For anyone starting out in Business Intelligence looking to onboard a new Business Intelligence tool, the range of different solutions out there on the market can seem quite overwhelming.

And making the right choice is really important to ensuring your BI project is as successful as possible.

In this article I’m going to share with you the 6 major differentiators you’ll need to consider when choosing your BI solution, to make your decision easier.

1. DATA CONNECTORS

Connectors are essentially the different types of data that the tool’s able to work with.

They’re a bit like plugins built into the tool that allows it to access the different data sources, wherever they may be located.

Which is either on-premise, things like Excel, csv files and on-premise databases. Or in the cloud in web applications and services, social media, that kind of thing.

Each different tool has its own “à la carte” menu of connectors and some specialise in different areas.

One may focus more on enterprise data whereas others will be more oriented towards social media.

So when choosing a tool, it’s a good idea to do an audit of the data you’re planning on working with both now and potentially going forward.

If you think you may want to expand your reporting further down the line you might want to bear this in mind when making your choice.

If you’d like to access your data outside of a BI tool and work with it in Excel, check out our recommended data hubs.

2. DATA MANAGEMENT

The second big differentiator when choosing a BI platform is data management which covers things like:

where and how the data is stored
the volume of data you can store
how data can be scheduled to refresh and update
the tool’s functionalities in terms of the ways it can manipulate and transform the data

One of the biggest challenges of BI is being able to join different data sources to one another so you can analyse them together.

And different tools will have varying capabilities for doing this and for processing and treating data in different ways to make it ready for analysis.

Depending on the tool it may require you to extract the data from its source and load it into their own data stores or servers.

Or it may be able to communicate directly with the data source, depending what it is, and work with it from where it’s located.

3. CALCULATIONS

Most tools will have some kind of built-in calculation engine that will allow you to apply calculations to your data, much like you might do in Excel using formulas.

Using different functions you’ll be able to apply transformations to your data, calculate ratios, group values together, that kind of thing.

Some tools will have more varied and advanced functions than others, some will have a graphical interface to make creating calculations easier, others will have their own syntax or language that you’ll need to learn.

If you don’t have the expertise in-house to apply calculations directly to the data source before it gets loaded into a BI tool, you may need to evaluate how it works with calculations, how far you can go with them and the learning curve for mastering the tool’s syntax.

4. DATA VISUALISATION

In data visualisation we’re not just talking about the different options you have for presenting your data in charts, graphs etc.

I’m also talking about how the tool functions when it comes to analysing your data and building visualisations.

If you’re starting out in BI and new to data analysis then it’s helpful to have a tool that simplifies the process of putting together your queries and reports.

Most BI tools employ some version of a pivot table for aggregating and analysing data so if you’re already familiar with pivot tables then that should make things simpler to understand.

But the user interface and experience can vary greatly between different tools.

Some are more technical, geared more towards experienced users and others are aimed more at the business user, with emphasis on a more intuitive design, thus reducing the complexity of the analysis process.

The sweet spot is really a tool that hides powerful and complex processes behind an intuitive UI, allowing for a smoother workflow without the need to switch between screens or areas of the tool.

In terms of the types of visual representations (charts and graphs) available these can vary a lot too.

All tools will offer the standard chart types like column, bar, line pie and radar and scatter plot charts. But some will offer a wider range for more advanced visualisations to display things like hierarchies, relationships, geographical data and more.

Whether these advanced options would be useful to you depends on what data you’re wanting to visualise but, in my opinion, if you’re starting out, it’s not the most important thing to bear in mind as, in most cases, the standard chart types are sufficient.

Need some help with your dashboards? Check out my 7 top tips for better dashboard design.

5. INTERACTIVITY

Another big differentiator between BI tools is the interactivity options available in your dashboards, allowing you to filter or drill down into the data as well as do things like changing the metrics and dimensions in charts. Interactivity is really useful because it allows the dashboard viewer to ask questions of the data and get answers back straight away, rather than having a static dashboard that only gives you one fixed view. If you’re working with teams, different members might want to be able to see different views of the data so having interactivity built into the dashboard makes this easier.

6. PUBLISHING

And, finally, the last of the 6 major differentiators for BI tools is publishing. And this is mainly because, in most cases, it will directly impact how much you’ll pay for the tool.

The number of people you want to share dashboards with tends to be one of the price variables so the more you want to share, the more you’ll pay. Which makes sense.

But some tools do require the person you’re sharing dashboards with to set up their own account for that tool and others allow you to share with anyone outside of the platform via secure access.

There are other options to make sharing easier like being able to automatically filter and secure the data displayed in the dashboard based on who’s viewing it.

This basically means that you won’t need to duplicate dashboards for different audiences and have lots of different versions.

Too tight to mention…

There is actually a seventh that I haven’t mentioned here, mainly because all 6 of the ones I’ve covered feed into it. And that’s price.

Tools can vary greatly in price with some costing thousands per year. But there are some that offer a free, yet restricted, version of their fully functioning tool. And then you have something like Google’s Data Studio that is completely free to use (with certain data sources).

As you can imagine, the more advanced the tool the more it will cost.

But don’t forget that you probably already own the most used BI tool in the world. Excel.

Conclusion

And there you have it, my 6 major differentiators of BI tools.

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to making the right choice for your project.

But as long as you have a clear idea of your current (whilst also keeping an eye on future) project requirements, you can use this guide as a checklist to make sure the BI tool you choose has everything you need.

Want to get started with Google’s free to use BI tool, Data Studio? Why not check out my online course?

How to Choose a BI Tool | 6 Major Differentiators