CPO Blog

The acquisitions continue as the big get bigger. Here is the latest from Business Objects. These acquisitions like the first wave (Cognos- Adaytum, Business Objects - SRC, Hyperion - Brio) continue to push the definition of what BI can be. In the first wave BI expanded to be include Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting to become true CPM. Then there was the push into data quality, particularly the Business Objects - FirstLogic. Now the push into unstructured.

But the first wave never really ended.  Cartesis ending up part of Business Objects and OutlookSoft going to SAP are two more ripples from the first wave.

This combined with the mega-mergers (Oracle-Hyperion), HP’s (re)entry and service push, Teradata spinoff and Microsoft’s continued integration of BI into MOSS makes this one of the most interesting and rapidly changing times in BI since the days when Redbrick and Informix were still products.

If you are interested in how the mid-market can use BI without having to invest the big bucks, please read my column in DM Review this month.  With the approach that the BI vendors and ERP/CRM vendors are taking toward the mid-market, the financial options are much greater than before.  There is also increased competition for the mid-market among the software vendors, so deals are there to be made for the smart buyer.

A colleague of mine is teaching Sunday 3/13 at TDWI in Boston.  If you are going to be there try to make Dave Fritz’s  High Quality Requirements Class.  Dave and I work together and you will not be disappointed with this class.

The HP NeoView makes sense, wider approaches to the appliance paradigm is a natural growth area, and with Knightbridge to back it up HP is clearly raising their BI footprint.  The Terradata approach has always generated interest, but would often been seen as non-approachable because of size or complexity.  With HP kind of moving into this space, it could make for an interesting outgrowth of the ever-consolidating pure-play BI market.
Tibco buys Spotfire. Not sure what to think here, but you can read about it