Business intelligence software can present an especially complicated purchasing decision. There tend to be a wide variety of choices among products and roles, licensing and server-based options, standard and optional modules, and many other variables, warns Cindi Howson, founder of the analyst firm BI Scorecard. In a nutshell, she argues, the purchasing terms for this category of software are too complex and out-of-sync with today's business needs.

"There is a big disconnect in BI buying," Howson writes in a post at InformationWeek. "Buyers want as much as they can get at the lowest price. They certainly don't want to be forced into the embarrassing (career-ending?) position of having to go back to the executive committee to garner more money for a BI module they overlooked. Vendors, on the other hand, want to extract as much value from the customer as their product warrants."

You wouldn't be alone if you had a full-time equivalent monitoring licensing compliance for BI software, according to Howson. The purchasing terms often don't seem to make sense, and in some cases have led to lawsuits. If, for example, you want to upgrade hardware without increasing users, should you be charged a fee by the BI vendor? "That doesn't seem fair to me," she writes, "but that is a consequence of server-based licensing that considers CPU-clock speed and power ratings."

Possible reasons behind the trouble in the BI software realm are the tough economy, mega vendors, and the high costs of switching BI vendors, Howson suggests. She recommends that buyers make sure that the procurement department is involved from the get-go in the buying cycle and that you understand the fine print early on.

For more:
- see Cindi Howson's post at InformationWeek

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