Whitepaper. Business Intelligence Tool Evaluation using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Published on: March 2010 Author: Karthikeyan Sankaran

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1 Published on: March 2010 Author: Karthikeyan Sankaran Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved.

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Traditional Approach to Tool Evaluation 3. Business Fitment Author Bio Karthikeyan Sankaran (Karthik) is currently working as a Senior Consultant in the Business Intelligence practice at Hexaware Technologies, a global provider of Information Technology Solutions based in India. Karthik has over 10 years of experience in Business Intelligence domain, having worked as an architect, consultant and project manager for data warehousing projects. Karthik can be reached at karthikeyans@hexaware.com. Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 2

3 1. Introduction Enterprise wide BI architecture utilizes a multitude of tools within its landscape each serving a specific functionality Extract, Transform and Load (ETL), Data Cleansing, Metadata Management, Databases (both relational and multidimensional), Reporting and Analytics (OLAP), Data Mining, etc. For example, just taking the OLAP domain alone, there are more than 40 different products that can potentially solve a customer problem. One can imagine the number of combinations possible when all the tool options are combined across the overall landscape. This establishes the fact that one of the most challenging and vexing problems in Business Intelligence domain is Tool Evaluation. This article explains a systematic approach to tool evaluation using the, which is one of the powerful tools in Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM). 2. Traditional Approach to Tool Evaluation Tool Evaluation and Selection has become strategic to the implementation of enterprise wide Business Intelligence. Traditionally, tool selection involved comparing the technical features of the tools, looking at demos by product vendors, reading up industry reports, get word-ofmouth referrals and then taking a final decision. A typical BI Tool evaluation table looks like this: Whitepaper Criteria Group Criteria ID Criteria Description Weight (1 To 5) Tool-1Score Weighted Tool-1 Score Tool - 2 Score Weighted Tool-2 Score Product maturity and depth Data Sources and Targets 1 Product architecture, range of features and maturity 2 Support for Heterogeneous Data sources and Targets. Flat files Oracle XML Ability to specify multiple sources and targets in single mapping. 3. Business Fitment Tool selection framework is based on the premise that Business Fitment is the most critical aspect for building future-proof ETL solutions Business related parameters used for ETL evaluation is arrived at during the consulting phase of the project Parameters relate to the particular domain and nature of business, the organizational context, the complexity of the environment etc. The parameters are used as inputs to an AHP based model that helps to arrive at the relative fitment score for the ETL tools under consideration Step 1: Pair-wise comparison of business parameters by customer stakeholders Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 3

4 Step 2: Relative ranking of Business Parameters based on the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique Step 3: Each of the tools are evaluated against the business parameters and a final rating is arrived at taking into account the organization readiness to the migration process Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 4

5 Address 1095 Cranbury South River Road, Suite 10, Jamesburg, NJ Main: Fax: Safe Harbor Certain statements on this whitepaper concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Hexaware has made strategic investments, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved.