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How do I evaluate our current reporting system?
I am pretty new to BI. I was asked to evaluate our current reporting system (base SAS) so that I can make a recommendation to either keep our current system or get a new reporting product. I know the questions to ask to evaluate a new system but I'm not sure if there is a book or template to follow to evaluate the current system in order to make a recommendation.
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2 Answers
Whew. That's a question that could result in a really long answer.
Let me start with it depends - Is the current system meeting the needs of the business in a cost-efficient manner? If yes, then no need to proceed.
So you need to start with your requirements. What are the information needs of the organization, typically around dimensions such as integrated, quality, actionable and timely. Do people get the information they need when they need it?
Trying to answer this question may be difficult dependent upon the level of information maturity in your organization. "You don't know what you don't know" comes to mind. Meaning that people that don't know what's possible in the current mature reporting systems don't know what they could have / can't well-articulate requirements. Most of the leading BI Vendors would probably be happy to give you a demo or two. Share it with a wide audience to facilitate discussion.
The other major point I mentioned is efficiency and cost. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the metric you want to follow in this case. Sure, the executive can get the report they want, but do they realize that report costs hundreds of person-hours to create and maintain? TCO is often a big differentiator for the tool vendors.
Finally, base SAS would probably not be considered a reporting system by most (but again, depends on your requirements). SAS does have a SAS BI offering that they have been trying to sell as enterprise BI (you can do research on that offering's merits).
Thank you for your response. I agree that base SAS is not great for a reporting tool and I have made the same approach that you don't know what you don't know. However, my manager seems to think that I am evaluating our reporting system incorrectly by asking our report requestors and writers what they would/would not like in a system and giving them examples of what is possible. I was trying to find maybe a different approach. They had the SAS BI but it couldn't handle the amount of data but base SAS can. I will take your suggestions and apply them to this situation. Thank you.
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