Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI Saas) is a delivery model for business intelligence in which applications are typically deployed outside of a company’s firewall at a hosted location and accessed by an end user with a secure Internet connection. Also known as on-demand Business Intelligence or cloud Business Intelligence, the technology is sold by vendors on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis instead of the more traditional software licensing model with annual maintenance fees.
Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI SaaS) lets companies use Business Intelligence tools without having to install, operate and maintain them on-premise, freeing customers to concentrate on creating Business Intelligence reports and analytic queries. Organizations can potentially start using Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI SaaS) technology more quickly than waiting for the installation of on-premise software, and the SaaS approach enables them to expand their Business Intelligence systems as usage grows without having to make any capital-equipment purchases.
Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI SaaS) can be a good choice when there’s little or no budget money available for buying Business Intelligencesoftware and related hardware. Because there aren’t any upfront purchase costs or additional staffing requirements needed to manage the Business Intelligence system, total cost of ownership may be lower than it is with on-premise software – although overall Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI SaaS) costs will depend on the amount of usage the tools get.
Many companies already are familiar with the concept of software as a service. There are special issues to consider, though, with Business Intelligence Software as a Service (BI SaaS). For example, the analysis tools may not have all the features that on-premise software products do – which may make them less complex and difficult to use, but also less functional. Sending corporate data beyond the firewall also raises red flags for some IT managers. To try to assuage those concerns, some vendors have created private analytic clouds that run inside a customer’s firewall.
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