Dave Kasabian's Pervasive Performance Management Blog: Risk Stands Out in CPM as IBM Acquires Algorithmics

Pervasive Performance Group Blogging on BI and Performance Management Practices

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.