Business Objects: Number One in Business Intelligence… for Now
June 26, 2008
Business intelligence–along with content management and enterprise search–is a mid-sized blob of marketing mercury. The big names in the US are SPSS and SAS Institute. Both work hard to get colleges and universities to teach eager math students how to make these proprietary systems make data walk on their hind legs, roll over, and sit on command. Business Objects, a sales-oriented company, has made in roads into the SPSS and SAS client base and now the Gartner Group has named Business Objects as the number one business intelligence outfit.
You can read SearchDataManagement.com’s summary of the Gartner research here. You can read the Business Objects news release here. Let’s get to the meat of the Gartner study. For me this was the key point:
Combined, SAP and Business Objects controlled 26.3% of the global BI platform market in 2007, nearly double their nearest competitors. IBM and Cognos held 14.7% market share, followed by the SAS Institute at 14.5%.
So, “combined” makes Business Objects number one. Chop out the SAP part and Business Objects posts nearly $1.0 billion in revenues. Will Business Objects be able to maintain is revenues? Will the company be able to make Inxight Software into more than a content utility? Will superplatforms such as IBM. Microsoft, and Oracle bundle business intelligence with higher value systems sucking the air out of Business Objects’ growth?
For me, Business Objects means excellent sales management. Could its success come from the lack of marketing and sales management expertise, not its technology?
Stephen Arnold, June 26, 2008
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
