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Industry ResearchFebruary 8, 2006Business Objects and Firstlogic -- A Clash of Cultures?Business Objects' planned acquisition of First Logic makes technology sense, but does it make customer sense? Business Intelligence mainstay Business Objects announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Firstlogic, a long-time provider of data quality solutions. Continue reading "Business Objects and Firstlogic -- A Clash of Cultures?" » August 9, 2005In the Know About Data Management's ValueCurrent findings from Evalubase's ongoing study of the enterprise technology market show that among major classes of data management solutions, enterprises find the most value from their knowledge management solutions. And those fatidic analysts pronounced knowledge management dead! View Evalubase Chart: Data Management Value Ratings Well, Evalubase is no popularity contest. Certainly other classes of data management (e.g. DBMSs, data modeling, data quality) have greater claims of ubiquity. But those enterprise that have made a commitment to KM in one form or another are evidently quite pleased with the bang-for-the-buck they've receieved. Coming a close second in user perceived value are data quality solutions, followed by data modeling, and data integration/middleware. Metadata management solutions and document/content management solutions fair considerably lower in the Evalubase value ratings. And DBMS solutions, while they undoubtedly offer critical capabilities for any enterprise, apparently have a greater cost-of-ownership versus their apparent benefits. So, as your IT department considers how to wisely finish spending its '05 budget, the smart money may be on knowledge. Just telling IT like it is, July 20, 2005Mediocre Metadata ExperiencesAccording to current user ratings tracked by Evalubase Research, the overall experience with metadata management and repository solutions is somewhat mediocre compared to data management solutions on average. View Metadata Category Ratings All but one metadata product sub-rating are 1-9 points (out of 100) lower than data management solutions overall. Only the maintainability score for metadata products outshines data management solutions (e.g. data integration, data administration, DBMS, content management). Continue reading "Mediocre Metadata Experiences" » June 1, 2005Incredible Credibility VariancesOk, enough with bashing the analyst firms. Let's berate some vendors! (Just kidding of course.) One of the more interesting Evalubase Research findings, however, is the variance in how IT professionals like you rate vendor credibility--both among different classes of technology and among vendors themselves. Continue reading "Incredible Credibility Variances" » May 16, 2005Selected Data Warehouse Vendor RatingsAs I have cautioned several times, Evalubase's research method comprises an ongoing study of the enterprise technology market. While our method is imminently more empirical (and far less magical) than "quadrant" type charts and doesn't include any vendor supplied data whatsoever, some of our data is quite preliminary. We caution vendors in particular about spouting any of these findings without checking with us first. That disclaimer out of the way, here are current overall technology and vendor ratings for solutions/vendors predominant in the data warehouse market. Vendors offering business intelligence, data integration, data administration/modeling, data quality and metadata management solutions were selected for this comparison. Overall technology ratings comprise user-supplied ratings of functionality, performance, scalability, maintainability, usability, security, portability, ease of integration, ease of implementation, satisfaction and value. Overall vendor ratings comprise user scores of the vendor's credibility, responsiveness, ingenuity, support, vitality, sales process, marketing, legal & accounting functions, licensing practices, and services & training capabilities. At present, Actuate, Embarcadero, Ascential, Business Objects, Data Advantage Group, Firstlogic and SAS enjoy an early overall lead. Following them are Computer Associates, MelissaData, Siebel, DataFlux, i-Way, Information Builders, Informatica, Microstrategy and Cognos. Many of the current scores are actually pretty close. We'll see what happens over time as you and your colleagues participate in the ongoing study. In time, we'll compare particular attributes of key competitors and study how (for example) their customer support ratings and ROI numbers evolve over time. See you at the TDWI and Wilshire/DAMA events this month! Just telling IT like it is, Be sure to make your voice heard, get instant peer comparison scorecards, and qualify for complimentary access to all Evalubase research. Submit a confidential evaluation or two of your favorite (or least favorite) BI products today: www.evalubase.com Data Management Buyers Want Performance and Maintainability First and ForemostWhen asked about which factors were most important in selecting one data management solution over another, users are indicating that performance and functionality characteristics of candidate solutions were paramount. View Evalubase chart With data volumes, velocity, and variety continuing to grow at a staggering pace, it’s no wonder why buyers of data integration and database products, for example, currently rate these factors most significant. Following performance and functionality in importance were stability, cost-of-ownership, and ease of use. Least important in the decision are scalability, ease-of-integration, and vendor reputation. Conversely, those involved in selecting and purchasing business intelligence tools have paramount concerns about tools' abilities to integrate with other solutions. View Evalubase chart Next most important to BI buyers is product stability and cost of ownership. Least important are scalability and vendor reputation. So why aren't BI buyers concerned (relatively speaking) with scalability? These solutions are already proven to be scalable? Web-based implementations are naturally scalable? Probably a little of each. See you at the upcoming TDWI and and Wilshire/DAMA events this month! Just telling IT like it is, Be sure to make your voice heard, get instant peer comparison scorecards, and qualify for complimentary access to all Evalubase research. Submit a confidential evaluation or two of your favorite (or least favorite) BI products today: www.evalubase.com April 24, 2005BI Lagging the Biz App PackAccording to current results from Evalubase's ongoing peer study of the enterprise technology market: When considering key metrics such as functionality, efficiency and reliability, BI solutions receive the lowest technical marks, compared to ERP, CRM and E-commerce solutions. We believe that business intelligence solutions continue to suffer from an elevated level of hype, while more realistic expectations of ERP and CRM technologies have settled within those markets. View Chart Similarly, BI vendors show lesser levels of overall credibility, ingenuity and support than other forms of business applications. Particularly in terms of ingenuity, IT professionals believe that business intelligence vendors have plateaued. View Chart The optimist in me suggests that you BI tool buyers and users out there are sending a necessary message to the BI vendor community to start delivering better products and behaving better. I wonder, however, if a CIO with limited budget looking at ratings like these might opt for putting the money toward the less risky types of projects. What do you think? In future entries, we'll look at other technical factors such as scalability, maintainability and usability; and other vendor ratings such as licensing practices, experience, marketing and services. Just telling IT like it is, Be sure to make your voice heard, get instant peer comparison scorecards, and qualify for complimentary access to all Evalubase research. Submit a confidential evaluation or two of your favorite (or least favorite) BI products today: www.evalubase.com April 21, 2005What's most important to you in selecting a BI solution?According to current results from Evalubase's ongoing peer study of the enterprise technology market: Enterprises selecting business intelligence solutions have become more concerned with ease-of-integration above all other factors. Clearly this this is due to the variety of data sources that BI solutions must plug into combined with the increasing need for BI solutions to be embedded into existing business applications. I'm sure in 2005 hardly anyone is building stand-alone BI solutions anymore, right? ;-) I currently have 34 windows open and really don't want even one more. Maybe your users feel the same way? But what of the relatively luke-warm importance buyers place on BI solution scalability and functionality? It would seem that the majority of BI solutions may have achieved a certain technical parity other than in the areas of data sourcing and app integration. Interesting how times are changing in the BI market. Telling IT like it is, Be sure to make your voice heard, get instant peer comparison scorecards, and qualify for complimentary access to all Evalubase research. Submit a confidential evaluation or two of your favorite (or least favorite) BI products today: www.evalubase.com |
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