What are the most effective ways to test BI tools before making a final decision?

When considering requirements, build some sample use cases and run them through the tool capabilities. This not only includes the technical use cases but end user use cases too.

A maioria das ferramentas de BI possuem um set padr?o e de capabilities, comum entre elas. Para escolher a sua ferramenta, deve analisar o landscape sistêmico de sua empresa, entender qual ferramenta se integra de forma mais nativa, flexível e simples para acessar as fontes de dados. Outro aspecto importante, é escolher uma ferramenta que seja intuitiva e que dê mais autonomia para os usuários poderem criar seus dashboards sem depender de uma área especialista, aumentando a produtividade e a cultura data driven na organiza??o. Por fim custo de aquisi??o e suporte, avaliando o valor x custo que a ferramenta trás e o custo recorrente seja da ferramenta ou do perfil do profissional que precisará para operar.

With any BI initiative, it's critically important to design your data for efficient and effective consumption. Keeping the consumer front-and-center is paramount. All too often, I've seen data models designed for production (writing), but in BI scenarios, data is read orders of magnitude more times than it is written or updated. So, design for consumption.

In my experience, the keys to defining your requirements are to understand what questions you need to answer from your data and to understand how your data is organized. Knowing your needs and the state of your various sources will be a huge help in understanding what features you need from a vendor. Additionally, figuring out the types and number of people that will be viewing and building on the BI tool will help you evaluate scale and pricing.

Acredito que antes de avaliar qualquer ferramenta de BI é necessário ter claro a necessidade do seu negócio. Após este passo, definir e priorizar os requisitos que ir?o atender esta necessidade, levando em considera??o a vis?o dos consumidores/clientes. Alguns critérios de sele??o podem ser definidos antes mesmo de realizar qualquer teste, como: integra??o com cloud; usabilidade, interface amigável, velocidade, custo, Manutencao, upload e download de arquivos. Passando pelos critérios de sele??es definidos, testar se atende aos requisitos definidos e minha sugest?o é come?ar os testes pelos requisitos mais complexos.

Give the vendor several of your current reports or report requirements and a subset of anonymized data. Have them recreate or create them in their tool. When they demo them ask them to modify them in several different ways in order to show you what it takes to work with their tool. In addition, get a trial if you can in order to try it with your own staff.

Make sure the solutions you are looking at have AI functionality built in. Also, consider a proof of concept to showcase your data visualization across platforms. Try to find a tool that fits an enterprise wide need to help your IT team scale the solution.

When requesting a demo or trial, it's crucial to have a structured evaluation plan. During a demo, ask the presenter to focus on scenarios specific to your business needs rather than just a generic walkthrough. With trials, ensure you test critical workflows and assess the tool's integration capabilities with your existing systems. This hands-on experience is invaluable for understanding the tool's real-world application and how it can empower your data-driven decision-making processes.

Consider a pilot use-case for the identified BI tools to evaluate the fit for purpose and evaluating the core functionality. More importantly, consider deploying the pilot use-cases to focus group with the user stakeholder community to elicit feedback.

But beyond the demo, if possible ask for an extended use of the product to evaluate the tool with a few predetermined use cases. While you’d expect demos to be good, have seen instances where the demo did not connect with the audience so was more a question of “where would I use this” rather than “I can think of a few ways I can use this.”

Existem diversas ferramentas de BI com caraterísticas diferentes, neste momento é muito relevante pensar na situa??o atual de sua empresa, ter?o ferramentas mais fáceis de implantar porém podem ser mais caras ou com menor potencial de escala. Ent?o é importante antes de avaliar qual melhor do mercado e entender o momento e a infraestrutura atual da empresa

After test-driving the BI tools, I like to craft a comprehensive ranking strategy. Utilize a matrix or spreadsheet to meticulously lay out each tool, dissecting their strengths and vulnerabilities. Assign ratings on critical criteria like performance, ease of use, integration, customization, security, pricing, and customer satisfaction. The magic happens when you blend data-driven insights with subjective perspectives. So, don't forget to tap into the valuable feedback from stakeholders – managers, analysts, and end-users. In my experience, this dynamic blend ensures the chosen BI tool not only ticks technical boxes but aligns with real-world needs, making it a win-win for both functionality and user satisfaction.

Importante que o item "avalia??o", também conhecido como "prova de conceito" (POC), seja conduzido pelos profissionais que realmente utilizar?o a ferramenta no dia-a-dia, pois têm muito mais propriedade para dimensionar os critérios de aceite.

Uma análise criteriosa dos pontos fortes e fracos de cada ferramenta é um passo essencial. Focando nos recursos críticos para nossa opera??o, podemos identificar a ferramenta de BI que melhor se alinha às demandas específicas da nossa empresa, contribuindo para uma decis?o informada.

Many products in the market wherein if its pricey and it gives much of its benefits. The cheaper the ones has flaws. So i would start with the less cost ones and see its cons first and pros as second and vice versa for the pricey ones. In terms of Pros and Cons on technical side, please use the requirement spreadsheet which would potentially cover it

I would like to add that good BI tools have their own communities where they get feedback from its users and provide solutions to problems of their customers. It may include blogs, testimonials etc.

And it would be interesting to seek some references from companies going under frequent business and organizational transformations to asses the agility and maintenance cost associated to the BI technology.

Aqui é fundamental pegar a referência de clientes pensando em: usuários de negócio com o mesmo perfil da sua equipe e usuários de desenvolvimento em Back e front. Considere empresas do mesmo setor e porte da sua para a avalia??o.

Incorporar referências e depoimentos dos fornecedores ao avaliar ferramentas de BI é uma prática valiosa. Essa abordagem n?o apenas permite verificar a credibilidade das reivindica??es, mas também fornece insights valiosos sobre as experiências de outros usuários. Ao considerar perspectivas reais de clientes existentes, é possível obter uma vis?o mais holística, facilitando uma decis?o informada e alinhada com as necessidades específicas da sua organiza??o.

Antes de tomar a decis?o final sobre a ferramenta de BI, solicite referências e depoimentos dos fornecedores. Essa abordagem permite validar as reivindica??es dos fornecedores, aprender com melhores práticas e entender desafios enfrentados por outras organiza??es que utilizaram a ferramenta de BI. Essa perspectiva adicional ajuda na decis?o informada sobre a escolha da ferramenta mais adequada para sua empresa.

Certamente, a considera??o da disponibilidade de profissionais no mercado é crucial ao tomar decis?es sobre ferramentas. N?o adianta optar por uma ferramenta robusta e completa se n?o houver especialistas disponíveis para operá-la de maneira eficiente.

No geral as ferramentas de BI tendem a ser escaláveis e flexíveis na cria??o de painel. é fundamental avaliar a escala em aspectos de negócio (usuários), tecnologia e custos.

herramientas hoy hay muchísimas, creo mas importante es ver el potencial de lo que te puede ayudar a realizar y que se mantenga en mercado.

While implementing BI we may think that value will be delivered trough tools and technology. Business value is achieved when we have accurate data and capable processes to effectively drive improvements enabled by Technology.

Hello Friends, first of all it is to identify the objective to be achieved with the data to be analyzed and that these results help to achieve the business goals, after that one of the most effective ways to test the tools is using a small percentage of the data to analyze to carry out tests and see if the results are aligned with the objectives. If the results are not aligned with the stated objective, possibly the data analyzed is not correct and we should hold a meeting with the work team to identify the exact data to analyze. We must always carry out test environments with the greatest possible tests to test the capabilities of the tool and know if the tool will contribute to achieving the business goals.

Importante avaliar se a ferramenta de BI possui funcionalidades robustas de ETL (extra??o, transforma??o e carga) incluídas no escopo ou se será necessário ferramenta auxiliar, principalmente se a necessidade da empresa for de alto volume de dados. Outro ponto, é a usabilidade para o usuário final. Se realmente pode ser considerada um self-service BI.

Whatever you do, do not first buy, install it, and then test it to see if it fulfils your requirements. Too often we buy first and repent later.

One thing that I have found is sometimes overlooked is the need for well organised data before organiations embark on a BI journey. Ensuring valid and curated data as the source for BI visualisations is important from the perspective of valid and repeatable output. Another issue is the maintainability of the solution that is created. If something is created that the executive like, experience has shown that they will want continual tweaks to the visualisation. This can quickly consume the BI team in maintenance tasks rather than creating new visualisations.

How easy, intuitive and scaleable are the integrations to feed the BI tool? If you need a full time database admin and integration team to get the relevant and timely data. All the pretty charts & graphs and dashboards are potentially partial snapshots. A trial / POC with your data team or people who have to connect to the BI tool will be able to tell pretty quickly.

I would an extra step: Consider the Final Users. No matter how powerful or robust is the BI tool, if the final users do not comprehend it o just dislike it, they will not use it. The final users must be part of the selection process by testing the tool and we have to understand their needs. At the end the decision is a combination of benefits, cost and the possibility of availability of implementation.