Some Price Points On BI Software

Finding pricing data on business intelligence software offerings is somewhat difficult. Other LifeTips have looked at product offerings by a number of vendors, yet within the constraints offered in this forum; only two price points were uncovered. The first was Microsoft and contained deep within their Website. The other was Cognos and was uncovered in an article reporting Cognos 8’s award as the top BI software for 2005. The following details the price information uncovered (please note there is little consistency in price scope and installation complexity):

· Microsoft – SQL Server 2005 Workgroup, with one processor license - $3,899; and a server license with five CALs - $739. If extended to a server with about 200 CALs (scale discounting unavailable) it is - $29,560, or about $33,459 total.

· Cognos – A typical Cognos 8 BI deployment for 150 users, 15 authors, 15 analysts, 10 managers, 5 BI/IT Professional, 2 BI/IT Administrators - $220,000

There are a lot of apples and oranges here, but the secrecy contained in finding price points suggests that there is wide disparity in pricing, deployment options and context in these figures. Gain what knowledge you can from this and good hunting!