A buyer's guide to choosing the right BI analytics tool

Editor's note

Enterprises are dealing with vast amounts of data about their customers, prospects, internal business processes, suppliers, partners and competitors. To transform this data into actionable information that can help increase revenue, profitability and business efficiency, many organizations are turning to BI analytics tools. Although the BI tools market might be considered mature, it's constantly evolving to address the changing analytics needs of today's organizations.

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all BI analytics tool, and deciding which software to buy shouldn't be based on the product with the most features. Rather, organizations should determine which tool enables the types of analysis your users need and will use.

This buyer's guide examines the three categories of BI analytics tools -- guided analysis and reporting, self-service BI and analysis, and advanced analytics -- and the BI tool styles and capabilities they support. We will help you identify and classify your analytical needs, as well as examine some business use cases for which these BI analytics tools are optimized. In addition, we will help you determine your must-have and nice-to-have features, so you can create a shortlist of BI analytics tools that are the best fit for your organization.

To help you further narrow down your list of potential BI analytics products, this guide compares 12 of the leading BI analytics products on the market today and provides overviews that examine the items central to the decision-making process.