A tool that allows the keepers of the data to focus on their real jobs instead of fulfilling endless report requests that make them squirm in their chairs
Providing controlled, self-service reporting to end users in a browser application that’s easy to maintain
Mass BI vs. Selective BI 
Business intelligence (BI) tools vary widely in cost and sophistication, and sometimes the more sophisticated ones are not really useful to the most consumers of BI.
The majority do best with tools that sport a graphical user interface with a straightforward presentation of reporting, analysis, and measurement. Microsoft sometimes calls this “BI for the masses” as their SQL Server 2005 BI tools and Business Scorecard Manager solution are targeted for mass consumer use, with a Microsoft Office-like look and feel.
GO WIDE: Distributing the most efficient access to BI – across the enterprise
To better distribute BI, a centralized server and accessible but secure toolset, deployed thru a pure browser / thin client tool to everyone. The concept of BI for the masses assumes a few important, but non-disposable facts:
- Everyone should be able to access it / Security should be automatic
- Everyone should see what they need, no more / no less
- Data quality should be assured / controlled by IT dept & DBAs
- Tools should have an intuitive, training free interface.
Cizer.Net Reporting and the other associated applications we use today solve all of these requirements in an affordable and fairly easy to implement solution.
DRILL DEEP: High Functionality, High Cost BI for a Few Data Users
High end tools (Cognos, BO) are powerful, but require high skill levels and expensive individual licenses.
High-end BI tools certainly have their value as well. Statistical analysis, and specialized integration with in-house business applications often demand analysis tools that require training, but can yield significant insight when work is put into using them.
Examples of these tools might be SAS or SPSS, long known for their analytical prowess, where the higher price-point of the tool is justified by the special analytical features.
ETL for Either Kind of Solution
Interestingly, the high-end BI tools can benefit from the same “single version of the truth” on a BI server, where a good ETL tool is used to build a properly designed fact-dimension data-mart, from which the specialized BI tools can draw data for their high-end analysis.
The same BI server serves the reporting, analysis, and measurement tools used by the majority of users in the organization as well. So whether the front-end tools are simple or sophisticated, inexpensive or costly - they all need a scalable BI platform on which to build.