For
further information on any of these items and/or to discuss
what impact they may have on your BPM initiative please contact
BPM Partners.
Industry
Update for July 2005
Business
Objects to Acquire SRC Software:
Business
Objects, a leading business intelligence vendor, has announced
the acquisition of SRC Software, a small, but successful business
performance management vendor. This transaction continues
the trend of consolidation in the space (see below) and highlights
the growing importance of BPM in the enterprise. The combination
creates another BPM tools/applications powerhouse to stand
alongside Cognos, Hyperion, and Oracle's revitalized performance
management suite. In our annual BPM
Pulse survey respondents continue to indicate a strong
preference for BPM application suites closely followed by
BPM applications plus vendor-supplied tools to extend the
capabilities of the offering. Business Objects and SRC together
should now be able to compete effectively in both of these
sizeable market segments. While we think this is a positive
for both companies and their current and future customers,
there are still some challenges ahead. As partners the two
companies have done some high-level integration work in the
past, but we believe there is probably still a significant
amount of work ahead to truly integrate the product sets.
In addition, they need to determine how to integrate two very
different (in size and focus) sales organizations and support
groups.
Hyperion
Enhances Integration Hyperion has recently made some
progress in one of the few areas its BPM suite is lacking:
integration. Unlike its acquisitions or major product releases
you probably have not seen or heard much about this development.
The reason is simple - if they say they are fixing integration
then they are acknowledging that they have a problem that
needs fixing. How many vendors do you know that would admit
to that? Be that as it may, we feel this development is in
fact newsworthy for anyone considering the purchase of a BPM
suite. Hyperion Hub (or Interoperability Services) was introduced
several months ago and now works with HFM, Planning, Business
Modeling, and Performance Scorecard. Its main function is
to synchronize meta data (chart of accounts, organizational
hierarchy, etc.) across and within the applications using
a publish and subscribe model. It does this through a web
interface and XML behind the scenes. There is also now a common
installer and common security/authentication. We feel these
are very positive steps and look forward to the next planned
advance - a central repository for this information. More
about Hyperion ...
Industry
Update for April 2004
Cartesis
Poised to Release Planning Module Long a strong player in global financial
consolidation, Cartesis has been missing a key component of
most BPM suites: Planning. We believe that planning systems
form the foundation of BPM and are a core requirement. We
have learned from executive management that Cartesis is about
to rectify the situation with the upcoming release of Cartesis
Magnitude v9 this quarter. This version will include a new
planning module that supports Excel web schedules, line item
detail, breakback functionality, offline use, and the ability
to embed external spreadsheets. Partners will extend the offering
with solutions for strategic planning, activity-based planning,
and continuous forecasting. More
about Cartesis ...
Cognos
Reorganizes While having a comprehensive BPM
product set, Cognos has on occasion been faulted for seeming
to have different sales groups that only knew a subset of
the product offerings. This often happens after major acquisitions
(such as Cognos' acquisition of Adaytum). We were recently
briefed on their new sales structure and it appears to address
this issue by being organized around geographies and verticals,
not products. This should benefit both Cognos and its customers.
One other organizational change of note: CEO Ron Zambonini
is stepping down in June. Ron is a colorful character who
has led Cognos to great success. He will be replaced by Rob
Ashe, current President and COO. We believe this will be a
smooth transition with minimal customer impact. More
about Cognos ...
OutlookSoft
Closes a New Round of Financing Having started life as a venture-backed
start-up, OutlookSoft has more recently painted itself as
a self-sufficient, independent company. So what drove them
to go back to the well as they approached their fifth birthday?
We believe the answer is not about a pressing need for cash,
but about trying to sell to the risk-averse buyer that predominates
today. The primary use of these funds will be to strengthen
OutlookSoft's balance sheet which should help allay fears
about the company's financial viability. In addition, the
OutlookSoft board will be strengthened by the addition of
new board members from Battery Ventures and Greylock. We believe
this positions OutlookSoft well for its next stage of growth
in the highly-competitive BPM space. More
about OutlookSoft ...
Satori
Delivers Web Solution The mid-market has limited BPM choices,
particularly when it comes to web-based solutions. Satori
Group, a leading player in that space, is attempting to address
this need with the release of proCube Web. This zero-footprint
product supports read, write, drag-and-drop, and drill-through.
It will enable mid-market companies to plan, report, and analyze
anywhere at anytime. Management explained to us that the product
will also support dashboards, executive alerts, and multi-cube
reporting. We see this product fitting into the current trend
of extending reporting and analysis capabilities to more and
more users through the use of the web and drag-and-drop simplicity.
More
about Satori Group ...
Industry
Update for September 2003
Lawson
Acquires Closedloop Solutions Most ERP vendors know that they
need to offer the components of business performance management
(in addition to their standard modules) to remain competitive.
Lawson has long used Hyperion's products to fill that gap
in their lineup. However, most of the major ERP vendors today
are not reselling someone else's BPM products, but delivering
their own. Lawson starts down that path with its acquisition
of Closedloop Solutions. We think this is a smart, logical,
step that continues the trend of merger and acquisition in
the industry that leads to larger companies with more complete
offerings, which is what most customers want. Closedloop is
a newer player in the BPM space that while having solid products
focused on budgeting and forecasting, was more well known
in VC circles than by prospective BPM purchasers. While Hyperion
and Lawson assert this deal won't impact their current relationship,
we can't really see how that is possible. Read
more about the acquisition...
Applix
Launches TM1 Web This new reporting capability from
Applix combines the power of the TM1 OLAP engine with the
ease and familiarity of Excel. Any report you create in Excel
can be published to the web as a live read/write view into
your data. Unlike some other products that allow you to place
static Excel reports on a web page, this product actually
can perform a live query of the database at the time the report
is displayed, making the report real-time. Since it can also
accept data input this is an ideal method to create custom
input templates for collecting budgets from the field. When
the Excel sheet is placed on the web it is converted to HTML
and doesn't require the users who are viewing/entering data
to actually have Excel. We think TM1 Web is a great idea for
those millions of Excel users out there since it will shorten
the learning cycle, reduce deployment costs, and ease the
transition to a new BPM system.
Read more about the product... (select TM1 Web under
Platforms heading)
Cognos Releases
ReportNet Cognos has spent the past year strengthening
their position in the BPM space. Their acquisition of Adaytum
and subsequent conversion of that product to Enterprise Planning
was key. They also released a powerful tool for scorecarding
and dashboards: Metrics Manager. Now they have topped it all
off with Cognos ReportNet, a next-generation reporting tool.
From our perspective this tool has two unique benefits: the
ability to easily create production reports (monthly board
book for example) and ad-hoc queries in the same product is
probably the biggest benefit. One less tool to learn, one
less tool to support and maintain. The other unique benefit
is its multi-lingual support. You can create a single report
that will be converted to several local languages at report
generation time. This is a great time-saver for large multi-nationals
who previously had to do everything in a single language or
create lanuage-specific report versions. As with the Applix
product this solution is almost entirely web-based and represents
an important step forward for BPM. Read
more about the product...
