Open Source Alternatives for Business Intelligence: Critical Success Factors for Adoption

The purpose of this research is to identify critical factors that affect the adoption of Open Source Business Intelligence (OPBI) tools and to compare the differences between OPBI and Proprietary Business Intelligence (PBI) tools. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model, an organizational adoption model was designed to analyze four cases of organizations that have adopted Business Intelligence (BI) tools. The cases were documented using a tested protocol and a set of interviews. The analysis of the cases shows that organizations with fewer resources and simpler IT selection processes tend to adopt OPBI. The most cited reason for using OPBI software is cost savings. The results also reveal that for most users OPBI does not require sophisticated BI specialists and offers as many useful features as PBI tools. These findings are important to BI vendors, users, developers, and organizations interested in adopting BI technologies.