Pre-built analytics vs bespoke
Historically, most reporting and Business Intelligence applications were
one–off, hand-crafted, bespoke solutions. More recently, pre–built models
(analytics) have been more common. These are typically subject or industry
focused data warehouse or mart models that include pre-built reports,
dashboards etc, or are pre–built for a particular application product. Whether
to go for an analytics approach or a bespoke solution is not a simple matter to
determine.
For instance, analytics often:
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include industry specific knowledge and best practices
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short–circuit the build & design process compared to bespoke
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are easier for the user community to understand up front
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come with industry or subject expertise from the vendor.
However, analytics:
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may not include ‘local’ requirements
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may still need to be ‘fed’ data, which may not be immediately suitable for the
pre–built model at potentially a significant portion of the overall cost
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are typically based on international scales of industry/application and can be
too complex for New Zealand
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are not suitable if they need to be appreciably modified.
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