The Growth of BI in the Cloud

Forrester analyst Boris Evelson has released his study on BI in the Cloud and a summary can be found here.  I found this interesting as many of the findings match our experience.  Boris highlights the following as the primary use cases for BI in the Cloud:

1. Coexistence case: on-premises BI complemented with SaaS BI in enterprises
2. SaaS-centric case in enterprises: main BI application in enterprises committed to SaaS
3. SaaS-centric case in mid-market: main BI application in midsized businesses
4. Elasticity case: BI for companies with strong variations in activity from season to season
5. Power user flexibility case: BI workspaces are often considered necessary by power analysts

We have examples of customers in each of the above categories apart from number 5, which is not really so much a fit for us since we focus on Operational BI for everyone making decisions rather than traditional BI aimed at analysts.  It is interesting perhaps to examine the first four use cases and why SaaS is such a good fit.

1. In the first case, SaaS can leverage and extend the reach of the traditional on-premise BI and deliver relevant information from the data warehouse to a broad audience much more cost-effectively.  In one study, the SaaS approach was between 1/3 and 1/5 the cost of extending the on-premise solution on an annual basis.  SaaS is also a great way to securely deliver that information externally to partners through ubiquitous web access.
2. If a company has already made a commitment to SaaS it is only natural to extend that with a complementary BI offering.  We are demonstrating that with the acceptance and interest raised by our partnering with NetSuite as part of their SuiteCloud Developer Network.  In this case we provide a tightly integrated offering that leverages the advantages of NetSuite’s one system with the power of our advanced visualization and analytics in a transparent fashion for the end-user.
3. In the mid-market world, nimble execution and operational efficiency are key to success.  These companies don’t have the time, finances or people to implement a traditional BI solution.  A SaaS alternative better matches their need for a low-cost, low risk solution that deploys rapidly and helps them improve operational performance and business results.
4. We are seeing lots of traction with services-oriented companies.  Some of the characteristics are changing activities as Boris outlines, but in addition they also need to effectively manage projects and ensure they are delivering significant value to their clients.  In this case a SaaS operational BI solution flexibly supports their changing activities and is a secure, intuitive way to deliver performance measures directly to their client base in order to demonstrate the value they are delivering.

 In all the above cases there are some consistent themes:

• Demonstrate and deliver value quickly;
• Do it cost effectively and with low risk;
• Leverage the existing environment and IT investments;
• Tangibly improve business performance and results by empowering everyone making daily operational decisions with timely, relevant information.

SaaS BI still has a long way to go to fully realize the potential opportunity, but as this survey and others I’ve seen recently from other analyst firms point out, we are heading in the right direction and the growth rates are very strong.