six local city councils and the Municipal Association of Victoria. This was the foundation for a project to build degradation models for key community buildings with life expectancies of 50-100 years.
Cast Solutions had a working relationship with this client beforehand, so we recommended building a business intelligence software package into the project to aid data analysis. This system gave users granular insight into very specific datasets. For example, building inspectors could drill down into data to see how much time they spent at each facility.
This type of unique insight helped make infrastructure maintenance and repairs more effective as users were able to target which assets needed work urgently, reducing the risks of longer-term damage.
So, is business intelligence software worth the cost?
Ultimately the decision is down to the needs of your business and your existing data analytics tools. However, business intelligence software has empowered major growth and improvements for our clients nationwide. Making smarter use of your company data rarely fails to reap rewards; it’s just about getting the right solution.
Cast Solutions partners with the world’s leading business intelligence software providers and pairs this offering with leading BI services to help you make more of your most vital information. For more, check out our BI Services page to see how we can help you today.
Sources:
https://blog.capterra.com/what-does-business-intelligence-software-cost/
https://www.betterbuys.com/bi/bi-pricing-guide/
https://upshotstories.com/stories/embrace-data-bring-new-vision-to-your-company
https://upshotstories.com/stories/cams-a-central-asset-management-system-with-a-data-driven-flare
