03-27-2008, 10:23 PM
z, a company with an IT staff of 5 people has NO business getting into "BI". Seriously. Unless there's some corporate structure, like you're somehow in charge of a hundred other little companies. Sounds like someone bought a pig in a poke, and didn't realize they needed to hire pig herders.
How many transactions do you have a day ? How much data do you actually have to 'mine' for 'intelligence' ?
The problem with BI products is that unless you spend time asking them the right questions, you're better off not having them. Sure, you can get pretty pictures and the oh so MBA-exciting "cockpit" or "Dashboard" display that makes some executive think he's in charge of your company like he's in charge of his Hummer, but it's probably crap information.
I actually work with a BI product every day- in fact I'm out of town for a class in it right now. But I work for a $2B + corporation, and we ride herd on more than ten thousand transactions a day, so Excel wasn't cutting it for analytic purposes. And there are two of us managing and creating all the BI stuff, but over 70 of us in the "IT" environment. And just about over 10K employees worldwide.
How many transactions do you have a day ? How much data do you actually have to 'mine' for 'intelligence' ?
The problem with BI products is that unless you spend time asking them the right questions, you're better off not having them. Sure, you can get pretty pictures and the oh so MBA-exciting "cockpit" or "Dashboard" display that makes some executive think he's in charge of your company like he's in charge of his Hummer, but it's probably crap information.
I actually work with a BI product every day- in fact I'm out of town for a class in it right now. But I work for a $2B + corporation, and we ride herd on more than ten thousand transactions a day, so Excel wasn't cutting it for analytic purposes. And there are two of us managing and creating all the BI stuff, but over 70 of us in the "IT" environment. And just about over 10K employees worldwide.