Part 5: Determining Your Budget

Previously, we talked about determining your data profile.

Now that you’ve determined your use cases, user personas, usage profile, and data profile, it’s time to set a budget. Your budget should reflect the value of solving your business or use case problems. Don’t let the market determine your budget – attribute a dollar value to your problem and then see what the market has to offer within your budget.

It’s easy to blow BI budgets out of the water because solutions can become expensive quickly, so understanding exactly how much you want to spend is critical. Business intelligence solution costs have multiple layers. Beyond the initial software purchase costs, you should consider the annual costs of the software, implementation costs, training costs, and ongoing support costs (which are the most expensive costs to the solution).

Generally, the rule of thumb is that a business intelligence solution should become an enabler in your business and help you grow. The expense created by employing a BI solution shouldn’t outweigh the benefits. That money would be better spent on the core business that drives your success. If you enter the market to buy BI without knowing the potential value for your organization, you will have a difficult time assessing return on investment or even a simple go/no-go decision on whether you should invest or not.

If you are a large business and have a strong IT and development team, you will be able to spend more on your BI solution with less impact to your core business. And this cost may be justified assuming the issues being solved via business intelligence justifies that expense. However, if you are a small or medium-sized business and your IT staff is resource constrained, you will be better off leveraging one of the more affordable self-service and agile tools that require less IT effort.

Remember, don’t just factor in basic software costs – consider how much time, effort, and financial resources it will take to implement, deploy, train, and maintain the solution.

Purchasing Your BI Software

Congratulations, you have officially made it through 5000fish’s Business Intelligence Buyers Guide, Part 1! At this point, you should have defined your business intelligence use cases, user personas, usage profile, data profile, and budget.

Now it’s time to purchase your BI software. The market for BI software is expansive and before purchasing your software, you should be well versed in the different types of BI solutions on the market. Our software, DashboardFox may be a good fit, but if you’re unsure, reach out to use for a live demo and let’s discuss your specific requirements.

We haven’t finished Part 2 of the buyers guide yet, but in the meanwhile, check out our guide on the 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Buying Business Intelligence here.