Forrester Wave Self Service 105855 0612

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Forreter Reearh, I., 60 Aor park Drive, cabridge, mA 02140 UsATe: +1 617.613.6000 | Fax: +1 617.613.5000 | www.orreter.o

The Forrester Wave: Self-ServiceBusiness Intelligence Platforms, Q2 201b Bori Eveo, Jue 12, 2012

FOR: Aiatio

Deveoet

& Deiver

proeioa

key TakeaWays

iT Cn N Lnr surt T Mjrt o Bi Rqurmnt

BI is unlike any other enterprise soware in that it exhibits a paradox: Te more BI

requirements you implement, the more new ones pile up. Relying too heavily onI-centric BI support models is not sustainable.

sl-srvc Bi Ftur ar k T emwrn Bun Ur

Sel-service BI capabilities go well beyond user riendly or intuitive interaces.

Forrester recommends examining all the product eatures evaluated in this report

to ensure a well-rounded sel-service capability.

yur entrr Bi pltrm M alr prv Mt o T sl-

srvc Ftur

Beore plunging into ull-blown evaluations o separate BI tools or sel-service,

leverage ndings in this report to make sure that your current enterprise BI

platorm doesnt already have many o the sel-service eatures you need.


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2012, Forreter Reearh, I. A right reerved. Uauthorized rerodutio i trit rohibited. Ioratio i baed o bet avaiabereoure. Oiio reet judget at the tie ad are ubjet to hage. Forreter, Tehograhi, Forreter Wave, RoeView, TehRadar,ad Tota Eooi Iat are tradeark o Forreter Reearh, I. A other tradeark are the roert o their reetive oaie. Tourhae rerit o thi douet, eae eai [email protected]. For additioa ioratio, go to www.orreter.o.

FOR ApplIcATIOn DEVElOpmEnT & DElIVERy pROFEssIOnAls

Why Read This RepoRT

In Forresters 31-criteria evaluation o sel-service business intelligence (BI) vendors, we ound that IBM,

Microso, SAP, SAS, ibco Soware, and MicroStrategy led the pack due to the breadth o their sel-

service BI unctionality oerings. Inormation Builders, ableau Soware, Actuate, Oracle, Qlikech,

and Panorama Soware were close on the heels o the Leaders, also oering solid unctionality to enable

business users to sel-serve most o their BI requirements.

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Eower BI HEROe With se-servie Too

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The Forreter Wave: Eterrie Buie

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Otober 20, 2010

T Frrtr Wv: sl-srvc Bunintllnc pltrm, Q2 2012six leader Ad six strog perorer coete For A share O TheEd Uer BI market

b Bori Eveowith stehe power, Hoger Kiker, ph.D., noe yuhaa, ad shao coe

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The Forreter Wave: se-servie Buie Iteigee pator, Q2 2012 2

2012, Forreter Reearh, I. Rerodutio prohibited Jue 12, 2012

Bi sUppoRT MoVes BeyoNd JUsT iT-CeNTRiC ModeLs

raditional BI approaches and technologies even when using the latest technology, best practices,

and architectures almost always have a serious side eect: a constant backlog o BI requests.

Enterprises where I addresses more than 20% o BI requirements will continue to see the snowball

eect o an ever-growing BI requests backlog. Why? Because:

BI requirements change aster than an I-centric support model can keep up.Even withby-the-book BI applications, rms still struggle to turn BI applications on a dime to meet

requently changing business requirements. Enterprises can expect a lie span o at least several

years out o enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM),

human resources (HR), and nancial applications, but a BI application can become outdated

the day it is rolled out. Even within implementation times o just a ew weeks, the world may

have changed completely due to a sudden mergers and acquisitions (M&A) event, a new

competitive threat, new management structure, or new regulatory reporting requirements.

Conventional waterall SDLC approaches are poorly suited or BI. Te traditional waterallmethodology or the soware development lie cycle (SDLC) calls or collecting user

requirements, transorming them into specications, and then turning these specications

over to developers. While this approach is oen successul or traditional enterprise

application implementations, it wont work or the majority o BI requirements. Te build

it, and they will come model is directly applicable and recommended or BI, as only

once an end user sees something she can touch and eel and play around with will the real

requirements materialize. What are the key requirements that your BI application must

address? is a typical I question. It must address everything, because I dont know what

kinds o reports Ill have to produce and what kinds o analysis Ill have to perorm tomorrow,is, unortunately, a typical answer.

Business and I do not always see eye to eye on BI applications and projects. In the eyes obusiness executives, managers, and individual contributors, nothing is more important than

business requirements. Furthermore, they want their BI business requirements addressed

according to their, not Is, schedule so that they can continually address their clients needs

and avoid alling behind the competition. I, on the other hand, is charged with maintaining

law and order and insists on sticking to standard BI tools and ollowing approved soware

development and project methodologies.

Forrester by no means advocates that rms transer complex, mission-critical, enterprise wide BI

applications especially those that carry external exposure or other operational risk into the

hands o non-I proessionals. However, anecdotal evidence leads us to believe that with the proper

BI application portolio classication, no more than 20% o all BI applications should all into this

restricted category. We maintain that in an ideal BI environment, 80% o all BI requirements should

be carried out by the business users themselves.


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Bun-own sl-srvc Bi alctn ar Crucl T Bi succ

But what does it take or a BI tool or application to enable all types o users (casual users, power users,

and executives) to sel-serve or new queries, reports, analytics, and dashboards? Intuitive and user

riendly are subjective terms. A point-and-click and drag-and-drop graphical user interace (GUI)

may be a nirvana o intuitiveness to an inormation management pro who started his computer career

working with punch cards or green-screen terminals, but to a younger generation o knowledge

workers brought up on search GUI rom Google and social media GUI rom Facebook, a point-and-

click GUI may not be as obvious or natural. When evaluating BI tools business user sel-service

capabilities, Forrester recommends considering eatures and capabilities including:

Automodeling. Not every business user is an experienced data modeler, so look or the BItool to autosuggest a best data model (star schema) based on input data types and content.

Some BI tools can only identiy data types, such as dates, numbers, or text, while others can

automatically suggest star schemas with the initial set o acts and dimensions. More-advancedtools even identiy and build hierarchies and automatically geocode attributes such as ZIP

codes, countries, regions, cities, and states.

Calculated measures. I developers cant possibly oresee and prebuild every single measureand metric into enterprise data warehouses (EDWs) and data marts. So enterprises must ask

these questions: Can the end users add new calculated measures without I involvement? Are

these calculations mostly simple, as in A+B=C, or do they allow i/then/else conditions and

other ull programming scripting logic or a calculation? How many prebuilt algebraic, text,

business, nancial, and advanced analytical unctions are available out o the box to be used in

these calculations?

Collaboration. No one works in isolation rom the rest o the teams in the organization thesedays, so look or the BI tool to include user-to-user and user-to-developer collaboration

unctionality. What are the tools own collaboration capabilities, and what are its capabilities

to integrate with other popular enterprise and social collaboration platorms such as Microso

SharePoint, IBM Connections, and Novell eaming?

Data virtualization and drill anywhere. In todays world o big data, no one can aord to putanywhere close to 100% o their enterprise data and inormation content into a structured

database. Tereore, capabilities to virtually link multiple data sources and drill anywhere

within these sources becomes important, unless one can aord to wait or days, weeks, or

months or these new data sources to be loaded into an EDW.

Prompt or columns. Creating standardized reports with prompted lists (or values such astime periods, geographic regions, or business units) reduces the number o canned reports I

proessionals have to produce. Firms should take it to the next level and create a ew standard

enterprise report templates with placeholders where a trained business user can place any


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appropriate column rom the database and runtime. Combined with drill anywhere, this can

theoretically reduce the number o canned reports in an enterprise to a handul.

Search-like GUI. A Google-like GUI achieves several important objectives in the quest orthe ultimate sel-service BI tool. First, it requires little to no training; hardly any knowledge

workers in the modern world cant use a web-based search tool. Tis is a benet, as every hour

o BI training or a salesperson is an hour away rom customers. Second, a point-and-click

GUI assumes that you know exactly what you are looking or, while very oen you dont, and

a search-like GUI is especially handy in you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know scenarios. Last

but not least, search-like GUI enables aceted navigation, which is oen the best way to drill

up/down/across hierarchies that are ragged and unbalanced.

Application sandboxes. What happens when an urgent and critical business need calls or acompletely new BI application today but your I partners tell you that you are not at the top o

their priority list? Te ability to download and install a new BI tool on your desktop or laptop

computer is one way to handle this. I an urgent business requirement calls or analyzing

terabytes o data, creating a BI sandbox in a cloud with computing resources constrained only

by budget may be the way to go.

Write back. Creating multiple what-i scenarios based on existing data is a commodity eatureo most BI and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools. As long as one can cut the report

by dierent dimensions, one can analyze multiple cause-and-eect scenarios. But building

what-i scenarios based on new data (creating new budgeting scenarios, or example) requires

write back capabilities or updating the underlying database or an OLAP cube in real time.

Firms should understand whether a BI tool can update aggregate or individual values, generatecompletely new transactions, or write back new transactions to operational applications as well

as how much or how little custom programming that involves.

Exploration and discovery. Reporting, analyzing, and slicing and dicing inormation based onan existing data model is another commoditized eature o most BI tools. Tis approach is oen

reerred to as prediscovery, as all requirements or uture reporting and analysis need to be

prediscovered and built into a data model. But analyzing inormation based on a new hierarchy

not already built into the data model or based on entities and attributes whose relationships are

not dened in a data model alls within the realm o specialized tools. Tese tools are oen

based on nonrelational or nondimensional data models (such as an associative index, or

example). Tey are also great at addressing the I-dont-know-what-I-dont-know quagmire.

Migration to production. Last but not least, say you did create a great BI application using allor most o the eatures described. Now what? How can you share it with your colleagues, your

team, or the rest o the enterprise? Is it back to the I have to call I game, or does your BI

tool allow you to publish what you created to a shared environment? It shouldnt be that simple,


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however, because in many cases these sel-built BI applications need to be productionalized

rst. Te right approach? A publishing action that kicks into motion a move to production

workow or at least automatically noties the appropriate I resources.

seLF-seRViCe BUsiNess iNTeLLigeNCe pLaTFoRMs eVaLUaTioN oVeRVieW

o assess the state o the sel-service business intelligence platorms market and see how the vendors

stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses o top sel-service

business intelligence platorm vendors.

evlutn Crtr: Currnt orn, strt, an Mrt prnc

Aer examining past research, user needs assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we

developed a comprehensive set o evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 31 criteria,

which we grouped into three high-level buckets:

Current oering. Tese criteria include the evaluation results o all o the eatures andcapabilities reviewed in this document. Tey also incorporate the result o a short build-to-

specs test (where each vendor had to build a small BI application based on a Forrester-supplied

data set) as well as the results rom a survey o our to 32 customers per vendor.

Strategy. We reviewed each vendors strategy and considered how well each vendors plansor product enhancement position it to meet uture customer demands. We also looked at the

nancial and human resources the company has available to support its strategy as well as each

vendors go-to-market pricing and licensing strategy.

Market presence. o establish a products market presence, we combined inormation abouteach vendors nancial perormance, installed customer base, and number o employees across

major geographical regions; its partnership ecosystem; as well as its horizontal and vertical

industry applications.

evlut Vnr hv Rc sl-srvc Bi Functnlt an strn Mrt

prnc

Forrester included 12 vendors in the assessment: Actuate, IBM, Inormation Builders, Microso,

MicroStrategy, Oracle, Panorama Soware, Qlikech, SAP, SAS, ableau Soware, and ibcoSoware. Oracle was included as a nonparticipating vendor. Each o these vendors has (see Figure 1):

Sel-service BI unctionality. We included vendors that could demonstrate the signicantmajority o sel-service eatures described in this report.


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Te ability to query databases using SQL and MDX. While other querying technologies suchas XQuery and DMX are available, SQL and MDX are the most widely used technologies in

large enterprises.

A sel-contained, complete, ully unctioning BI environment. We ocused on BI tools nottechnologically or unctionally tied or limited to particular unctional/horizontal applications

(ERP, supply chain management [SCM], etc.). Tese tools must be sel-contained, complete BI

environments or platorms that do not necessarily have to be embedded in other applications.

Sucient market presence and interest rom Forrester clients.We included vendors with atleast 100 in-production customers present in more than one major geographical region. We

also ocused on vendors that Forrester clients requently mentioned or asked about in the

context o business intelligence (measured as more 25 inquiries over the past 12 months).


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Figure 1 Evaluated Vendors: Product Inormation And Selection Criteria

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Vendor

Actuate

IBM

Information Builders

Microsoft

MicroStrategy

Oracle

Panorama Software

QlikTech

SAP

SAS

Tableau Software

Tibco Software

Product name

ActuateOne

IBM Cognos Insight

WebFOCUS

Power View PowerPoint Excel SharePoint

MicroStrategy

Oracle Business

Intelligence SuiteEnterprise Edition

Necto

QlikView

SAP BusinessObjects

SAS Enterprise BusinessIntelligence

Tableau DesktopTableau Server

Tibco Spotre Analytics

Version

11 SP4

v10.1

7.7.03

SQL Server 2012 Microsoft Oce 2010 SharePoint Server 2010

9.2.1A

11g

11

11

4.0 Feature Pack 3

4.31

7

v4.0

Release date

Q2 2012

February 2012

November 2011

April 2012

September 2011

Q4 2011

May 2011

November 2011

April 2012

July 2011

January 2012

November 2011

Vendor selection criteria

Self-service BI functionality. We included vendors that could demonstrate the signicant majority ofself-service features described in this report.

The ability to query databases using SQL and MDX. While other querying technologies such as XQueryand DMX are available, SQL and MDX are the most widely used technologies in large enterprises.

A self-contained, complete, fully functioning BI environment. We focused on BI tools nottechnologically or functionally tied or limited to particular functional/horizontal applications (enterpriseresource planning [ERP], supply chain management [SCM], etc.).These tools must be self-contained,complete BI environments or platforms that do not necessarily have to be embedded in otherapplications.

Sucient market presence and interest from Forrester clients. We included vendors with at least 100in-production customers present in more than one major geographical region. We also focused onvendors that Forrester clients frequently mentioned or asked about in the context of business intelligence(measured as more 25 inquiries over the past 12 months).


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LaCk oF Bi pLaTFoRM FeaTURes is No LoNgeR aN exCUse FoR iT oVeRLoad

Te evaluation uncovered a market in which (see Figure 2):

IBM, Microso, SAP, SAS, ibco Soware, and MicroStrategy lead the pack. Tese vendorsdemonstrate signicant capabilities and a good balance o sel-service BI eatures across most

requirements. I a vendor rom this list is already an enterprises preerred BI platorm provider,

theres oen little to no reason to look elsewhere or another specialized BI tool.

Te six Strong Perormers oer competitive options.Vendors in the Leaders category canby no means sit on their laurels Strong Perormers Inormation Builders, ableau Soware,

Actuate, Oracle, Qlikech, and Panorama Sowareare hot on their heels.1 In many specialized

situations where certain eatures have specic importance, these vendors can even outshine

and outperorm the Leaders.

Tis evaluation o the sel-service business intelligence platorms market is intended to be a starting

point only. We encourage readers to view detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings

to t their individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool.

Figure 2 Forrester Wave: Sel-Service Business Intelligence Platorms, Q2 12


Go online to downloadthe Forrester Wave tool

for more detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

RiskyBets Contenders Leaders

StrongPerformers

StrategyWeak Strong

Current

oering

Weak

Strong

Market presence

Full vendor participation

Incomplete vendor participation

Tibco Software

InformationBuilders

QlikTech

Panorama Software

MicroStrategyActuate

Tableau Software

IBM

Microsoft

SAP

SAS

Oracle


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Figure 2 Forrester Wave: Sel-Service Business Intelligence Platorms, Q2 12 (Cont.)


Microsoft

MicroStrategy

PanoramaSoftwa

re

QlikTech

SAP

SAS

CURRENT OFFERING

Self-service BI client feedback

Automodeling

Calculated measures

Collaboration

Drill anywhere

Prompt for columnsSearch-like graphical user

interface (GUI)

App procurement

Data federation/virtualization

Post discovery

Semantic layer

Migration

Write back

Clicks/time to answer

STRATEGY

Commitment

Pricing and licensing

Transparency

Product direction

MARKET PRESENCE

Company nancials

Global presence and installed base

Partnership ecosystem

Functional BI applications

Forresters

Weighting

50%

10%

10%

5%

10%

10%

5%5%

5%

5%

10%

10%

5%

5%

5%

50%

40%

10%

5%

45%

0%

30%

40%

10%

20%

3.40

1.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

3.002.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

4.00

4.00

3.00

4.00

4.26

4.50

3.28

3.00

4.40

4.24

3.80

5.00

5.00

3.00

3.45

1.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

5.00

5.002.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

2.00

3.55

3.50

2.04

3.00

4.00

2.84

4.20

2.25

2.00

2.40

2.80

5.00

1.00

2.00

4.00

1.00

3.003.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

1.00

2.00

3.52

4.00

2.04

2.00

3.60

1.78

2.60

2.00

2.00

0.00

Actuate

IBM

InformationBuild

ers

3.05

2.00

2.00

4.00

1.00

4.00

5.002.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

2.00

3.79

4.00

4.20

3.00

3.60

2.40

2.60

2.25

2.00

2.60

3.50

3.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

5.003.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

2.00

4.42

4.50

4.94

3.00

4.40

4.64

3.80

5.00

5.00

5.00

2.90

4.00

1.00

4.00

1.00

4.00

5.002.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

2.00

4.39

4.50

4.06

4.00

4.40

2.65

2.50

3.25

2.00

2.00

3.45

4.00

3.00

2.00

4.00

3.00

3.004.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.06

2.50

2.44

4.00

3.60

3.22

4.40

3.75

4.00

0.00

3.40

1.00

1.00

3.00

5.00

4.00

5.004.00

5.00

4.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

1.00

3.00

4.08

4.50

2.04

2.00

4.40

4.34

2.80

5.00

5.00

5.00

3.40

3.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

5.001.00

2.00

5.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

2.00

5.00

3.98

4.50

1.00

2.00

4.40

4.09

3.30

4.50

3.00

5.00

TableauSoftware

TibcoSoftware

3.20

4.00

3.00

4.00

1.00

3.00

3.002.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

1.00

5.00

3.83

4.00

4.60

3.00

3.60

2.34

3.80

2.50

2.00

0.00

3.75

3.00

2.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

3.004.00

5.00

3.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

3.00

5.00

3.33

3.00

2.84

1.00

4.00

3.17

3.90

2.00

2.00

5.00

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).


11/16




VeNdoR pRoFiLes

Lr dmntrt snfcnt Cblt an g Blnc

IBM (Cognos) oers the broadest and the most balanced set o sel-service eatures. Withthe recent rollout o Cognos Insight, IBM is now ront and center in the sel-service BI market.

Te new product is based on the popular in-memory OLAP M1 engine. It still lacks some

o the more advanced data exploration and discovery eatures that are mostly the realm

o associative database management systems (DBMSes). But or most o the business user

sel-service unctions, it will do a ne job, and it really shines at what-i scenario modeling

and planning use cases where write-back capabilities are essential. Cognos Insight can also

consume and analyze predictive analytics output rom SPSS Modeler an advanced analytics

product rom IBM allowing users to add another dimension o insight to their work.

Microso enables business users to look no urther than Excel or sel-service BI. Microsohas built on its broad, omnipresent, SQL Server-based BI unctionality, which already includesIntegration Services, Reporting Services, and Analysis Services. It now oers a very respectable

PowerPivot and Power View in-memory data analysis and discovery engine. Tink o this as

Excel on steroids. I you are already using Excel (and who isnt?) look no urther or your sel-

service BI platorm especially when you already have it anyway, as most likely its already

part o your Enterprise SQL Server and/or SharePoint license. Microso may only oer around

80% o advanced BI unctionality as compared with other leading vendors, but what it lacks in

eatures it more than makes up or in cost/benets ratios.

SAP BusinessObjects oers excellent sel-service unctionality on big data. In-memory is

the name o the sel-service BI game these days when one is looking or answers at the speedo thought. Most in-memory DBMS engines, however, have practical limitations o analyzing

no more than a ew hundred GBs at a time. o address this limitation, SAP now oers a highly

dierentiated combination o BusinessObjects Explorer with its top exploration and discovery

capabilities and the SAP HANA in-memory appliance. odays largest production in-memory

model is approximately 7 to 8 Bs compressed to approximately 1 B, and SAP has tested its

oering in its labs to scale up to approximately 80 to 100 Bs compressed to approximately 16

to 20 Bs. Beyond sel-service, SAP still needs to tighten its product-to-product integration to

close several integration gaps in its vast BI product portolio, or example, its need or a more

common UI and improved reusability o components.

SAS oers one o the top sel-service BI choices or power users. Even though SAS has abroad BI platorm that supports most BI use cases, it is mostly known or its advanced analytics.

I you are already a user o SAS BI, look no urther than the sel-service advanced analytics

eatures o Enterprise Guide. SASs new Visual Analytics product also empowers users with

visual sel-service or big data exploration techniques and approachable analytics. SAS may not

be going aer the BI platorm market as orceully as the other leading vendors Forrester sees

SAS more oen in advanced analytics deals but it denitely has all the tools and components.


12/16




ibco Spotfre shines with its highly visual sel-service, in-memory engine. ibco Spotrereceived the highest current oering score in the evaluation based on its sel-service BI

eatures. Tese eatures include a highly graphical, associative, in-memory engine that allows

or intuitive data discovery and exploration as well as a ree-or-a-year ibco Silver Spotre

cloud oering. Unlike other vendors with broad BI platorm oerings, ibco Spotre should

not be viewed as a direct competitor in this space (one would not use Spotre to create pixel-

perect complex reports) but rather as complementary technology to those BI platorms that

lack leading discovery and exploration capabilities.

MicroStrategy oers sel-service BI on an unlimited number o data sources.For mostorganizations, a neatly modeled EDW with all the enterprises data already loaded and ready

is not reality, so the ability to sel-serve ones BI needs across multiple heterogeneous data

sources is a top requirement. Tis is where MicroStrategy shines with the multisourcing

capability o its battle-proven ROLAP engine. ROLAP engine has an additional benet aswell many Forrester clients cite lower long-term cost o BI ownership due to a reduction

in the number o cubes or reports they have to build. Furthermore, MicroStrategys Visual

Insight tool enables businesspeople to visually explore data and generate insights, whether with

enterprise data or a simple import o a local le on the users desktop. ROLAP engine, however,

carries a price: Te initial setup required to take advantage o all o its powerul eatures can be

complex and time consuming.

strn prrmr or hl Cmttv otn

Inormation Builders delivers sel-service BI unctionality based on its robust BI platorm.

While Inormation Builders is mostly known or its large-scale BI deployments experienceand expertise that came rom its mainrame roots WebFOCUS also oers highly competitive

BI unctionality or business users. Tese capabilities include intuitive InoAssist query builder

and highly interactive Active Reports. Teres also a hidden gem inside WebFOCUS: the Visual

Discovery product, which oers a respectable in-memory data exploration and discovery

alternative to oerings rom other, well-known in-memory BI vendors. While this may not

come up or be an issue in most sel-service scenarios, under the covers, WebFOCUS is based on

the FOCUS ourth-generation programming language. In extreme situations and

Inormation Builders addresses these as they come up some advanced routines may still need

to be tweaked and optimized using FOCUS programming.

ableau Soware continues to set the standards or sel-service advanced datavisualization. Sel-service and intuitive data visualizations go hand in hand, and ableau

has been the vanguard o advanced data visualization or years. Late last year, ableau closed

a unctionality gap with the introduction o an in-memory engine or data discovery and

exploration. Te new capability gives two important options or business users: the ability to

load the entire data set into memory and perorm highly responsive data exploration or, i the

data set is too big, leave data where it is in a relational or multidimensional DBMS and


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analyze it with ableaus patented and intuitive VisualSQL. Unlike other vendors with broad

BI platorm oerings, ableau should not be viewed as a direct competitor in this space (one

would not use ableau to create pixel-perect complex reports) but rather as complementary

technology to those BI platorms that lack advanced data visualization capabilities.

Actuate oers one o the top open source sel-service BI platorms.Conventionally knownor its highly scalable mass-report-distribution and complex-report-writer development

platorm, Actuates open source BIR engine has the critical mass o business-user-riendly

eatures required to stand its ground as a respectable sel-service BI platorm. While

traditionally not known or analytics, Actuate oers new eatures including in-memory data

objects or OLAP-like analysis as well as some data exploration and discovery. Acionados o

open source can also use BIR onDemand or instant provisioning o a BI sandbox in the cloud.

Oracle persistently and successully closes gaps in its sel-service BI portolio.While OracleBI Server (an OBIEE component) continues to be a leading, enterprise-grade ROLAP engine

with heterogeneous data sourcing capability, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

(OBIEE) also successully addresses many other sel-service BI needs. Oracles recent

introduction o Exalytics engineered system closes one o the gaps in Oracles BI portolio

with in-memory data analysis capabilities with a highly visual interace. Oracles recent

acquisition o Endeca (not evaluated in the current Forrester Wave), with its inverted-index

DBMS and highly intuitive aceted navigation or data discovery and exploration, has the

potential to signicantly boost Oracles overall position in the sel-service BI market.

Qlikech remains a pervasive and omnipresent sel-service BI platorm o choice.Qlikech

requently turns up in conversations with Forrester clients regarding their shortlists or BIplatorms, and rightully so. While we did not perorm benchmark testing in this evaluation,

our clients tell us that more oen than not they preer Qlikech over other in-memory engines

or memory compression and speed o analysis benchmarks. Qlikech is also ocusing on

the collaboration eatures o its platorm we especially like its real-time BI whiteboarding

eature, which is unique to Qlikech. Unlike other vendors with broad BI platorm oerings,

Qlikech should not be viewed as a direct competitor in this space (one would not use

Qlikech to create pixel-perect complex reports) but rather as complementary technology to

those BI platorms that lack leading discovery and exploration capabilities.

Panorama Soware leaprogs its competition with sel-service BI collaboration unctionality.eamwork is essential to achieving successul BI processes and results. While most other BI

vendors only scratch the surace o collaboration eatures with report annotations, Panoramas

Necto release oers true social media collaboration with eatures including riending, ollowing,

and workgroup circles. Panorama by itsel does not oer data exploration and discovery

capabilities but rather works as a dierent UI on top o other exploration engines, such as

Microso PowerPivot. Also, i your choice or ofce productivity tools is Google, Panorama has

years o experience with OLAP (Google Pivotables) on data stored in Google spreadsheets.


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sUppLeMeNTaL MaTeRiaL

onln Rurc

Te online version o Figure 2 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product

evaluations and customizable rankings. Because Oracle chose not to provide ull inormation or its

Sel-Service BI solution (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition), we have not included a

detailed spreadsheet summarizing its product in the Wave tool associated with this document.

dt surc U in T Frrtr Wv

Forrester used a combination o our data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses o each

solution:

Hands-on lab evaluations. Vendors spent 30 minutes with a team o analysts who superviseda demo-based evaluation o the product using a scenario-based testing methodology. Weevaluated each product using the same scenario(s), creating a level playing eld by evaluating

every product on the same criteria.

Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to theevaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor

calls where necessary to gather details o vendor qualications.

Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations o their products unctionality.We used ndings rom these product demos to validate details o each vendors product

capabilities.

Customer reerence survey. o validate product and vendor qualications, Forrester alsoconducted a survey o each vendors current customers.

T Frrtr Wv Mtl

We conduct primary research to develop a list o vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated

in this market. From that initial pool o vendors, we then narrow our nal list. We choose these

vendors based on: 1) product t; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate

vendors that have limited customer reerences and products that dont t the scope o our evaluation.

Aer examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop

the initial evaluation criteria. o evaluate the vendors and their products against our set o criteria, we

gather details o product qualications through a combination o lab evaluations, questionnaires,

demos, and/or discussions with client reerences. We send evaluations to the vendors or their review,

and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view o vendor oerings and strategies.


15/16




We set deault weightings to reect our analysis o the needs o large user companies and/or

other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document and then score the vendors based

on a clearly dened scale. Tese deault weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we

encourage readers to adapt the weightings to t their individual needs through the Excel-basedtool. Te nal scores generate the graphical depiction o the market based on current oering,

strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product

capabilities and vendor strategies evolve.

eNdNoTes

1 Inormation Builders and ableau Sowares overall scores are higher than some o the Leaders overall

scores, but they did not end up in the Leaders category because, although they both scored very well in the

strategy portion o the evaluation, their current oering scores were relatively low. Final scores are a simple

average o current oering and strategy scores, but in order to end up in the Leaders category, the vendor

must receive strong scores or both attributes.


16/16

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