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Big Vs Small – Poll inside

Some researchers made a point that BI is not the core business of large Enterprise Software vendors, indicating a below average feedback by many of their BI and Performance Management users, and I say, this is true, to some extent, being able to put hands on almost every BI solution in the market, and from a very Middle-Eastern, GCC point of view, none of the big, medium and small vendors have even put a clean, clear, sharp roadmap for their offerings yet. Those acquisition voracious giants, and I am talking Oracle and SAP are looking first to enlarge their portfolios and offering, eliminate and shrug off competition, without a definite focus on the business intelligence vertical applications, and their overlapping products, are simply disgusting to certain users who are in the process of researching the market, simply in this case, bigger is not always better! Read More
Now from a consultant point of view, I do have some doubts on smaller vendors achieving what big organizations might need, specifically on large implementation that will require strength in capabilities handling huge amounts of data and dimensions.
However, the real deal is in the understanding of BI development that has been taking place on the integrator level rather than the vendor level, the little kid emerged from:

Application centric

To

People Centric

To

Process Centric

Yes process centric, the right processes will insure information reliability, will reduce data complexity and this reduction is key, and eventually will secure the rollout success, and in all this, the big vendor wins!
Performance: who cares if it takes a minute more, but it gets done accurately reliably and up to what was expected, so whether on disk, in memory or on moon architecture, the outcome is what counts, and above all, having a single source of data, where everyone, and I mean everyone in finance, HR, Sales or X department, independently, without calling the 800support extension, can number crunch, customize, print or publish the required report is key.
However, from noticing what goes around in Saudi Arabia, some users aren’t aware of what BI is, thinking of another reporting tool, but some others, are highly motivated by the concept as the understand the ultimate value, and I mean: the business value

Now let’s vote:

Is Bigger Better? which BI vendor will win eventually?

  • Yes (75%, 6 Votes)
  • No (25%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 8

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Big bets on SaaS

Software giant Oracle Corp is making a big bet on Web-based computer programs, a fast-growing segment of the tech sector that it has been slow to enter.

SaaS

Senior company executives said on Thursday that the world’s No. 2 maker of business software will release a suite of 43 Web-based software modules to help corporations manage tasks from accounting and human resources to sales and procurement.

That will give Oracle the broadest selection of so-called cloud-based business management applications for large corporations of any major technology company. Rivals such as Salesforce.com Inc and SAP AG currently offer a limited selection of such products focused on software for managing sales activities.

Senior Vice President Anthony Lye said in an interview that the products will be released next year as part of Oracle’s highly anticipated new line of Fusion Apps software.

Customers will have the option of buying programs to run in their own data centers or purchasing Web-hosted services from Oracle, he said. He spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of an investor conference in San Francisco.

Oracle is embracing cloud-based software as researchers forecast brisk sales growth for the sector, even as the overall tech market slumps. Such products are also known as Software as a Service, or SaaS.

Gartner Research expects that 2009 SaaS sales to surge 22 percent to a record $8 billion. The firm expects the market to grow at average annual rates of 19 percent through 2013, far above the 5 percent growth for the overall business management software market.

Fusion Apps is one of the most closely watched in Oracle’s 32-year history. Chief Executive Larry Ellison has staked his reputation on the success of the product, investing five years and billions of dollars on its development.

Credit crunch caused by BI?

A good head to head discussion about BI being a partner-in-crime in the current crisis, enjoy …