IBM, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Pressure
May 18, 2010
I find the antics of a $100 billion company quite amusing. For example, IBM is jumping from business to business without getting its Web site in synch. Need search engine optimization? IBM is there for you? Need a mainframe in Africa? You know whom to call. Need a wheelbarrow full of software Lego blocks? Just email your local IBM rep.
What is shaping up to be an interesting market battle is IBM and “business intelligence.” IBM has considerable home grown technology. Are you familiar with Web Fountain? Thought not. IBM owns Cognos, which provides business intelligence solutions to big companies. Like the aging business intelligence systems, licensees need to have a wizard or two on premises to make sure that reports work with valid data. What happens if you have lousy data and a complex coding problem, the outputs can be—ah, shall we say—misleading.
To add spice to the IBM business intelligence line up, IBM bought SPSS. If you took advanced statistics, chances are you dipped your nose into the methods of “real” quantitative analysis. If you are a text processing maven, you know that SPSS bought some text analytics and processing technology from Leximancer.
IBM is throwing its weight around. Image Source: http://tinapaparone.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/big-guy-vs-little-guy-299×300.png
Why is this important? For me, these items provide some background for the story “We Are Going 20 percent Cheaper than Oracle.” Among the points in the write up (actually an interview with Edward B Orange, VP-Information Management and Business Analytics, Software Group, Asia Pacific, IBM) were:
- IBM has spent $12 billion in “business analytics”. The money? Buying companies.
- IBM is selling a business analytics appliance called IBM Smart Analytics Systems.
- Parts get an “extra commission” when DB2 is slammed into the solution sale.
- IBM is hip to social networking analytics. I did not know this.
- IBM has another $3 to $5 billion for additional business intelligence acquisitions.
The killer point for me was:
For us at IBM, we have a higher installed base of databases in China while in India, it is Oracle that has a larger base. To counter this, we are going 20 percent cheaper than Oracle in our license cost for the DB2. SAP in India is the enterprise system that sits at the middleware level making calls on the database and that is why we have also partnered with SAP to sell our DB2 here. Also with our Infosphere suite of products, those that are using Oracle on the backend, do not need to overhaul their database but can still switch over to IBM for analytics applications. This can be done through the Infosphere which sits at a layer on top of the database. Average implementation time for Infosphere takes around two-three months.
So what?
Roll ups, price cutting, and more acquisitions translate to excitement in a market segment that is embracing search, visualization, user experience, and social analytics in a frantic attempt to find something hot to flog in a lousy economy. Just my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2010
Freebie.
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One Response to “IBM, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Pressure”
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Leximancer..I recently asked for a trial copy for their 3.5 version.
After exchanging 10 emails with 2 of their company representatives, they declined to provide me with a free trial.
Instead they said, “…that we can negotiate for a paid desktop trial.”
Although they advertise a free trial at their site, they actually trying to make people pay for a tial version.
How crappy and scummy is that?
Stay away from them. The software costs 1500$ AUD, and they expect you to pay without testing it.
Unless of course you pay for a trial version first.
Most probably their software is full of bugs..
They con people into buying their crappy software!
Stay away from them!