Relax, It's Just Another Chicken Sandwich - Pentaho Open Source BI

Did I get your attention? Hopefully because you were intrigued enough to see what this post was about and not because you were hungry. Unless you are hungry for Pentaho Open Source Business Intelligence that is! OK, that was lame.

It's obvious that I like to relate some of what I see around me in everyday life to Pentaho, the people I speak with and their issues and concerns. This blog entry came to me last night when watching the Olympics (Go USA!) and a commercial came on that was advertising the Kentucky Fried Chicken Cravin' Fillet sandwich. It showed a piece of chicken on a bun with 2 pickles. This seemed rather familiar to me because only a month or two ago McDonald's new Southern Chicken Sandwich debuted; "a breaded chicken breast garnished with 2 pickles." (pictured on left). Another day I saw a Wendy's commercial talking about its version of a, yep you guessed it, home-style chicken sandwich, again with those 2 darn pickles. So, what am I getting at here folks? It's the same damn thing only from a different vendor. It may have a slightly different look, it may taste a bit different, costs a bit more or less or even come with a side. Whatever the differences may be, it still solves the same problem, satisfying your hunger! Oh and not to mention that it's nothing new either, it has been around since 1967 as a Chik-Fil-A signature. So now that you are locked in to reading this, you are probably wondering, "So Mike, how does this relate to the Open Source Business Model or better yet, Pentaho Open Source Business Intelligence?" Well I am glad you asked that, you see when it comes down to it, Pentaho is just another chicken sandwich in this competitive BI landscape. Pentaho is the "all white meat chicken breast" while the other consolidate proprietary BI vendors are a mix of parts (literally), by-products, fillers and additives. Pentaho's software and services are on the value menu while the other guys are just super sized.

The Game Theory

One of my colleagues and closest friends Wayne Johnson enlightened me about the "game theory". The blog entry he mentions it in can be found here. The game theory basically states that as long as you mimic what your competitors are doing you will remain in the same spot, so if you are ahead and always mimic them strategically, you will always stay ahead, so on and so forth. Take this game theory and apply it to Pentaho Open Source BI. Pentaho can deliver what you would expect from a proprietary BI vendor. Pentaho can deliver a complete end to end BI solution at a lower (TCO) total cost of ownership with a higher (ROI) return on investment. These two facts in relation to the game theory put Pentaho ahead of the curve. I think the real challenge is to demystify the Open Source Business model. Once a company gets the information they need about Pentaho Open Source BI and they are comfortable with what it has to offer, they should begin evaluating and take into consideration the many benefits that go along with the Open Source Business model. ( see this, you might have to fill out a form)

Whether you are evaluating proprietary BI or Pentaho Open source BI, you will find that we are all very similar. I don't care if you are Oracle, Business Objects, Cognos, Information Builders, MicroStrategy etc. We all have our repositories, we all have our metadata, we all have our dashboards, analysis, data mining, data integration and ad hoc query. However, the popular open standard architecture, the growing and active community and the open source business model that provides more value for the buck are the huge differentiators. (The white meat)

So please relax, enjoy and take a bite; Pentaho may be another chicken sandwich on your menu of BI evaluations. However, this chicken sandwich will not only satisfy your hunger pains but it will save you money too!