Ventana Research Has Released Its 2012 Value Index for Business Intelligence

Ventana Research has released its 2012 Value Index for Business Intelligence (BI), the latest in a new category of quantified, research-based Indexes on technology vendors and products. Using this latest Value Index, business and IT organizations will be able to evaluate business intelligence software vendors' offerings more rapidly and accurately, allowing buyers to make choices based on a deeper understanding of how these offerings can address their specific requirements in business intelligence. Ventana Research exhaustive framework for BI goes beyond the traditional view of the software that might look at ones dashboards, visual display or reports that can skew the full potential of what business needs. The Value Index includes a range of expanded capabilities in BI from in-depth analytics, planning, collaboration, mobile, to the needs to manage performance to the analytics and metrics and many other areas that are critical for business to manage and act on analytics and metrics in the most efficient manner possible.

 

The Value Indexes are the product of more than decades of experience and knowledge of the market and of in-depth analyses of technology suppliers' products. The Value Index for Business Intelligence involves a comprehensive examination of 16 vendors and their products in the context of their ability to support the full span of capabilities and business processes used for business intelligence. Ventana Research asserts that making informed investments in such software will improve the efficiency of business process and increase the quality and timeliness of analytics to enable strategic business decisions. The Value Index assessment of vendors and products were prioritized based on the business and technology requirements uncovered in Ventana Research's benchmark research on next generation of business intelligence.

 

The Index is developed through a detailed evaluation of each offering's suitability-to-task across five categories related to the products and two related to customer assurance issues of vendor validation and total cost of ownership and return on investment. It gauges the value offered by a vendor and its products and presents the results in a clear and accessible graphic representation of a thermometer and in a precise numerical index of its maturity. Technology vendors earning the highest "Hot" and "Warm" Vendor classifications are those that Ventana Research has ranked as best able to deliver buyer value based on a thorough evaluation and audit - that is, based on research and verifiable facts. The Value Index is not just a selection of "cool" products, and rather than merely representing a vendor on a four-quadrant chart that lacks in-depth evaluation on the necessary aspects of usability, adaptability, reliability and manageability of the software, the Index provides specific metrics, both overall and component, for a technology buyer to consider. Organizations can use the Value Index by first determining their priorities and then consulting the Index to determine which vendors best meet those needs. This approach not only reduces cost and time but also minimizes the risk of making poorly informed business decisions.

 

In the 2012 Value Index for Business Intelligence, the company delivering the highest value on an overall weighted-evaluation basis is Information Builders followed by SAP, IBM, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Actuate, QlikView, SAS, Arcplan, Microsoft and Pentaho who also earned the Hot Vendor rating. InetSoft, Spago Solutions, Jaspersoft, LogiXML and Tibco, all of which earned the next level at the rating of Warm.

 

"Timely, accurate visual and dashboard analytics and metrics are just part of what Business Intelligence should deliver to help organizations understand, act and make decisions collaboratively across an organization," said Mark Smith, CEO & Chief Research Officer at Ventana Research. "The new Value Index provides an unbiased fact-based assessment of Business Intelligence software to help organizations make sound assessment and decisions on existing and future planned software investments. Our Value index is based on research not influenced by the vendors evaluated. No other analyst firm can offer the same level of depth in examining the full potential of BI in their vendor evaluations, showing the vendor software ranked in our Value Index are truly superior."

 

This new research-based undertaking is fully independent. It is neither sponsored, influenced, edited or reviewed by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT through benchmark assessments, workshops and advisory services. Ventana Research's goal is to guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT.