While I was up in Ottawa at the IBM Cognos Analyst Summit last week they announced the launch of IBM Cognos Express for the mid-market.  Express includes planning, analytics, and  BI "all-in-one".  A key point that they made when presenting the positioning of Express to us was that this is not just a repackaging of several products to create a mid-market "solution".   The intent here is to deliver a single product not a solution.  This may seem like splitting hairs but in my opinion it is an important difference in the mid-market.  IBM Cognos has rearchitected functionality from multiple products to create a single product, with a single install, a single data store that does planning, analytics, reporting and BI.

Are Other Mid-Market Solutions Too Scary?
Ben Plummer, the Director of IBM's Cognos Mid-market business unit likened mid-market solutions from other large vendors to "cramming an enterprise-size package into a mid-market sized box..."It's like a Jack in the box, when the customer opens it up, it pops out and scares them."


Did IBM Cognos Take the Right Path?
I like that they have a product that removes some of the technical complexity that is typically required to support planning, analysis, and BI.  I think the market will respond well to it.  I do think that there are a couple of challenges.  First is that they will now need to support a separate code base for the mid-market product which adds overhead by having to develop and support different products for the mid vs. large market.  IBM Cognos will need to manage development resources and potentially conflicting market demands but certainly they are capable of absorbing the additional cost in doing this.  The second challenge with a separate product is what if the company outgrows the mid-market product?   IBM Cognos has something they call "guildpaths" to migrate a client from the mid-market product to the enterprise product but there would certainly be more effort than a simple upgrade.

What is right for your company?
You need to think about a few things:

1. If you plan to stay a mid-market size company you don't need to worry about the path to an enterprise solution so you should focus on the here and now and not what product you might be using in the future.
2. If you think you may grow out of the mid-market product (definitions vary, for Cognos Express it is 100 or fewer named users) how long will it take?  If it is a few years off on the horizon, migration may not be as crucial.  The reality is that new major versions often introduce new technology that require some level of migration, or your planning or business processes change enough to require a redesign of your planning application anyway after a few years.
3. If you expect your business to grow quickly out of the mid-market then it may make sense to go with a scaled down enterprise product for the mid-market that can be quickly upgraded to an enterprise solution.

Like with most things, there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to the mid-market.