The OLAP Report is one of the oldest and most authoritative independent research resources for organizations buying and implementing OLAP applications. It was started by Nigel Pendse in October 1994, as an authoritative and independent voice seeking to clear the hype and misinformation flooding the field. In his own words:

Having worked with decision support software since the mid 1970s, both as a user and as a vendor, I had been very disappointed by the shallowness of the coverage of OLAP by industry analysts. Most had never even used an OLAP tool and they seemed to be more concerned with checklists of often-irrelevant, vendor-promoted features than how products really worked and what they were capable of doing for users. It seemed to me that this was the equivalent of a motoring magazine written by non-drivers, and no more useful. I was also concerned that vendor-sponsored ‘research’ documents seemed to be too prevalent then, as now.

Unlike most other information resources, the OLAP Report consciously maintains its independence by staying away from any kind of vendor sponsorship and advertisements. It is entirely funded through subscriptions, and if you are buying it you will find it worth its price.

A not-to-be-missed article on The OLAP Report website is “How not to buy an OLAP Product” that offers excellent advice on the planning and purchase of an OLAP solution.

The consequences of a bad decision either mean millions sunk into a complete failure, or even more dangerously: the project being declared a “success” due to political compulsions without any tangible business benefits. The latter is a fairly common scenario because heads would roll if anyone were to acknowledge a multi-million dollar goof up. So the farce goes on, and the vendor keeps earning their annual licensing revenues, just because the CxO is too scared to acknowledge that the king is naked.

The keys to a successful OLAP evaluation are:

  • Evidence-based selection criteria: You need to have some measurable and demonstrable criteria for making the selection.
  • An understanding of user needs (instead of OLAP as a fashion statement)
  • Managing vendor distractions: You cannot let the vendor drive the evaluation and tell you what your selection criteria ought to be. “Projects where the vendors’ excellent sales efforts were a major factor in product selection were among those that achieved the least in business terms.”
  • Checking Reference Sites: Not all the “references” may be happy/satisfied customers. Some actually are extremely unhappy, just that they cannot say it without looking dumb and losing their jobs
  • Understanding Financial & Licensing Issues: “Remember that OLAP software license fees are only a small proportion of the total costs of a project.” Yes, commercial OLAP TCO goes into multi-million dollars.
  • Bake-off or Proof of concept: Extremely important for comparing shortlisted vendors on a small project. But make sure that the POC does not get just patched up into the final system!!

If you are planning to implement a commercial OLAP solution, don’t forget to read The OLAP Report: How not to buy an OLAP product.

Or you can get an open source OLAP at a ridiculously low ownership cost. (See posts Open Source OLAP - Part I, and Part II)

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