Advantages of Using Open Source and Pro Business Intelligence Software – In the world of data, software, and commerce, business intelligence (BI) software is becoming a necessity.
Today, there are different kinds of business intelligence software we can access. In this article, we will focus on discussing open source business intelligence software.
What Does Open-source Mean?
We can define open-source as the accessibility of source code of a software application. Proprietary software mostly does not allow developers to get inside the base code & play around.
That’s what makes open-source different from closed. Only the vendors can make changes to proprietary software. Meanwhile, anyone with coding knowledge can modify & update open-source solutions.
Pros and Cons of Open Source Business Intelligence Software
Choosing open-source BI tools 2022 can be a good solution. Besides saving on costs, it also offers a few pros:
1. Flexible
Flexibility is the open-source’s main draw. Basically, it is raw code and you can do about what you want with it. It also means that you can make any change along the way.
If something doesn’t work and you want to make additions or changes, you can do it. Of course, proprietary software cannot rival this flexibility.
2. Customizable
Since you do the development yourself, open source business intelligence software is customizable.
If you drive your own customization, you can work while implementing at your own speed. Besides that, you have a freedom to make the system how exactly you want it.
3. Embeddability
Because you control your solution completely, you can program it in order to integrate with anything you want since the other application has these capabilities.
Embeddability allows you to use your best BI tools exactly how you want to &makes the user experience more seamless for your employees.
4. Frequent Updates
As you control the source code, you don’t need to wait for the vendors to launch updates. If you control your own updates using open-source software, you will never wait for a vendor to do it.
Besides that, you will be prepared better on how the update will affect the customization. That’s why you have to choose an open-source solution.
Sadly, no solution is perfect. There are a drawbacks of open-source BI software. The worst thing about open-source BI software is that it is self-managed.
Besides that, it builds up of costs, too. In addition, it is less comprehensive and doesn’t have many built-in integrations.
Then, many types of open-source software are less user-friendly. One more thing, it is also lack of support.
So, is open source business intelligence software really worth it? Of course, it completely depends on your business.
