Open source business intelligence tools have become the new alternative to traditional licensed software. There are now over 25 open source business intelligence software projects that provide a multitude of tools for businesses today. It began in 2005 when ten new open source business intelligence tools were released. Some were business intelligence suites and some were related to data warehousing; all of them however were wonderful assets to the software world of business.
Companies Supporting Open Source Business Intelligence Tools
BEE Project was one of the first open source business intelligence suites to release open source business intelligence tools. They have been in business since 2002 and provide ETP, RELAP, reporting, integration and MySQL. Many companies have found this to be a great fit for their company.
Jasper Business Intelligence Suite is also another company that offers open source business intelligence tools. They focus on automation and reporting as well as OLAP and ETL capabilities.
Pentaho is another company that offers business intelligence tools such as reporting, analysis, dashboards, data integration and data mining, and workflow. This may very well be something that your business would be interested in if you own a business with multiple locations in various areas.
Spago Business Intelligence is the final company we will mention that offers business intelligence tools. Their main priorities are metadata management, ETL, reporting, analysis and dashboards.
Finding the Right Fit for Your Business
You will probably want to take your time to shop around before you decide on an open source business intelligence tools provider. There are so many companies that have services to offer it can be difficult to find just the right one. Knowing what your needs are before you start shopping will be your first step to making the right decision. Talking with your current employees and finding out what they feel needs to be streamlined can give you an idea of the direction to start in. Your employees who work with your computers on a daily basis probably already have an idea of what they would like to see changed. This is definitely the place to start; after all, they will be the ones who use your new open source business intelligence software more than anyone.
Implementing Open Source Business Intelligence Tools Will Allow You to Keep up with Your Competition
Say for instance your company is one that manages data for other companies. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to do this and not have to worry about human error or misinformation being sent to your customers? With open source business intelligence tools you will not have that worry any longer; instead you will be able to send your customers their information with confidence that your information is correct. On the flip side; maybe your company relies on an outside source to send you information regarding your company. Wouldn’t it give you piece of mind knowing that the information you were receiving about your company was accurate? Of course it would; that is why open source business intelligence tools are so very important. You want to make sure that you are always on an even playing field with your competition and by implementing your open source business intelligence tools you are taking the first step in the right direction.