3 questions from the package
From the RFI round. The first shows part of the guide each question carries; the workbook adds follow-ups, how to verify the answer, a priority and a weight.
1. Where are measure, dimension and join definitions stored in your product: in a shared model that all content queries, or inside each individual workbook, report or dashboard?
Why it matters. If definitions live inside each piece of content, every copied dashboard carries its own copy of the logic. The same metric can then drift to different values across content with no single place to correct it.
Good answer
- Definitions sit in a shared model object that content references, not copies
- Documentation describes the object model and shows how content points to model definitions
- The answer states plainly whether content can be built without the shared model and where its logic lives in that case
Red flags
- Each workbook or report holds its own data model by default, and publishing a shared model is optional
- The answer describes data connections or connectors instead of where business logic is defined
- Reuse depends on copying templates or duplicating workbooks
2. Which object types in your product can carry a certified or endorsed status?
Why it matters. If certification applies only to dashboards, a metric can be reused in other content with no signal to users about whether its definition was reviewed.
3. Where can row-level security rules be defined for content in your product: in your semantic model, in the warehouse, or in both?
Why it matters. If rules can only live in one place, the buyer may have to maintain the same entitlements twice or give up warehouse policies it already enforces. Rules kept in two places can drift apart, and different users then see different rows for the same content.
Capability areas
Semantic Layer & Metric Definitions (15)
How measures, dimensions, joins and business logic are authored once, versioned, reused across content and kept from diverging into duplicate definitions. Excludes certification workflow and exposure to external tools, which are covered in MGV and INT.
Metric Certification, Ownership & Lineage (11)
Certification and endorsement of metrics, datasets and dashboards, named metric ownership, detection of conflicting definitions, column-level lineage and impact analysis when a definition changes. Excludes usage monitoring and capacity, which are covered in ADM.
Data-Level Security Inheritance (10)
Row-, column- and object-level security defined in the model or the warehouse, and whether it holds across dashboards, ad-hoc queries, natural-language answers, exports, caches, subscriptions and embedded views. Excludes generic authentication, MFA and SSO, which are covered by the security and integration modules.
Self-Service Authoring & Exploration (12)
Authoring for business users and analysts, ad-hoc exploration, drill paths, calculation expressiveness, what-if inputs and write-back of user-entered values. Excludes full budgeting and corporate performance management suites.
Dashboards, Reporting & Distribution (10)
Dashboard interactivity, paginated and formatted reports, mobile consumption, scheduled delivery, data-driven alerts and export of report output. Excludes self-service authoring depth, which is covered in SLF.
Natural-Language & AI-Assisted Analytics (13)
Natural-language question answering, agentic analysis, automated insights and forecasting, and whether answers are grounded in governed metrics, show the generated query and handle ambiguous or out-of-model questions. Excludes model governance, bias, safety and agent autonomy controls, which are covered by the AI modules.
Data Platform Connectivity & Query Execution (12)
Live query pushdown compared with in-memory extract, query generation on the buyer's warehouse, combining data from more than one source and light data preparation inside the tool, caching and acceleration, data freshness, behavior at peak concurrency and the warehouse compute the tool consumes. Excludes the generic connector catalog, which is covered by the integration module.
Semantic Interoperability & Headless Metric Access (9)
Serving governed metric definitions to other BI tools, spreadsheets, notebooks and external AI agents through query interfaces or APIs, and importing definitions maintained in an external semantic layer. Excludes generic REST API availability and identity integration.
Embedded & Multi-Tenant Analytics (10)
Embedding analytics in applications the buyer ships, white-labeling and theming, per-tenant data isolation and row-level security, tenant provisioning at scale and developer SDKs for embedded use. Excludes internal intranet embedding beyond basic sharing.
Content Lifecycle, Version Control & Deployment (9)
Source control of models and content, promotion across development, test and production environments, content defined as code, automated testing of metrics and rollback. Excludes the vendor's own product release process.
Usage Analytics, Content Sprawl & Capacity Operations (9)
Usage and adoption analytics, identification and retirement of stale or duplicate content, workload and capacity monitoring, and attribution of query and compute load to users and content. Excludes license pricing terms, which are covered by the commercial module.
Legacy Report Migration & Reconciliation (8)
Converting reports, models and calculations from the buyer's existing BI tools, automated conversion coverage and number-by-number reconciliation of migrated output against the source. Excludes exit from the vendor's own product, which is covered by the migration-exit module.
Questions about this package
How many Business Intelligence & Analytics RFP questions are there?
128 solution questions in 12 capability areas: 28 for the RFI, 67 for the RFP and 33 deep-dive questions for the finalists. The workbook adds 90 due-diligence questions on security, integration, implementation and exit.
What comes with each question?
Why it matters, good-answer signals, red flags, follow-up questions, how to verify the answer (a demo step, a test or a document), and a suggested priority and weight for scoring.
Can I edit the questions?
Yes. The workbook is an ordinary Excel file. Change, add or remove questions, and change the weights; the scorecard recalculates.
Which license do I need?
The Enterprise License covers any number of evaluations inside one organization. The Consultancy License covers use with any number of clients. Neither allows reselling or republishing the questions.
