The OLAP Report: How not to buy an OLAP product

The OLAP Report: How not to buy an OLAP product: "OLAP products differ from each other much more than do, for example, relational databases, programming languages, word processors or presentation graphics packages which greatly increases the scope for confusion when selecting an OLAP product. Just to add to the problems, neither IT professionals nor end-users are fully equipped, on their own, to make properly informed OLAP selections (whereas each of the other products listed above could be chosen by one group without help from the other). This means that, unlike most other software, OLAP evaluations must involve both users and IT. But in many organizations, IT and end-users have trouble communicating with each other and are often barely on speaking terms. Consequently, we frequently come across companies who have made strange product choices, often because they started with a bizarre shortlist consisting of the contradictory preferences of the technical and business groups."