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500 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age

The U.S. National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS)
created a GIS for identifying
critical habitat for steelhead
trout on the U.S. West
Coast. Red areas show
critical habitat. Pink-shaded
areas indicate places where
the steelhead trout are
endangered, and dotted-
yellow areas indicate places
where the species is
threatened.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING BI AND
BA CAPABILITIES

There are two different strategies for adopting BI and BA capabilities for the
organization: one-stop integrated solutions versus multiple best-of-breed
vendor solutions. The hardware firms (IBM, HP, and now Oracle, which owns
Sun Microsystems) want to sell your firm integrated hardware/software solu-
tions that tend to run only on their hardware (the totally integrated solution).
It’s called “one-stop shopping.” The software firms (SAP, SAS, and Microsoft)
encourage firms to adopt the “best of breed” software and that runs on any
machine they want. In this strategy, you adopt the best database and data
warehouse solution, and select the best business intelligence and analytics
package from whatever vendor you believe is best.
The first solution carries the risk that a single vendor provides your firm’s
total hardware and software solution, making your firm dependent on its
pricing power. It also offers the advantage of dealing with a single vendor who
can deliver on a global scale. The second solution offers greater flexibility and
independence, but with the risk of potential difficulties integrating the software
to the hardware platform, as well as to other software. Vendors always claim
their software is “compatible” with other software, but the reality is that it can
be very difficult to integrate software from different vendors. Microsoft in
particular emphasizes building on its desktop interface and operating system
(Windows), which are familiar to many users, and developing server applica-
tions that run on Microsoft local area networks. But data from hardware and
software produced by different vendors will have to flow seamlessly into
Microsoft workstations to make this strategy work. This may not be adequate
for Fortune 500 firms needing a global networking solution.
Regardless of which strategy your firm adopts, all BI and BA systems lock the
firm into a set of vendors and switching is very costly. Once you train thousands

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