Gartner analyst Jamie Popkin said consolidation in the BI market has driven offerings to become very much the same.

He said users should consider BI alternatives such as open source, software-as-a-service and outsourcing along with established solutions from IBM, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle.

"Just because a product is being offered doesn't mean it is a workable business model," Popkin said.

"A BI strategy demands a full application rationalization [stripping unnecessary software] before modernization [introducing BI solutions]. One of the biggest pitfalls is when business skips the rationalizing and they end up piling BI on top of unnecessary software."

Popkin said organizations need to redefine what 'success' is, what it perceives as 'value', and understand where money is being spent.