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QlikTech

The interview with a representative from QlikTech as well as the survey point out a highlyVdiversified customer base. There is no concentration in terms of industry, size of the company or in time they have been using BI solutions. Some of the customers just recently invested into QlikView while others have been using other solutions before and hence have been using BI solutions in general for over a decade. IT decisions are made with slightly greater influence on the business side rather than the IT department. This is where the need and thus the initiative for the system comes from. However most companies integrate the IT department into the decision making process and not a single company indicated the IT department as the driving factor in the BI investment decision. Based on the elicited data, focus on the evaluation process lean towards system reliability, followed by security and expandability. During the decision making process most companies undertook vendor comparisons (11 out of 18) while only a few also conducted a risk assessment (3 out of 18).
The need for BI is evident since most companies indicated that it is important and partly crucial for the business. Only one company perceived it as interesting but not crucial for the daily business. During the implementation process most companies partly relied on external consultants. The efficiency of the system is perceived as satisfactory. There has not been an increased responsiveness of the company or at least the pre-implementation expectations were not reached.
Current users were lacking detailed budget and forecasting tools and are requesting more up-to-date data through multiple updates a day. Inefficient training is also an issue which needs to resolved.

YouCalc

The survey points out that companies using YouCalc are relatively small consisting of 1- 125 employees and the management is mostly responsible for BI decisions. In some cases the management even decided without conducting the IT department at all. The majority of the companies just recently adopted BI and no company has been using it for more than four years. They have experience with other solutions though. The most critical factors for the investment were ease of use, costs and the rapid startup. Risk mitigation and risk deployment did not play a major role and are hence to be neglected. The investment decision is made quickly and not a lengthy process. Cost/benefit analyses, project plans or risk assessment does not belong to the investment decision process. Vendor comparisons were made sometimes. The importance of the BI solution is in some companies crucial for the daily business while other companies gain some business insights but do not depend on it. However, it is of relevance to all of them. Companies do have experience with other BI tools and some utilize more than one solution at the same time. The interest in customized apps is rather high but not all companies were able to utilize this feature as anticipated. Especially the free users have not tried to build their own apps. Consultants play a minor role and most companies do not need them. However, some hire consultants to build them customized apps. As additional features the recipients value the remote accessibility of the service
Users are majorly satisfied with the systems capability in order to: improve customer service, cost reduction in decision making, reduced inventory levels, reduced time to market, reduced cost of transaction, reduction of lost sales, increased ROI, more accurate cost prediction, and accessibility from remote locations.

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Theoretical Analysis

From the above described results of the survey the authors were able to draw the subsequently following conclusions and identify certain differences between the customers of the two different concepts. Applying the F.I.S.H. model which was derived from several selected theories is a practical approach of assessing and analyzing the results.
From the general sections of the questionnaires it becomes obvious that, within the sample group, QlikTech customers are considerably larger in size and YouCalc customers are belonging without exception to the group of SMEs. However this is not surprising since the companies have different market positions and a completely different target group of customers.
Other factors that influence the IT investment decisions depend on whether the decision is made by one individual or a whole decision group. Such a group might consist of representatives from several different departments as well as stakeholders of the potential new system. An enterprise wide system must prove to match all the different requirements within a large organization while SMEs, due to their size, do not have all these functions within their organization which means that the decision process is a lot easier. This means that within SMEs one individual has a higher responsibility for a broader area of expertise.
Some SMEs might not even have an own IT department but fulfill these needs along the way with the daily operational business. SaaS BI users indicated that the investment decision was made on the business side and the management was the driving factor for the BI adoption. On-premise users took the IT-department into the buying team and laid out functional requirements before the final investment decision was made.

1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Definition of Key Concepts
1.3 Problem statemen
1.4 Research questions
1.5 Purpose
1.6 Disposition .
1.7 Time Plan
1.8 Delimitations
1.9 Research decomposition
2 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
2.2 An overview of B
2.2.1 Evolution of BI.
2.2.2 Structure and composition of BI
2.2.3 Other related concepts
2.3 SaaS concept
2.3.1 Evolution of SaaS .
2.3.2 SaaS BI
2.3.3 Comparison between SaaS and on-premise concepts
2.3.4 Special SaaS investment considerations
2.4 SME
3 Research Methodology .
3.1 Research Approach
3.2 Data Sources and Data Collection Methodology
3.2.1 Interview Approac
3.2.2 Survey Procedure
3.2.3 Survey Desig
3.3 Data analysi
3.4 Research Quality
4 Frame of reference
4.1.1 Analytic Hierarchy Process .
4.1.2 Transaction Cost Theory
4.1.3 Resource Based Theory
4.1.4 Resource Dependency Theory
4.1.5 Knowledge Based Theory
4.1.6 Agency Cost Theory
5 Empirical Results & Analysis
5.1 Company Overview
5.2 Interview Results
5.3 Survey Results
5.4 Theoretical Analysis
6 Conclusion .
6.1 Discussion / Implications
6.2 Limitations & Reflection
6.3 Future Research.
List of references