Concerns regarding BO career

general discussion
1

I am a business objects developer and recent activities in my company has led me to rethink my career in BO.
Here are few points:

  1. BO has competition with tools like Micro strategy.
    2.BO Data integrator is not as good as Informatica. BO Data Integrator is used only where BO reports are being used, but this is not the case with informatica.
  2. Places where SQL server is used as database, are no longer using BO as they can utilize SQL server reporting tool which has become lot better with the latest version.
  3. Cost of BO is more in comparison to other reporting tools.

Any thoughts about the above comments?

kurt (BOB member since 2006-11-06)

2

So what? BO has had competition since the day it was invented.

Doesn’t really matter unless you are a DI guy…and there are lots of places where BO reports are being using…

Well, this may increasingly be the case, but it simply isn’t true to use a blanket statement as you have. So all the places that had SQL Server and BO just flicked a switch and overnight all their reporting was done in SQL Server?

I am sure it is expensive. But have you actually performed a comparison with all other comparable tools - in which case if you’d like to share that information on here it would be great - or is this again perhaps slightly more of a blanket statement than it should be?

Everyone has concerns over their career. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you know BO then in theory you also know Oracle / SQL Server / DB2 etc. So if you go somewhere that using Informatica instead of BODI, then learn Informatica…and so on.

Nick Daniels :uk: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

3

Hi

Am really wondering what could be the Scope for the guy who know only BO +Oracle+Some knowledge on Teradata.?

Regards
Siva.M

looksmee :uk: (BOB member since 2006-02-08)

4

“learn informatica”…thanks for agreeing with me. Informatica is a superior tool in comparison to DI.…Sounds good when you say “if you know BO then you should know Oracle / SQL Server / DB2 etc.”, but the question is about the role you play. Are you talking about Reporting, ETL or DBA? ETL developer stands a better chance when we talk about the knowledge of tables in the databases.

kurt (BOB member since 2006-11-06)

5

Just to clarify, I wasn’t agreeing with you. I haven’t used Informatica so am not in a position to say whether DI is better or not.

Nick Daniels :uk: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

6

Many people may not know that Data Integrator’s internal engine is from Informatica. That’s why Informatica has filed a law suit before.

substring :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-16)

7

That is right

kurt (BOB member since 2006-11-06)

8

IBM DataStage and Information PowerCenter generate at least four times the amount of revenue as Business Objects Data Integrator. They are also the leading tools in the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

See the Table 2 in this report titled Worldwide Data Warehouse Generation Software Revenue by Vendor
http://www.sas.com/news/analysts/idc-dw-platform-0808.pdf

Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools 2008
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/sas/vol5/article4/article4.html

Just to be realistic here, DI is a young pup that might be nipping at the heels of the big dogs, but it’s doubtful that they will ever be in the top three ETL tools. DI will always be a niche product for Business Objects customers. That’s not a reason to avoid a career in Business Objects, but it is a realistic view of the current marketplace.

cppwiz :us: (BOB member since 2007-09-13)

9

  1. BO has competition with many tools; Cognos, SAS, MS Reporting Services, Oracle Discoverer and most of all… Excel!

  2. Sorry but as someone with plenty of experience with both BODI and INFA in TB+ size DWH environments I completely disagree with the first part of your statement - INFA 8.6/8.1 isn’t automatically better than DI/DS XI and has its own quirks that make you pull your hair from your head. (corrupting objects upon migration, dropping connections at random times, etc).

But the second statement is actually a strong point: with BODI and BO XI, companies can have a complete single-vendor end-to-end BI solution that integrates fairly well. Compare the TCO of a DI + BO XI solution vs a Microsoft SSIS + SSRS or Oracle OWB + Discoverer implementation and you will see that the BO solution is maybe the largest software investment but certainly outshines both Microsoft and Oracle offerings in ease-of-use, productivity, reliability and quality.

Example: Try extending/changing your ETL design in existing SSIS 2005 packages in a follow-up increment release and you will know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t tried this yet, please make sure all sharp objects are removed from your desk and have someone lock the window. You will literally lose the will to live.

  1. I haven’t seen any of my clients in Europe, the USA or Australia/New Zealand replace a large BO XI environment with Microsoft Reporting Services. Reporting Services simply is lightyears away from BO and Cognos.

  2. Really? Do you know what a full Cognos implementation costs? Or a complete SAS suite? And with the BO Edge Series, SAP is making BO available to the SMB market at a very interesting price. It certainly has been very well received by our SMB clients and we actually see more and more of them move away from “cheap and cheerful” solutions to BO Edge.

And of late, we have seen a massive interest from existing SAP BW clients who love their BW but aren’t too happy with their standard reporting (BEx). A lot of our projects involve BO XI on top of BW.

I don’t see BO losing any marketshare soon. Rather the opposite. SAP has always been a very closed market. With SAP buying BO, many existing SAP clients are very interested in using BO XI.

So lighten up - it’s blue skies out there. :slight_smile: Then again, I’m not seeing myself as a “Business Objects” consultant. I’m a Business Intelligence consultant who happens to know a bit about Business Objects (and a range of other tools) but I am more focussed on BI strategies. Strategy first, technology second:

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
– Sun Tzu”

Ah no. The law suit was filled over a single patent regarding embedded dataflows. ActaWorks was completely developed by Acta, it wasn’t based on PowerCenter. (Or rather PowerMart at the time).

ErikR :new_zealand: (BOB member since 2007-01-10)

10

Would it be better to join a product oriented company or a IT company.

amruta (BOB member since 2007-04-24)

11

Business Objects isn’t going to go away any time soon, I wouldn’t worry about that.

I wouldn’t say it makes sense to link your livelihood inextricably to the fate of one product though. I pick up other tools whenever I’m given the chance.

cashworth (BOB member since 2005-02-09)

12

Every has different goals and interests. “Better” is in the ye of the beholder…

Steve Krandel :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

13

I do think your right about microsoft. Very scary.

But I am surprised you would be worried about Micro Strategy and Informatica (and especially Micro strategy). Both of these are stand alone tools with only one segment of the EIM, IDD and EPM spaces of Business Intelligence. They aren’t integrated into a complete product stack (at least not to the level of SAP, IBM and Oracle).

Micro Strategy is a small player, will probably always be a stand alone company due to it’s majority share holders, so it will have to work for every dollar they earn. Wheras BOBJ and Cognos can at least rely on the huge IBM and SAP sales forces to drive business for them. Not to mention Oracle will soon be a huge threat in this space as well. Would I want to work in the Micro Strategy or Informatica space right now? No thanks, competing against these guys is not going to be fun!!

BTW Gartner just came out and said they expect Informatica will be swallowed up by one of the giants.

my 2 cents.

SteveBickerton :canada: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

14

Our company is performing a similar exercise in terms of finding value for money with its reporting tools.

For the last 10 years or so we have used BusinessObjects, and very good it has been too.

However, over the last couple of years we’re getting hit quite heavily with increased annual support fees and licences. And hence the costing exercise - we’re trying to find out who in our company that has access to XI, actually utilises it to at least 70% of its capacity in order to justify the cost.

I suspect we will be scaling back XI visibility within the company, given that quite a number of users just read & refresh. And even though this is a cheaper option in terms of licensing, our management believe SSIS, SSRS & SSAS 2008 is the way to go for relatively standard reporting requirements.

We have already developed a user front end. All the user has to do is select certain options and SSRS does the rest. Not as intuitive or functional as XI WebI, but a far cheaper alternative.

The point behind all this, is that I too have had to widen my BI skill-set by taking on board the whole SQL Server 200x suite of reporting applications, as well as continue managing XI.

BO is a great tool, but in the current climate, managers are looking for VfM, even if the cheaper product isn’t necessarily the best option in terms of functionality. Managers have no visiblity to the toolsets in question: they just see the cost benefit. And if it isn’t benefiting the company they shout for cheaper alternatives!

XI will be with us for a few more years, but it will be interesting how MS improved their SSRS package for their 2010 release. 9 years ago, the gap between BO and MS in terms of frontend user reporting was gaping. But now the gap is closing, slowly but surely. There’s still some way to go but at some point costing will be the key for most companies, and if SAP continue with their ridiculous price strategy it will only encourage ompanies such as ours to look elsewhere.

Diane1969 :uk: (BOB member since 2007-01-18)

15

Worldwide economy is recovering, any idea how BI Industry as a whole will perform in the next few years? does the “Cheeper is the best option” will still be in effect or will companies “go for name/quality” ?

jvmauricio :philippines: (BOB member since 2009-08-03)

16

Let me gaze into my crystal (no pun intended) ball …

Good BI does well in boom or bust.

And the ‘recovery’ is by no means assured.

Damocles :uk: (BOB member since 2006-10-05)

17

Maybe, you would be wise, in the future, considering a career outside of IT, I certainly am ;).

As offshoring continues at a heady pace, there will be eventually very little work around, unless based in India, that is :).

Totally agree with both these statements, where it will boom I’m less sure of, eventually.

Although, IMO, BI is one of the things that can have problems when off shored, as it requires constant interaction with the business, to be a true success, my 10 cents.

Mak 1 :uk: (BOB member since 2005-01-06)

18

Different subject, obviously, but I’ve seen the backlash against offshoring to India starting.

Damocles :uk: (BOB member since 2006-10-05)

19

Am with you on this Mak. :yesnod:

zack :us: (BOB member since 2007-08-02)

20

I’ve been seeing the backlash against outsourcing, at least in my current company.

I’ve just ditched my permie job to make the jump into the contract market. Of course everyone thinks I’m mad! Maybe I am :slight_smile:

cashworth (BOB member since 2005-02-09)