The main objective of the thesis is to present SaaS business intelligence as a set of concepts and methods aimed at improvement of business decision making process based on Software as a Service model. To understand this, it's important to describe first general principles, on which are based conventional so-called on-premises solutions and the means how they work. It's also necessary to present Software as a Service as today's very popular software deployment model. Further objective is the description of these solutions, introduction of their strengths, weaknesses and guidelines how to choose a suitable service provider. Final objective of the thesis is to compare these two different methods of BI tools deployment, in that case on-premises and on-demand and to sketch out means, following them will be possible to decide for one of the methods.

Thesis is devoted on Business Intelligence tools in cloud, as one of the main trends of this area. BI tools in cloud have become widely used after companies begin to realize importance of data analysis for getting a competitive advantage. The high cost for implementation of a BI caused, that companies started discovering tools which can be implementing and operating with significantly lower costs and outside of their own infrastructure. The practical part of the thesis is focused on analysis and comparison currently using BI cloud tools. The analysis is based on practical examples which should test selected solutions for using at corporate sector of small and medium enterprises. Each of selected solutions is analyzed from several points of view and rated. Beside analysis is the next main goal of the thesis evaluation of best solution for companies and define potentials benefits and limitations which can follow implementation and operation.

Innovative technologies have aided in the evolution of communicative patterns betweenindividuals, organizations, and society at large. For businesses this means that marketingmust be integrated with emergent ICT in an effort to exploit available digital marketingtactics. Although there is an emerging body of literature that defines the elements of digitalmarketing there still remains a need for models grounded in theoretical and empiricalevidence that explicitly integrates Software as a Service business intelligence (SaaS BI)within the realm of digital marketing.The purpose of this study is to explore existing challenges for digital marketers and SaaS BIvendors in an effort to uncover common ground where marketing activities and SaaS servicescan be effectively integrated. Within this investigation a socio-technical systems perspective isemployed in which the function of digital marketing represents a social sub-system and theservice of SaaS BI represents a technical sub-system. Interconnectivity is established betweendigital marketing, SaaS BI, and diffusion of innovation through the exploration of existingchallenges. A design artifact is constructed as a result of the thesis, which is intended to aiddigital marketers when planning, implementing, or adjusting a marketing campaign thatutilizes SaaS BI as an intelligence source. Within the investigation of digital marketing andSaaS BI both a theoretical and empirical study are conducted that serve as a basis for thedesigned model. The empirical study consists of a case study of the MeltWater Group, a SaaSvendor, and attempts to capture an in-depth understanding of the target domain. Empiricaldata is generated through semi-structured interviews triangulated with documents.Subsequent to building the conceptual model a short questionnaire was sent to participantswith related knowledge of the domain problem to elicit feedback on the conceptual model’scorrectness and usefulness.The theoretical study serves the purpose of establishing a conceptual framework within theresearch phenomena. The subsequent empirical study was used to validate the relevance ofthe conceptual framework in addition to assist with the build and evaluate phase of theconceptual model design. As a result of the thesis investigation a conceptual model of thetarget domain was developed that maps the interrelated processes of digital marketing andSaaS BI.In conclusion, the conceptual model captures a closed information loop between the SaaSvendor, client-organization, internal/external stakeholders, and the client-organization’sdigital presence. The system domain processes are illuminated as seven sub-closed loops thatdepict the existing relationships between domain components. The integration of digitalmarketing and SaaS BI elucidates three core input/output processes (IOPs): a dual IOPinternal and external of the SaaS vendor and an IOP internal of the client-organization. / Program: Masterutbildning i Informatik