Pervasive Performance Group Blogging on BI and Performance Management Practices
Dave Kasabian's Pervasive Performance Management Blog
Farewell to Steve Jobs, the Man Who Changed the World
The outpouring of sadness and loss that people from all walks of life are feeling today is because we have lost the true visionary of our time. The reaction by the public today will be more widespread and more heartfelt than has ever been experienced. The volume of Facebook posts and Tweets about this loss will be record breaking. If you follow the twitter hashtag #iSad the tweets are so frequent fly by faster than you could possibly read them.
Why? Because this was a man who changed the world we live in more than any world leader ever has. This was a man who took innovation and passion and created a need that previously didn't exist and turned it into something that has changed the way we live as consumers and how we work as professionals. I believe the true impact of his vision has yet to be realized and his legacy will only grow over the years.
He was truly unique and universally appreciated. Do you think this type of outpouring of loss will come when Bill Gates or Larry Ellison join him on the other side? No because Steve Jobs created something that has touched the lives of all of us like no other business leader has ever done and he was able to do it several times over the years.
Each one of us has a debt of gratitude to Steve Jobs and every post and every tweet we see today will only reinforce the impact this one man has had on the world.
RIP Steve, and thank you.
Risk Stands Out in CPM as IBM Acquires Algorithmics
IBM has made three acquisitions in the Risk space in less than a year with it's recent acquisitions of i2 and Algorithmics and its acquisition last fall of OpenPages. Now IBM, Oracle and SAP all have made investments in risk management capabilities as part of their performance management portfolios.
Integrating risk into the performance management process will be a key battle ground for the mega-vendors in the CPM/EPM market. Look for IBM, Oracle and SAP to continue to work towards integrating their acquired risk management capabilities into planning and performance management as this is a capability that smaller vendors in this space do not have the ability to easily develop within their offerings.
Most of the adoption around the concept of integrating risk into performance management will come from financial services and insurance (Algorithmic' target market) because of their heavy compliance requirements but I expect to other industries will adopt the concept if and when vendors can provide solutions that allow business users to evaluate and plan for risk as part of their planning and forecasting process.
The Algorithmics acquisition gives IBM a proven solution in financial services where IBM software and IBM Global Business Services can "make hay" right out of the gate and the capability (in combination with OpenPages) to deliver on the concept of risk adjusted performance management as part of their Business Analytics and Financial Performance Management solutions.
Business Intelligence: Revolutionary to Commodity and Back in Less Than 4 Years
The End of the Revolution
Back in 2008 I was a Research Director at AMR Research covering BI and Performance Management. After a stimulating period of new innovations in the space, many of the niche vendors (like Celquest, Brio, Crystal Decisions, nSite and many oth
ers) were gobbled up by the big BI vendors Hyperion, Business Objects, and Cognos who were then acquired by megavendors Oracle, SAP, and IBM respectively. Circling the Wagons
Almost instantly inquires changed from questions about innovative vendors and technologies to "We have Business Objects but we're not an SAP shop, what should we do?" or "Should I consolidate all of my BI to a single vendor?" or "What does this mean for product roadmaps and integration?"
The End of the Innovation Era?
The word innovation dropped off inquiry calls like a rock off a cliff. Many analysts touted this as the commoditization of BI and that price and vendor preference would soon be the major deciding factors in BI platform decisions. It looked like BI was destined to be the 2nd coming of ERP (necessary, even vital, ...but not very exciting).
BI is Born Again
The Mega Vendors are Making Hay
Fast forward 3 years: SAP, Oracle, IBM, and MIcrosoft still dominate the market with almost 60% market share according to Gartner (52% if you remove CPM suites from the numbers). But that share has remained virtually unchanged since 2008 with each vendor moving up or down a point or two each year..
A Big Pie to Divide
But the market is now over $10B which means non "big 4" vendors made around $4B in this market in 2010. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms has 20 vendors of which only SAS has revenue over $1B (excluding the big 4) and only three others have revenues over $200M in BI revenue. There are probably another 50 plus niche BI vendors that may never show up on the Magic Quadrant that are delivering innovation to the market.
Innovation is Back
New and innovative technologies and delivery methods are changing the way we think about BI. More BI is being purchased by the business rather than IT allowing the niche vendors to skirt around enterprise standards and grab a department here or a division there within an "Oracle shop" or an "SAP shop". And while the mega's might find that a nuisance, their revenue continues to grow and market share remains stable in a growing market. There is a lot of room in this market for the mega vendors to continue to gorge themselves while the niche vendors live off the scraps and teach themselves to hunt. Technology has given them the tools with which to hunt effectively. Cloud, Open Source, Search, Collaboration, In-memory, Mobile, Social, Predictive, and Big Data are all areas where innovation and differentiation opportunities exist.
Ride the Wave
The next three years are going to be a great time to be an analyst, vendor or consumer of BI. Advancements in cloud, mobile, social, search, and collaboration will take BI places we would not have expected only a few years ago. But like all waves it will eventually hit the beach and another market consolidation will happen. But until then, ride the wave!
Disclosure Management: The New Golden Child of CPM EPM FPM
Last week I attended IBM Cognos Vision 2011 in Dallas. This is the first post-acquisition Clarity Systems User Conference under the IBM/Cognos banner. Much of the focus of the conference was on Clarity FSR (now called Cognos FSR). Lots of happy clients talking about the control and efficiency FSR has brought to the production of 10Q, 10K, Annual Reports, and XBRL filings.
Clarity was the first to market with a product targeted at Disclosure Management and was very successful with it (FSR was the main, if not only, reason IBM acquired Clarity). Mainly due to the success of Clarity in selling into competitor bases, other vendors such as Oracle, SAP, Tagetik, and Longview have introduced competing products.
This intense focus on Disclosure Management applications is a win for Finance. As the requirements for disclosure expand there really is no reason to continue to perform disclosure reporting manually via disjointed MS Word and Excel files. There are many options to choose from to drastically improve the process, reduce risk, improve control, incorporate workflow and document the process from start to finish.
These products do not require investment in a full performance management suite and most can be used witih any consolidation system. The barrier to usage is small and the time to value is quick. To me this is a process that is ripe for automation and the vendors have done a good job of addressing a real need. If you haven't looked into automating your disclosure process yet, I suggest you do.
Can You Trust a Reputable Institution with Your Business Data? Maybe Not!
This personal experience shows why many organizations still fear "the cloud". It's not necessarily the direct vendor they fear but who else has access to the information once they give it to the cloud vendor.
Disney Destinations Debacle
I have two young daughters ages 6 and 8. Like many parents with kids that age we made our first pilgrimage to the mecca for kids in Orlando last year. We booked it through Disney Destinations because we wanted to go right to the source and eliminate the possibility of dealing with a little known travel agency who might sell our personal information to offset their "discounted price".Then I get a disturbing email from disney destinations yesterday that my info was leaked by a 3rd party email service provider they use. I never gave that information to that 3rd party and was never informed that the information would be managed by a third party.
I trusted Disney to protect my information because few organizations have as strong a focus on customer satisfaction and retention. it is in their best interest to keep their customers feeling sate, satisfied and ready to cave to the kids' desire to make the pilgrimage an annual event. But a 3rd party screws it up.
In the business world when you give your data to a vendor make sure you know where it will be stored, their security procedures AND what third parties they use who will have access to the information. Don't put yourself in a position where you have to say "I F-ed up, I trusted them"
The email I received from Disney
Dear Guest, Earlier today, you likely received an email from us that had no copy or content in it. Below is the important information we were trying to share with you in that email message. We apologize for the confusion and our contact information is below should you have any questions about this matter. We have been informed by one of our email service providers, Epsilon, that your email address was exposed by an unauthorized entry into that provider's computer system. We use our email service providers to help us manage the large number of email communications with our guests. Our email service providers send emails on our behalf to guests who have chosen to receive email communications from us. We regret that this incident has occurred and any inconvenience this incident may cause you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information. We want to assure you that your email address was the only personal information we have regarding you that was compromised in this incident. As a result of this incident, it is possible that you may receive spam email messages, emails that contain links containing computer viruses or other types of computer malware, or emails that seek to deceive you into providing personal or credit card information. As a result, you should be extremely cautious before opening links or attachments from unknown third parties or providing a credit card number or other sensitive information in response to any email. If you have any questions regarding this incident, please contact us at (407) 560-2547 during the hours of 9:00 am to 7:00 pm (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday, and 9:00 am through 5:00 pm (Eastern Time) Saturday and Sunday. Sincerely, Disney Destinations
IBM Extends Cognos Express for Mid-Market Planning & Analysis
This week IBM announced its latest version of IBM Cognos Express (v9.5). It now has a 4th module called Express Planner that extends the planning functionality of the product << MORE >>
PM & BI Predictions for 2011 and a Look Back 2010 Predictions
Every analyst does their predictions for the coming year. I am no exception. But first let's take a look back at the predictions I made for 2010 and see how I did.
2010 Predictions
#1. Purse strings will loosen. This did happen as the backlog in demand did create good performance in the Performance Management and BI vendors unilaterally.
#2. Mega-Vendors will have a Big Year by Targeting PervasivePM. This also was true although I will say that more of the focus of the mega-vendors was on business analytics than integrated performance management. Business Analytics replaced BI as prevailing definition of the market.
#3. Best of Breed Makes a Big Comeback. This also came true with vendors like Clarity Systems, Host Analytics, Tagetik and others having banner years. Look for new independents to pop up as well. Many of us are anxiously waiting to see what Proferi (www.proferi.com) brings to market.
#4. The Cloud Gets Bigger but Finance Lags. This also came true. You couldn't read anything last year that didn't have Cloud or SaaS in it somewhere. If you wanted it to get read you put "Cloud" in the title. It turned out to be true that Finance lagged but we did see traction in Finance by Host Analytics, Adaptive Planning in Performance Management and also from Saas BI vendors like Birst and Visual Mining targeted directly at Finance.
#5. There Will be no Acquisitions in 2010. I stated that IBM, SAP, and Oracle would have acquisitions in 2010 but they would not be related to the performance management market. I didn't quite get this one right as IBM snapped up Clarity Systems (the #1 independent PM vendor) in late October (couldn't you just wait until January?). The removal of the top independent vendor did create some ripples in the market (see entry on this topic 
as other independent vendors scramble to grab the #1 independent vendor moniker.
as other independent vendors scramble to grab the #1 independent vendor moniker....and now for 2011
#1. Finance Does Embrace the Cloud. At least in the mid-market. Cloud has become so mainstream that Finance organizations in smaller companies with limited IT resources will follow the trend of cloud adoption. As you would expect with Finance (genetically programmed to be conservative) they are a little late to the party but they will finally jump on the Cloud bandwagon.
#2. SAP Will Make a Major Acquisition. Sybase was certainly a big one for them but they will do something big in BI or predictive analytics this year. If they don''t I wouldn't be surprised if HP comes calling. How does SAP, an HP Company sound?
#3. Mega-Vendors Spend Big on Business Analytics But Not PM. The mega-vendors see the huge potential of Business Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Big Data and will spend significantly trying to get the upper hand here. Spending on innovation in traditional performance management will get less attention leaving the door open for specialist vendors to continue to gain ground with innovative functionality, especially in the mid-market.
#4. A SaaS BI and SaaS PM Merger. There will be at least one merger/acquisition that brings together a privately-held SaaS BI vendor and SaaS PM vendor to offer a SaaS BI/PM suite to the marketplace.
#5. A Rush to the Tablet. Many Bi vendors are already well on their way here but in 2011 access to performance management applications via the iPad will become much more commonplace and will become an important differentiator for the business user. I know I should be saying mobile device here but I still am not sold that smartphones are good for this type of application (see blog entry on this topic).
Will IBM Acquisition Leave Clarity Clients Feeling Warm and Fuzzy or Out in the Cold?
I just returned from a vacation in warm and sunny (if not a bit flooded, see picture) Aruba to the cold of the Northeast and it got me thinking about IBM's acquisition of Clarity Systems a few weeks back. I wonder: do Clarity's clients feel left out in the cold?
Becoming Big Blue
Are Clarity clients happy to one day be a client of a small, canadian, founder-owned, finance
software specialist and the next day find out they are part of the $90B ecosystem that is IBM? I guess the answer is (spoken as a true consultant) "that depends". It depends on which of Clarity Systems' two products the clients own and how IBM assimilates the products and clients into their ecosystem and supports them going forward. Some will miss the hand-holding and attention they got from Clarity, others will welcome the breadth of BI and Performance Management offerings that IBM brings to the table with Cognos10 and look at this as an opportunity to expand the Performance Management footprint beyond the office of the CFO.A Smart Move by IBM
The acquisition makes complete sense for IBM. They actually filled two holes in their Financial Performance Management (FPM) offering on the same day by completing the acquisition of GRC vendor OpenPages to enhance its risk management capabilities and announcing the acquisition of Clarity and its Financial Statement Reporting (FSR) product for Financial Governance and automated external reporting.Clarity FSR was the first product to target automating the financial close and has had good traction and very strong customer satisfaction over the last couple of years but the window of opportunity was starting to close as competitors big (Oracle) and small (Longview) have released financial close automation products this year. The timing was right for Clarity to hand the reins over to IBM to exploit this market more quickly and broadly than Clarity would ever have been able to on its own.
What about Clarity Corporate Performance Management?
However, Clarity's core product was Clarity 7 its Corporate Performance Management (budgeting, planning, consolidation, reporting etc.) product. IBM has been very clear in their interactions with the analyst community that Clarity 7 will not replace its existing offerings for performance management. Clarity 7 will be supported and planned releases will go on as scheduled but Clarity 7 is not the direction of its performance management strategy.Should Clarity Clients Jump Ship? Not Just Yet
I've heard other analysts say that existing Clarity CPM (Clarity 7 and Clarity 6) clients should start thinking about moving to another solution now and that Clarity CPM is a "dead product". I wouldn't go quite that far. But these clients should be talking with IBM about the product road map and what incentives they will be given to move to IBM's FPM products. The reality is that these clients have no allegiance to IBM and without incentives will consider other options when the time is right. In fairness to these clients (and in an effort to retain them) IBM should be forthcoming with plans for migrating existing Clarity CPM clients to IBM Cognos FPM solutions and provide some amount of credit towards these solutions for existing Clarity CPM clients.Good for IBM and Good Clarity's Competitors
This is a great move by IBM but it also creates opportunity for other vendors. By acquiring Clarity, and announcing that Clarity 7 is not in its strategic direction, IBM has essentially eliminated the vendor at the top of the CPM-specialist food chain. The big winners in this are the remaining independent vendors that used to compete against Clarity 7 such as Host Analytics, Tagetik, Exact/Longview, Adaptive Planning and Prophix.
Will the iPad change how we use BI and Performance Management?
While I have always been intrigued by the concept of mobile BI and Performance management every vendor demonstration (while very cool) left me thinking that only a small percentage of BI users would find the interface useful and most would grow frustrated trying to navigate through the small screens to get to the information they need.
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The Business Intelligence ROI Conundrum
The ROI conundrum is that while the greatest value from BI may come from the intangibles, the best justification for BI spending comes from tangible ROI. << MORE >>
