This paper evaluates five business intelligence vendors — Information Builders, MicroStrategy, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAS — to determine the best fit for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Each vendor is assessed on pricing, functionality, integration capabilities, scalability, and overall return on investment within a government context. The analysis eliminates MicroStrategy due to security and support concerns, and Information Builders due to limited integration transparency, ultimately narrowing the field to Microsoft, Oracle, and SAS. Microsoft is recommended as the optimal solution because of its per-user monthly pricing model, deep integration with existing HUD software, scalability, and seamless cross-product functionality.
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This report evaluates five business intelligence solutions to determine which is best suited for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The five options under consideration are Information Builders, MicroStrategy, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAS. Each option will be examined individually, with its advantages and disadvantages considered in turn. The factors evaluated center on the functionality, cost, scalability, and overall return on investment of each solution, leading to a final recommendation.
Information Builders positions itself as a company that enables expedient and accurate data-driven decisions through visual analytics and a strong emphasis on user roles and skill-set dynamics. Return on investment is presented as a key driver for choosing this vendor. Information Builders describes its solution as following a chain whereby IT developers and data analysts translate the solution to power users, business users, operational employees, business partners, and customers, in that order. The "business intelligence portal" extends from the business user to customers in various forms, including reporting, operational dashboards, performance dashboards, search functions, and schedules.
As for cost, the Information Builders solution would run slightly over $250,000 for the 4 Core Production package and $118,960 for the 2 Core Development package. Annual maintenance ranges from approximately $25,000 to $50,000, and a professional engineer to assist with implementation would cost $112,000. Adding the optional data quality suite would roughly double the overall cost. The performance management module is more affordable, with a base cost of no more than $62,000, but the professional services personnel for that module alone would cost a quarter of a million dollars. In total, HUD would be looking at approximately $600,000 for core services alone and roughly $1 million in startup costs overall to get the solution operational (Information Builders, 2014).
MicroStrategy represents the low-cost, self-service option among the vendors covered in this report. The company promotes its cloud-based, big data, and self-service analytics capabilities. While the nominal costs and open functionality of this software may seem appealing, that openness includes publicly used cloud and other technological solutions that may not always be sufficiently secure. A free or near-free solution is also unlikely to provide the level of client support that a vendor charging hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars would offer. Interoperability with consumer tools such as Dropbox and Google may be attractive on the surface, but these are consumer-driven solutions that may not handle the heavy usage and support requirements that HUD needs, demands, and requires (MicroStrategy, 2014).
Microsoft represents one of the premier options on this list. Notably, only four firms in the entire United States carry a AAA credit rating from major credit rating agencies, and Microsoft is one of them. One major advantage of the Microsoft Business Intelligence solution is its powerful integration with the widely used Microsoft Office suite, which includes Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and other applications. Pricing is another significant upside, as costs are assessed per user rather than per setup or some other fixed unit.
Microsoft offers three tiers of its business intelligence software: Power BI 365 (technically an add-on), a Power BI option with a SharePoint Online Plan add-on, and a third option that includes everything in the second tier plus Excel functionalities covering data discovery and access, data modeling, and data visualization. These plans cost $20, $40, and $52 per user per month, respectively. Depending on the number of users, the total cost may be higher or lower than competing options, but the ability to scale the business intelligence solution as workforce and budgetary conditions change is a significant advantage. Government departments like HUD often experience year-to-year budget fluctuations, making scalability especially valuable. The integration of this solution with a software suite already in widespread use also eliminates import/export compatibility issues (Microsoft, 2014).
Oracle has two major advantages of its own. First, Oracle is one of the dominant players in the business intelligence and enterprise software markets. Its broader portfolio includes control of the Java programming language — acquired through its purchase of Sun Microsystems — as well as long-standing leadership in the database market. It should be noted that Microsoft Access represents another significant database platform, which could be considered an additional point in Microsoft's favor.
Oracle's costs are the highest of the options reviewed, though they have come down in recent years. The per-processor license was priced at $450,000 as recently as early 2013 but has since been reduced by one-third to $300,000. These prices apply to the Foundation Suite. Enterprise Edition Plus is priced at $221,250, and the Scorecard/Strategy Management module comes in at $90,000. Oracle acknowledges some pricing flexibility but notes that recent price cuts reduce room for negotiation. All three modules combined would cost up to approximately half a million dollars, and Oracle states upfront that achieving the desired functionality typically requires purchasing all three. Even so, the overall cost is roughly comparable to the Information Builders solution, which makes the Oracle offering competitive (Oracle, 2014).
The other well-known name on this list is SAS. One major advantage of the SAS solution is that, while it is not a Microsoft product, its enterprise-level offering provides deep Microsoft integration, including with Excel. One of the prominently touted benefits on the SAS website is that its solution eliminates the need to use multiple business intelligence vendors to achieve the desired results. HUD may find this particularly relevant, as one of the testimonials featured on the SAS website comes from the controller of the state of North Carolina. Furthermore, SAS actively promotes five major solution categories, one of which is specifically designed for government. Solutions are also offered for individuals, small and medium businesses, enterprises, and academic institutions — meaning SAS does not impose a one-size-fits-all approach.
"Enterprise pricing and database dominance"
"Government-focused analytics with Microsoft integration"
"Elimination rounds lead to Microsoft recommendation"
Microsoft. (2014, April 21). Business intelligence in Office and SQL Server. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/solutions/business-intelligence/default.aspx
Oracle. (2014, April 21). Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/overview/index.html
SAS. (2014, April 21). Big data. Bigger opportunity. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://www.sas.com
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