Advice on selecting DW appliance?

[BiresultB]

Hi,

I'm trying to decide on a DW appliance, and I'm not quite sure how I should go about with what criteria. Do you guys have any advice on this? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

 

[johnherman]

I am not familiar with DW Appliances, but you should follow the same procedures as for any other acquisition. List features you must have, would like to have, nice to have. These requirements should come from the technical group but based on both business and technical requirements.

Send out an RFI to various vendors asking them to comment on your requirements. After getting responses, revise the list of features and assign weighting factors to them.

Grade each vendor on their features. Decide on a short list of 2 -3 vendors.

Evaluate the vendors based on other factors such as industry standing (Gartner, repuation, etc). Evaluate their vision and strategy. Call their support and help lines to evaluate their support. Check their online support. Evaluate third-party support and plug-in products. Check the financial health of the vendor.

If the answer is not clear at this point, it's time to consider prototyping or proof of concept with no more than 2 vendors (too many vendors are difficult to manage).

Please feel free to provide your feedback and results in this forum.

-------------------------
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[BiresultB]

Thanks, John. All that gives me some good ideas.

One other quick question. What should I look for in support and service, by the way? Obviously I should note financial stability, but what else?

 

[MDXer]

Support Items I would look for is

1) Support hours (believe it or not everyone isn't 24/7)
2) Support Response Resolution times
3) Dealing from experience where the support center is based.
4) Issue escalation how long or what issues get moved to level 2 support.
5) Technical Area Manager (TAM) Depending on the level of support you may be eligable for a designated support team who is aware of your system Architecture and topography.
6) Cost for Support. With some companies not everyone pays the same for the same level. I know one company that to get their Premier support you have to have over X dollars in software and licenses and then it is X% of the value of your installed software.
7) There are numerous quality BI Tools on the market being developed by small shops with limited resources so some of these items become key when working with them.

Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[johnherman]

MDXer has done well with the support area. Also, when you are down to a short list, you can ask the vendors to supply references. Ask the references why they chose vendor and product? Who else were they considering? Remember that the vendor will only supply you with POSITIVE references, so keep that in mind.

-------------------------
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright