Gartners Magic Quadrant 1Q07

general discussion
1

Some interesting comments on some of the vendors …

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/cognos/vol3/article2/article2.html

MikeD :south_africa: (BOB member since 2002-06-18)

2

That about sums it up. Perhaps the “provide adequate support levels” clause is the most key bit of all.

3

I fully agree with “provide adequate support levels” .

But what is probably of more concern is “execute on its strategy of acquisitions to drive growth”. How many companies can they still buy/are independent and add new features, functionalities or provide sizable growth opportunities.

Give the current size of BO. To make a difference you need to buy sizable companies and not some niche players.

It will be interesting what happens in the next 12 month.

The position of SAS on the quadrant is very interesting (I would not underestimate their ability to execute). Information builder is still there(remember FOCUS ??)

ClaireB :de: (BOB member since 2002-08-09)

4

I put the emphasis on:
Providing real scorecards and (fully) integrating all the various products.

Andreas :de: (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

5

The level of support provided by BO is similarly poor in this country too!
SAS is an outside bet and I agree with you there, with SAS9 and the dimension shift for Retail and Manufacturing!

Now with the MOLAP Analysis Services 2005 Platform we have some real competition for complete BI solutions; Storage, ETL (more flexible than OWB, in my opinion) and reporting (sharepoint, Reporting Services and Excel 2007).

As for Mike and Cognos…

Decisys :de: (BOB member since 2004-05-21)

6

I saw a definite impact on BO support by the Crystal merger and the XI release, but if you read the BO CEO’s press releases from the start of this financial year you can see another aspect re support i.e. BO’s focus for this financial year is to sell ‘services’ … :wink:

Here’s another review: BI Showdown:
Oracle Hyperion System 9 vs. Microsoft ProClarity vs. Exact Business Analytics - you need a free signon …

http://www.technologyevaluation.com/Research/ResearchHighlights/BusinessIntelligence/2007/09/research_notes/VS_BI_LW_09_26_07_1.asp

As to me and Cognos - 2.5 months workig for a Cognos reseller and I’ve hardly touched the dev aspect … but might leave to take a Kuwait BO deal … :stuck_out_tongue:

MikeD :south_africa: (BOB member since 2002-06-18)

7

Hmmm. I’d be plenty happy with “adequate support”. :?

No doubt about it: BI sales are now a race to win the mid-size-company market, and Microsoft is the biggest threat to BO (and Oracle) in this arena.

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

8

I would just prefer a more stable, secure admin friendly system.

I think the whole system is a little to flexible for its own good, and fails to deliver adequately on some of the small things which promise so much.(eg the fragility of bursting publications is one issue I have), better clean up tools for bloated repositories…etc etc.

Support so far has been pretty good considering. I have a friendly team of guys who I think call in from singapore…(or maybe mumbai?) they are as helpful as can be expected.

tommy_b :australia: (BOB member since 2007-03-20)

9

The updated Q1 2008 Gartner MQ for BI is available here:

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)