Blog: Craig Schiff

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January 24, 2007

Hyperion to Buy Crystal Ball

More specifically, they have announced their acquisition of Decisioneering, makers of Crystal Ball software. This purchase makes perfect sense to me and enables Hyperion to more effectively address two important areas of BPM 2.0: operational analysis and predictive analytics, coupled with risk assessment. This follows on the heels of Cognos' acquisition last week of Celequest, also to enhance their 2.0 capabilities. A year or two ago the major vendors were acquiring BPM basics such as budgeting or dashboards. Now they have very clearly moved on to next-generation acquisitions and seem to be following the outline for 2.0 we have developed. If you include the Business Objects/ALG purchase of last year the last 3 key BPM vendor acquisitions were all targeted at BPM 2.0 capabilities.

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January 17, 2007

Cognos Acquires Celequest - Good Move

I spend a good deal of my time lately looking at the elements of BPM 2.0 and which vendors have what is needed for success in this next generation of Business Performance Management. I liked Celequest because they had an operationally focused, real-time dashboard which is an important component of the next generation. The fact that is was also available as an appliance or hosted addressed another area of BPM 2.0 - easier distribution and access to reach more users. When looking at Cognos from a next generation perspective it was clear they already had a lot of the right stuff. They have core BPM down cold with robust planning, consolidation, and dashboards. Their BI capabilities give them the raw power to do much of the focused analysis required in 2.0. The addition of Celequest however will help cement their position as an early leader in the next phase of Business Performance Management.

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January 15, 2007

Standardization is Important, Microsoft is Not

According to the initial results from the 2007 BPM Pulse survey, more than two thirds of the respondents are pursuing business performance management as part of their corporate system consolidation/standardization initiatives. A similar number were not aware of Microsoft's momentous announcement last June about their planned entry into the space. Of those who were aware of the announcement, the majority said it had little to no impact on their BPM plans. Microsoft clearly has an uphill battle ahead of it. Of course if they deliver a great product at the right price point that can change everything. Other key findings from this survey, including customer satisfaction ratings for the major vendors, will be revealed live this Thursday, January 18th at 12:00 ET. Replay now available here. Detailed results from the survey will be published here on the B-Eye Network in the coming weeks as part of the BPM Newsletter.

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January 2, 2007

Reasons to be Fearful, Part I

As we start the new year I'd love to be optimistic and believe that people have learned from their past mistakes. Unfortunately I keep finding examples that prove just the opposite to be true. As an example here is an IT chat room post, unedited except for the removal of the name of the guilty party:
"I am having Vendor seminar as part of the BI selection process. The participants in the seminar are Board and management level. After each vendor demo I am planning to have feedback forms with parameters to rank. Could anyone suggest parameters?"
That last line is the killer. He's asking us to suggest what they should look for in a BI vendor. Obviously they have neglected the most important first step in the process: determining their detailed requirements. Then maybe, I don't know, they could possibly rank the vendors on their ability to meet their requirements! What a waste of time for the vendors and the company's senior management. They might as well pick a vendor out of a hat.

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