The Robin Hood of BI: Microsoft?

In a world where Microsoft seems to get slapped week after week for antitrust, monopolistic behavior, I believe that Microsoft has done good in the world of BI.  Sure, Mr. Gates and Mr. Ballmer are pocketing the billions, but who really cares?  Without Microsoft’s introduction of analytical tools with SQL 7.0, the BI vendors would continue to pillage corporations around America and serve them with mediocre products.

I’ve done quite a bit of investigation on the feasibility of acquiring BI tools, and no matter how I generally slice it, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.  By the time you purchase licenses, server products, training and upgrades, you’ve blown quite a chunk of your IT budget.  That’s not to mention the server and database that you’ll probably have to acquire to run your data warehouse and BI software.  That’s why BI, as it stands, quite often can’t be justified using traditional ROI calculations.  

So what?  It’s all about supply and demand right.  Since major companies are willing to pay the premiums to have the cool new BI tools, the product vendors continue to sell them at high prices.  The consulting firms often get a kickback, and so they have incentives to push the BMWs of BI at you.  This has led BI to what I call the “Intelligence Divide.”  BI in corporations has become a world of haves and have-nots.  The large corporations - your Pepsi's, GMs, Walmarts – have sophisticated BI tools, while your smaller mom-and-pop shops continue to use Excel and Access to do their calculations.