Build Or Buy A BI Solution
By Nicole Hitner, Exago
Don’t take our word for it: find out what industry experts have to say on the decision to build or buy business intelligence.
The Bottom Line
Choose the route that best meets your requirements, takes the least time, and uses the fewest resources. “At its highest level, this decision process now is no different for BI than it has been for any other technology. If IT professionals think the ‘buy’ path provides all of the required capabilities, as well as being quicker, less costly, and less risky than a ‘build’ solution, they will take that route.” – Peter Chirlian, CEO of Armanta, Inc.
Cost Factors
TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP
The cost of buying is generally less than the cost of building and is easier to predict.A 2012 study on in-house IT projects by McKinsey and the University of Oxford found that, “on average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns.”
“With third-party software, you know exactly what your cost is upfront.” – Business 2 Community
“From my experience and observation, it is usually far cheaper and faster to buy than to build. After all, if a problem has been adequately solved in a commercial product, why solve it again?” – CIO
TIME TO MARKET
Buying usually gets you to market more quickly. “ISVs experienced a 27% faster time to market with embedded BI than enterprises did,” according to a 2016 study by Aberdeen Research Group.
PRODUCT MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT
Buying requires fewer human resources.
“Contrary to popular belief that building software in-house will pay for itself over time, the majority of software costs go toward maintenance, not initial development—requiring interminable recurring costs and a dedicated support team.” – Business 2 Community
Exago BI Benefits
THE STATS FROM NUCLEUS RESEARCH
Exago BI improves operational and reporting efficiency while keeping costs low.“By opting to embed Exago in its CRM and ERP stack, the company estimates it saved 300 hours by avoiding an internal build and all testing and quality assurance procedures.” – Nucleus Research
“Since deployment, the [facility management and maintenance] company has experienced complete user adoption. […] Compared to the SQL Server system, a team of 15 users saves an average of 3.5 hours each week creating advanced reports.” – Nucleus Research
“The implementation [of Exago BI] took five months where some earlier software deployments had taken years (the customer referenced one ongoing project with another vendor that was over two years old and still not fully functional), which convinced the bank it made the correct choice. The reporting quality is substantially improved (with no increase in costs) and the entire user base produces over 5,000 reports daily, saving one hour weekly per user by a conservative estimate when compared to the legacy reporting tool.” – Nucleus Research
Conclusion
Don’t make the decision to build before fully evaluating the embedded BI market.
“Given the breadth, depth, and user-friendly nature of analytical capabilities on the market today, enterprises seeking embedded BI should consider the technology that is available for purchase before attempting to build out their own analytics features.” – Business 2 Community
We invite you to learn more about Exago BI either by signing up for one of our overview webinars or requesting a custom product demonstration.