The benefits of Business Intelligence in the cloud (Part 2)

Posted by: Yellowfin Team

Nothing stays the same forever. Especially when technology is involved.

As radically as The Beatles and Madonna changed the music scene, the advent of the internet changed the music business more.

Now, the considerable benefits of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivered via the internet, are in the process of reshaping the Business Intelligence (BI) landscape, and those involved in the BI industry must be prepared to dance to this new tune, or be left behind.

Yesterday in our blog – “Business Intelligence in Cloud” – we outlined the basic concepts of Cloud Computing and BI as a SaaS application. But, you want more than explanation; you need motivation and reason to seriously consider BI as a SaaS deployment. So, let’s take a look at the benefits of using BI as a SaaS solution.

Benefits of BI as a SaaS application

Utilizing SaaS solutions are an effective way to minimize costs and maximize performance. But, there are many noteworthy benefits of Clouding BI and using a BI reporting and analytics tool as a SaaS application:

  • Fast, easy and inexpensive deployment: Lack of infrastructure set up means a faster Return On Investment (ROI)
  • No hardware and setup expenditure: Reduced implementation costs equate to a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
  • Reliability: Cloud Computing that uses multiple redundant sites can provide reliable and secure locations for data storage and are ideal for disaster recovery and business continuity
  • No capital expenditure (lowers entry barriers): No capital expenditure normally associated with setting-up traditional IT environments means the benefits of BI can be rolled out faster to more people within your organization
  • Multi-tenancy environment (do more with less): The multi-tenancy nature of Cloud Computing means that cost and resources can be spread across a large number of users
  • Free automated software upgrades and maintenance: The service provider owns and hosts the software, and so users can benefit from ongoing upgrades and maintenance without the associated costs, time constraints and drain on IT resources
  • Flexibility and scalability associated with low ongoing total software costs: Freedom from upgrade and maintenance expenses mean that it’s easy to keep fiscal control over IT projects and have the flexibility to scale up or down usage as needs change
  • Only pay for what you use: SaaS ensures that users only pay for what they use, eliminating wastage, resulting in low ongoing software costs
  • Fast and easy scalability: Cloud solutions can support large numbers of simultaneous users, meaning that customers can swiftly increase their software usage without the cost or delay of having to deploy and install additional hardware
  • Flexibility: Cloud BI solutions have the flexibility to be altered quickly to give technical users access to new data analysis and reporting features
  • Improved data sharing capabilities: Cloud applications enable easy cross-location data sharing and remote data access as they are deployed via the internet and outside a company’s firewall
  • Low risk and high reward: Low TCO and overall resource investment means that SaaS represents a low risk venture that retains high reward potential


BI and SaaS: Where to next?

You’ll hear more from us soon regarding Clouding BI, including the potential issues surrounding SaaS deployment (and why choosing the right BI vendor can help), and how increased marketplace competitiveness regarding SaaS make it an unquestionable buyers market. Now is the time to consider BI as a SaaS application.

Also, you can contact Yellowfin at www.yellowfinbi.com and ask for our proven roadmap to find out more about successfully using Yellowfin as a SaaS application.

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