Dave Kasabian's Pervasive Performance Management Blog

Farewell to Steve Jobs, the Man Who Changed the World

Dave Kasabian — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:46 GMT

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

Dave Kasabian — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:40:04 GMT

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

Dave Kasabian — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:34:56 GMT

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 others) 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

Dave Kasabian — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:55:12 GMT

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!

Dave Kasabian — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:16:00 GMT

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.

You F&*#ed Up, You Trusted Us!

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

Dave Kasabian — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:52:00 GMT

Since IBM first released IBM Cognos Express in September of 2009, Big Blue has shown a strong commitment to compete against smaller vendors in the mid-market. Via its partner ecosystem, IBM has had good success selling into this market (when I asked how many Cognos Express clients there are IBM declined to answer but stated that they added over 100 new clients in December alone) over the last year.

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 to include core planning functions that were missing from previous releases such as spreading, driver-based planning, "seeding" plans from actual data, user versioning (or "sandboxes"), audit trail and activity tracking (changing cell color of values that have been updated). The release also improves ease of use for administrators and includes "blueprints" for quickly deploying typical planning processes like expense planning, capital planning, or workforce planning. New pricing for Express includes all 4 modules (Express Reporter, Express Xcelerator, Express Advisor, and Express Planner) for US$25K plus $1500 per user ($400 for a view-only user) and $2K per administrator. The pricing is competitive in the market (maybe a bit high for the view user) but don't expect any discounting as IBM says "discounting is not allowed" on Cognos Express.

Many of the planning capabilities in 9.5 could be considered catch-up functionality that level the playing field with other vendors targeting the mid-market. A level playing field on planning functionality should allow IBM to focus on their analysis capabilities as a differentiator in this market. But what hit home with me in the analyst pre-briefing, more than any particular functionality, was IBM's intent to leverage other IBM assets in Cognos Express (although no specific roadmap commitments were made). The ability of IBM to incorporate cloud, collaboration, consolidation, and financial governance capabilities from their existing assets and bring them to market quickly in IBM Cognos Express could be an advantage over smaller vendors targeting the mid-market who have much more limited R&D budgets.

Almost all of the vendors I've spoken with that target the mid-market reported significant growth in 2010 and strong pipelines going into 2011. The market is hot and there is a lot of competition which should lead to rapid innovation and competitive pricing, making 2011 a good time to be a buyer of mid-market planning, reporting and analysis products. There are plenty of options out there that are feature rich, relatively low cost and easy to deploy. If you are still doing planning and analysis in Excel, set a goal to move to a packaged solution by the end of 2011, you will be glad you did.

PM & BI Predictions for 2011 and a Look Back 2010 Predictions

Dave Kasabian — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:10:00 GMT

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.

...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?

Dave Kasabian — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:11:00 GMT

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?

Dave Kasabian — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:29:00 GMT

I wrote an entry a while back called Take a Look at the Future of BI, You'll Like What You See. The main point of the entry was that I was frustrated trying to navigate on my tiny little blackberry screen. Since then, like many others, I have fallen head-over-heels in love with the iPad. 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.

Microstrategy has recently made a big marketing push for their mobile BI offering. I think they make my point about mobile BI for me quite well. I watched their video about their their iPhone app. I found it cool but a bit cumbersome as they started drilling up and down to find pertinent information. Take a look and see if you agree http://www.microstrategy.com/mobile/iphone/

But that same information delivered on an iPad will be much more intuitive and usable by the average BI user. Just take a look at this picture from the Microstrategy website showing BI information on a blackberry, iPhone, and iPad. Personally, I could see using the Blackberry or iPhone to consume a couple of numbers but would be very comfortable using the iPad to dive deeper into analysis and investigation. So, my opinion is that the iPad will change the face of BI and over the next couple of years. Mobile BI on tablets will make BI more attractive to a much larger potential user community. Maybe it will be the game changer we needed to finally make BI pervasive.

While I once doubted the willingness of the business world to adopt the iPad when I see companies like SAP deploy 17,000 iPads it makes me question my stance on that. And with new Android-based tablet options coming to market the growth of tablets will be prolific which will drive more pervasive adoption of mobile BI and PM over the next couple of years.

The Business Intelligence ROI Conundrum

Dave Kasabian — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:04:00 GMT

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. If BI will save or make money it is easier to justify spending than if it just “makes resources more efficient” or "improves management decision making". To deal with this conundrum an ROI case needs to have the right blend of tangible and intangible ROI.

Tangible ROI

The definition of tangible is ‘capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value’. When we think about tangible ROI we think about things like cost reduction, revenue improvement, headcount reduction and decreased IT costs. These tangible benefits are calculated by establishing baseline costs and identifying opportunities for BI to eliminate some of these costs. For example it may be possible to eliminate some systems, reduce the cost of performing a process or eliminate that process altogether. Often a BI vendor or service provider will help you develop a tangible ROI estimate.

Through inventory analysis a manufacturing company was able to reduce excess inventory by 1% resulting in a $2M cost saving.

We often think of tangible value as having an exact number attached it like the example above. But it is important to remember that the definition of tangible is ‘…appraised at an actual or approximate value’, it does not have to be an exact number. If, for example, analysis of customer data uncovers opportunities to increase cross-selling success rate by 1-2% that might equate to several million dollars in cost savings or revenue enhancement. Can you attach an exact amount? No, but it is OK to apply some estimates to determine approximate value as long as you can apply a logical defense to the estimate. This defense can be based on what other companies have accomplished. Again, your vendor or service provider can likely provide customer case studies that you can use to approximate tangible value. For example, from the example above you could estimate what the impact would be if your business was able to reduce excess inventory by 1%. This way an estimated tangible value can be applied without a detailed ROI analysis.

Intangible ROI is elusive
The definition of intangible is “inability to assess the value gained from engaging in an activity.” There is little debate that there is value in the intangible benefits of BI such as faster and more informed decision making or one version of the truth. The question is how can we measure the impact of intangible benefits? Measuring these intangible benefits can be done by creating a series of assumptions to determine the impact these types of benefits can have on the bottom line. As of intangible value is "more productive employees". How do you quantify that? One global company found that via call center analytics they could reduce and better allocate call volume. This more balanced burden on their call center staff lowered their attrition rate which saved $1.25M in hiring and training costs while improving customer satisfaction. In this way they were able to quantify the intangible value of "more productive employees". In this economy, it is common to rely soley on tangible ROI to justify BI expenditures. But my advice is to use a blend of tangible and intangible ROI to build the best case for BI.

IBM Cognos TM1 Gets its Day in the Sun

Dave Kasabian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:46:00 GMT

It's been almost 2 years since I wrote an article about how IBM planned to take advantage of TM1 OLAP Server which it acquired as part of the Cognos acquisition. The article "TM1 Olap Gets its Day in the Sun " outlined how TM1 would be a strategic cog in the IBM Cognos BI and Performance Management strategy. So I decided to take a look back at that article which I wrote when I was at AMR Research (now part of Gartner) and see just how well IBM Cognos had executed on that strategy.

Below are some excepts from the article outlining the roadmap IBM Cognos laid out for analysts at the time:

1. TM1 will become the underlying engine for Cognos Planning over time.

2. TM1 will provide analytics and reporting against transaction-level data from general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable systems. The intent is to expand this to include other transaction level analysis of sales, inventory, and procurement over time.

3. Cognos will combine the TM1 engine, some prepackaged Cognos 8 Reports, and Applix’s Executive Viewer (acquired in 2006), with its target set on midmarket companies looking for a combined reporting, analysis, and planning product. The first release will provide Excel-based planning and analytics via Executive Viewer, with following releases adding reporting and additional planning capabilities.

4. TM1 will be a native data source for Cognos 8 BI instead of integrated so that it can take advantage of services such as query, scheduling, presentation, and others without any data latency that often occurs when integrating a non-native data source.

Now, two years later, let's grade how they executed on the roadmap for TM1

1. Planning Engine - Grade=B+ TM1 is now the underlying technology for planning for new customers. Enhancements such as personal hierarchies and scenarios address some of TM1's the previous shortcomings as a planning engine.  Planning down to the SKU level, which was challenging in Cognos Planning works much better in TM1. Managed contribution on TM1 includes much of the workflow functionality that Cognos Enterprise Planning clients have come to know and love. The migration path for legacy Cognos Planning clients is not seamless but IBM Cognos is not forcing a migration for those clients not yet ready to migrate. There will be a cost to migrate to TM1 server but clients will receive full credit for existing contributor licenses.

2. Transaction Analytics - Grade=B   TM1 has long had a strength in financial analysis because of its in-memory architecture. Improvements in administration and resource allocation have improved performance and concurrency allowing TM1 to be an analytic engine for transation-level data stored in EDWs and load data from transaction systems into TM1 in near real-time. However, query performance may not be as strong as other read-only, preaggregated solutions.

3. Mid-Market Planning & Analysis - Grade=A IBM Cognos Express is doing very well in the mid-market as a combined planning, analysis and reporting product. They have done a very good job of packaging up functionality from many assets into an "IT-lite" but comprehensive mid-market offering and are making a big splash with it in the market place.

4. Native to Cognos 8 BI - Grade=B+   Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting or other PM applications, developed in TM1, can be accessed from within the BI portal and the BI components can access the TM1 data in real-time. Framework Manager integration enables consumption of TM1 cube data via IBM Cognos 8 BI.

There are still enhancements to be made to TM1 planning  in order to lure legacy Cognos Enterprise Planning clients over to TM1 but a lot of progress has been made. Cognos Controller will remain on its existing relational technology with TM1 "ebedded" for analysis which makes sense but does not unify their PM products on the TM1 engine.

Overall, I give IBM an A-/B+ in meeting their roadmap for TM1 since the acquisition of Cognos. Former Applix clients that came over to IBM with the acquistion (who are borderline "cult-ish" about TM1) should be happy with the attention their product has gotten from Big Blue.

Microsoft "Grab and Go" Reporting Services is a big step towards Pervasive BI

Dave Kasabian — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:20:00 GMT

Last week I attended the Microsoft BI Conference. I have been a proponent of Pervasive BI and Performance Management for many years. Microsoft was one of the first vendors to use the term Pervasive BI but up until now I have felt that their perception of Pervasive BI was too Excel and power user centric without enough emphasis on the business user.

What is "BI for the Masses"?
This year the big excitement at the Microsoft BI conference was around PowerPivot which is a great analytic tool. But to me PowerPivot will not bring BI to the masses. It will bring BI to more power users, analysts, and Excel jockeys but not to more business users. When I voiced this opinion to Microsoft the response was it depends on how you define 'the masses'. While I uderstand their point, it is kind of like Bill Clinton saying "it depends on what your definition of 'is' is". Microsoft points out that there are 'masses' of power users that need easier and better access to BI than they currently have and they want it through Excel, PowerPivot will be embraced by those 'masses'. I don't disagree with that statment but stand by my opinion that PowerPivot is not a business user tool.

Does the Business User Want Self-Service Reporting or Analytics?
So while I believe PowerPivot is a great analytics tool, the new release that I think brings BI to the masses (including the casual business user) is Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Report Builder 3.0. It is much easier to build a report from scratch than ever before. Users can take advantage of report parts created by others and drag them right into their reports to facilitate the building of reports without having to start from scratch. The fruits of the acquisition of technology from Dundas (acquired in 2007) is very evident in the much improved data visualization capabilities of this release. This is the first time that I would say that Microsoft Reporting Services could be truly targeted at the business user for self-service reporting or as Microsoft is referring to it, "Grab and Go" reporting.

Many purists would say that reporting is not BI. I agree that reporting alone does not constituted BI but it is a very important component of BI. I happen to think that business users prefer reporting and visualization over ad-hoc analysis as long as it is interactive, easy to use, and they have the flexibility to make it their own. The lastest version of Reporting Services does that.

I think with the combination of PowerPivot and Reporting Services Microsoft makes some great advancements towards Pervasive BI and I certainly advise clients using older versions of Reporting Services to take a look. I think you will like what you see.

Lastest Oracle EPM Release confirms: There is EPM out there tailored to your industry

Dave Kasabian — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:30:28 GMT

Last week I was pre-briefed on the release of Oracle EPM 11.1.2. While the release number looks like a minor release (you would expect at least 11.2.0 for a major release), Oracle was adamant that this is indeed a major release. Accord to Hari Sankar, VP Product Management EPM Products, this is the most significant EPM release in 4-5 years, and I don't disagree. Oracle (and SAP and IBM for that matter) have spent a lot of time and resources integrating their major acquisitions over the last several years but we are now seeing some significant functional releases come to fruition.

Vertical applications are becoming the norm
The most noteworthy component of this release for me is Public Sector Budgeting and Planning. Why? Because it continues the trend towards purpose-built performance management applications. It seems every press release from a performance management or BI vendor is highlighting success in, or a new release targeted at, a specific industry vertical. Most vendors, big and small, are jumping onto the vertical industry bandwagon.

What verticalization means to potential customers
Prospective customers should do their due diligence on what vertical applications are on the market for their particular industry and make sure at least one of these vertical applications gets on the evaluation "long-list". Prospects in some industries, like financial services, may actually find that their entire short-list is comprised of vendors with purpose-built financial services applications.

There is probably an industry solution for your organization
Unless your organization is in some completely obscure industry you should be investigating purpose-built applications targeted at your industry. These vertical solutions tend to save cost and duration on implementation; bring to bear services domain expertise; promote peer networking; and generate greater influence on product road maps. There are a lot of vertical solutions and modules out there, from large vendors and small, such as:
Financial Services
Public Sector
Legal
Airlines
Higher Education
Retail
Manufacturing
Life Sciences
Insurance
and any more...

It should be a "why not" decision
If there is a vertical application available for your industry I would suggest going in with a "why not a vertical application" attitude. But it is up to you to make sure the application lives up to its hype. Make sure the vendor can take the application through its paces as it relates to your industry; that there are domain experts available for implementation; consider how the application would it need to be "tweaked" for your environment; and find out who else is using it (it's OK to be a guinea pig but only if it is a conscious decision).

But understand the risk
A vertical solution may be less mature than the vendor's generic PM applications and may not be subjected to the same level of testing. Some vertical solutions are starter kits or delivered as a services solution rather than packaged applications. Prospects should inquire about support terms for the vertical application and speak to references before selecting a vertical application. In any case it is not realistic to expect a completely "plug 'n play" vertical application. Regardless of how specific the application is to your industry there will be at least some configuration or customization required.

What Are CFOs Thinking? Insights from the IBM Global CFO Study

Dave Kasabian — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:52:00 GMT

Yesterday I attended the launch of the results of the IBM Global CFO Study. The event was attended by a small group of research analysts, IBM clients, and IBMers. The survey included input from a diverse group of over 1900 CFOs and Finance leaders. Approximately, 1500 of the participants were directly interviewed in addition to completing the survey.

There is much more information than can be discussed in a blog entry but here are some nuggets from the notes I took during the session yesterday:

70% of CFOs believe they have advisory or decision making role on the enterprise agenda
55% are dissatisfied with their operational planning and forecasting capabilities
50% lack a common planning platform
50% of finance time is still spent on transaction activities
50% produce operational metrics manually
44% have very limited or no predictive modeling capabilities
40% of organizations produce financial metrics manually

A couple of thoughts on this:
If CFOs want to drive the enterprise agenda they need to reduce the amount of time finance spends on transaction activities.

Any company that is still doing planning in spreadsheets should be ashamed of themselves. There are so many packaged planning applications of various shapes, sizes, and price points that it is unconscionable to still be doing this in spreadsheets

CFOs who want to be strategic need to get more involved in the development of common and automated performance metrics. It's OK to start with financial metrics but strategic CFOs realize that financial performance is a lagging indicator and that operational metrics are what drive financial performance.

Would You Pay More For A "Rock Star" Analyst from Gartner, Forrester or IDC?

Dave Kasabian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:06:00 GMT

Banning Blogging
Forrester Research recently banned their analysts from blogging about their area of coverage. This is precipitated by the recent defection of several of their "Rock Star Analysts" who took the brand they created for themselves via their blogs and started up their own boutique firms. Forrester is not alone in their stance on analyst blogging, they have just been more high profile in their stance. Gartner, IDC and other firms are also grappling with this issue. My former colleague at AMR Research, Phil Fersht, wrote an interesting perspective on this in his blog. In it he makes some very valid points about the impact the social media will have on the large analyst firms.

Paying To Retain Top Talent
In my opinion this is a defining time for large analyst firms. Will they adapt to the changing environment or try and hold on and hope blogging is a passing fad? Until they find a way to monetize it they will resist. To me it is a bad move to ban analyst blogging. It creates buzz, establishes credibility and increases the value of the analysts who do it well. It is up to the analyst firms to take advantage of that. Rock stars are worth more than average analysts, clients understand that and are willing to pay a premium for advice from them. The firms need to embrace having rock stars in their stables, demand market prices for them, and compensate them well. This is no different than free agency in sports. If you don't pay market value you will lose your best players. Like the New York Yankees, the big analyst firms can afford to retain their top talent and must do so if they expect to remain on top.

Would You Pay More For A Rock Star Analyst?
There is no doubt that blogging is creating rock star analysts whose reputation and brand has more perceived value than the firm they work for. Would you be willing to pay a premium to talk with these analysts? If not, it is not reasonable to expect your analyst firm to retain them and you should expect more defections. The downside to the client is that to continue to interact with the best analysts you may need to engage several boutique firms. The days of one-stop shopping for analyst advice may be numbered.

What's "New" in the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management?

Dave Kasabian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:31:00 GMT

The 2010 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites is out and pretty much every vendor listed has issued a press release about their placement on the Quadrant. This is a testament to the level of influence placement on the Magic Quadrant has in the market. But how much weight should the Quadrant be given?

"...and the winner is..."
I've had more than a few clients tell me that they have made a vendor selection only to have it shot down by management because the vendor was not on, or too low on, the Quadrant. Clients should remember that this is a generic tool. Right at the top of the report it says "Users should evaluate vendors carefully, according to business needs and their broader business intelligence and performance management strategies". The Quadrant is one data point (albeit a high profile one) in the selection process and should be looked at that way. How a vendor can meet your specific business requirements should be first and foremost.

But the influence of the Quadrant is not the reason I'm blogging about it. I decided to look back at previous Quadrants and see if anything jumped out at me. A few things did.

There were no "leaders" in the Quadrant in 2004
Since 2005 the three leaders have been the same (Oracle/Hyperion, SAP/BOBJ, IBM/Cognos)
The movement of the leaders has been minimal since 2005 (in both ability to execute and completeness of vision)
12 of the 17 vendors on the 2004 quadrant were acquired by the end of 2007 (Clarity, Lawson, Oracle, SAP, SAS were not)
All of the "visionary" vendors from 2004 have been acquired
Five new niche vendors have been added in the the last two years (Bitam, Host Analytics, Prophix, Tagetik, Winterheller)

So what does this mean?
- The leaders need to get back to working on innovation rather than integration
- Non-leader visionary vendors will innovate and put pressure on the leaders to keep up
- Niche vendors will selectively innovate to differentiate themselves
- Several niche vendors will move to the innovator quadrant within a year or two
- A new wave of acquisitions will occur
- New innovative niche vendors will bubble up to fill the void
- The vendor bake-off becomes common-place again

In my opinion we are at a stage in the life cycle of performance management applications that is conducive to rapid innovation similar to what we saw in the years leading up to the major consolidation in this market back in 2007. All of a sudden there are lots of options for clients to consider and lots of vendors vying for market share. "Me too" products that don't differentiate from the leaders will not be able to compete in this market (unless strictly on price). Clients should take a good look at all their options. The niche vendors should not be eliminated based on Quadrant placement alone, and the leaders should not be eliminated on price alone. That would be short-sighted and could cost you in the end.

How Should You Deploy Business Intelligence?

Dave Kasabian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:09:00 GMT

As part of my webcast series on BI in a Turbulent Economy for the IBM Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management I recently presented on the concept of Think Globally, Act Locally when it comes to BI. What does this mean? Well, it's about taking a hybrid approach to BI strategy.

Let's take a look at the two common BI deployment strategies:

1) The Big Bang Approach

The big bang approach is defined by going for an enterprise-wide deployment of BI right out of the gate. In the big bang approach there is a corporate edict that there will be a unified and consistent approach to BI that will be governed and rolled out globally and governed centrally. For this approach diverse requirements have to be gathered, compiled, vetted, and prioritized. With diverse business requirements come diverse data requirements that need to be defined and sourced which requires more IT involvement than the silo approach.

2) The Silo Approach

In the silo approach specific BI needs are dealt with on a case by case basis. It could be defined as a ‘one-off’ approach to BI. As needs come up, the specific need is defined and scoped and a product is selected and implemented to meet that specific requirement. Very often this is done within the business unit without oversight by IT or with any sense of, or communication with, other BI initiatives that may be going on in the organization. These types of deployments tend to be functionally focused around a specific process, for instance sales analysis or financial analytics, with little if any cross-pollination of data across functional areas. This approach can be quick to implement but can also result in a proliferation of data marts without common definitions or consistent data sources.

Consider a Hybrid Approach

Think Globally, Act Locally is a hybrid approach that can provide an organization with some of the best of both worlds. This approach bridges the gaps between the Silo and Big Bang approaches. Like the silo approach it starts in a division or function and focuses on a specific measurable pain and its scope is limited to resolving that pain but in the context of strategic goals.

For more information about this and other BI topics check out my white papers and webcasts on the IBM Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management website.

5 Predictions for Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) in 2010

Dave Kasabian — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:58:00 GMT

2010 Predictions for Performance Management

It is the time of year when we all reflect on the year that was and speculate on what is in store for the coming year. In the interest of brevity I've limited my predictions to 5 rather than the customary 10.

First off, I think most of us are happy to bid adieu to 2009. It was a tough year for many with jobs lost and spending curtailed. Performance Management was certainly not exempt from the impact of a down economy but I'm optimistic that 2010 will be a better year in general with some significant changes in Performance Management.

When I look into my crystal ball here is what I see:

#1. Purse Strings Loosen
There has been a backlog of demand for performance management solutions over the last 18 months. Spending that was approved and earmarked for EPM in 2009 was held back due to spending constraints.  This money will be freed up in 2010.

The due diligence (and even vendor selection in many cases) has already been done which will reduce the cost of sales and compress the sales cycle of these opportunities.  Based on the compressed sales cycle and lower cost of sale, profit margins on EPM revenue will trend higher.

#2. Mega-vendors Will Have a Big Year by Targeting Pervasive Performance Management
The mega-vendors in EPM (IBM, Oracle, and SAP) will have banner years in selling EPM into their existing client bases and adding EPM into the scope of large technology purchases and strategic initiatives. These vendors have spent a couple of years integrating acquired EPM products into their platforms and this effort will pay dividends during 2010 as their architecture catches up with their marketecture.

These (and select other vendors) will be successful in expanding the scope of their clients' performance management initiatives to include profitability analytics, strategy management, sales performance, supply chain performance and other operations areas. Pervasive Performance Management is the holy grail for the large vendors as they strive to increase deal size and differentiate their performance management offerings from smaller, niche performance management vendors. However, due to the sheer size and breadth of these vendors, performance management will remain a small percentage of their revenue when compared to BI and other core product lines.

#3.  Best of Breed Makes a Big Comeback in the Mid-Market
As the mega vendors strive to expand the scope of performance management, many niche vendors are squarely focusing on the traditionally core components of performance management (budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting).

Many customers (especially in the mid-market) have a significant and specific pain point to address in these areas and are not ready (or able) to expand their scope to a strategic performance management initiative. Some prefer a smaller vendor that specializes in addressing their key pain rather than a software conglomerate. They want the attention, responsiveness and "skin in the game" that smaller vendors provide. In short, some prefer to be a big fish in a small pond.

The last year has seen many smaller vendors pop up to fill the void left by the acquisition of so many best-of-breed vendors. There will be a "smack-down" between all the new vendors and the mega-vendors in the mid-market. The increased number of options for mid-market clients will result in the return of the "bake-off" and "dog and pony show" as clients struggle to decipher the differences between the plethora of options.

#4. The Cloud Gets Bigger But Finance Lags
The impact of the cloud is being felt all over the software industry. In my opinion the cloud will gain significant traction in 2010 as it moves from the stage of Early Adopters to Early Majority. The cloud will become a viable option to many, many more organizations this year.

I believe this is true in many areas including Business Intelligence but not for Performance Management.  As we all know finance people tend to be a just a tad risk averse and not quite as cutting-edge as other parts of the organization.

Therefore, I see finance lagging behind the rest of the organization when it comes to embracing the cloud. While I see the cloud entering the early majority stage of adoption during 2010, those in Finance who embrace it will still be considered innovators. In my opinion in 2010 Finance should wake up to the fact that the cloud is here and it is here to stay and they should be more open to considering cloud options for performance management.

#5. There Will Be No Acquisitions in 2010
I'm not saying that Oracle, IBM, SAP and others will not make any acquisitions during 2010 - they will. But I do not see any performance management vendors being acquired during this year.

The mega-vendors will continue integrating what they have acquired and niche vendors will continue targeting their specific markets and trying to grab additional share in those markets. I don't expect much turmoil in the performance management vendor landscape this year.

How to navigate BI ROI

Dave Kasabian — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:04:00 GMT

BI Remains Top of Mind
BI continues to be the most strategic initiative for the CIO according to research by Gartner, IBM and others. However, even strategic initiatives struggle to get funding when budgets are tight.  BI competes for limited funding against many other strategic and tactical initiatives that often have compelling ROI cases.

ROI Drives Funding
That is why the IBM Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management has sponsored a webcast series on building the business case for BI in a turbulent economy. As part of this series I have delivered several webcasts and related white papers. Two of these white papers are available for free download (registration required) from the Innovation Center website.

    1) Building the Case for Business Intelligence in a Turbulent Economy
    2) Funding for BI: It's All About ROI, ROI, ROI

Both of these papers provide non-vendor specific advice on understanding the challenges of garnering funding for BI and maintaining momentum during difficult times. The first paper documents six ways to strengthen the business case for BI and the second helps find the balance between tangible and intangible ROI when building a business case for BI investment. Both are quick reads with practical advice, take a look.

What Do You Want To Hear?

As always, I am interested in your feedback as I continue to evolve my content delivery to provide relevant, valuable, and digestible information to the BI and Performance Management community.

Let me know what you think of my content and what you would like to see next.

SAP's Dilemma: The Cow vs. The Cloud

Dave Kasabian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Soon after Jonathan Becher (congratulations to Jonathan on his recent promotion to Executive Vice President) took the stage at the recent SAP Analyst Summit in Boston it was apparent that this was not going to be a typical bullet point laden PowerPoint presentation on "here's what's coming in our next release". Later, in a one-on-one discussion with Jonathan, he clarified that SAP was due to provide analysts with a "5 year vision" which explained the futuristic opening to the event.

SAP's Version of HAL
Jonathan set the stage for a "futures" oriented session by virtually sharing the stage with the voice of a computer named "Teri", SAP's version of a equally omnipotent but less menacing version of HAL (from 2001: A Space Odyssey) to show the audience how easy and powerful analytics will be in the future.

Analytics & Cloud at the Forefront of SAP's Strategy
Jonathan, John Schwarz, Jim Hagerman Snabe, and Vishal Sikka spent the rest of the morning discussing how "this is not your grandmother's SAP" and how SAP is planning to embrace the cloud and continue to exploit analytics to drive growth. They acknowledged that the days of counting on 7-figure deals to drive growth are over and how SAP will deliver higher volume, lower cost solutions to the market place.

The Cash Cow vs. Innovation
This is the big challenge for SAP. Their cash cow is big honkin' on-premise solutions. Their clients continue to use (and will for years to come) these solutions and pay the hefty maintenance that goes with them. SAP's partners do and will continue to drive significant services revenue from these solutions. SAP's stance is that they have "prepared for the cloud", have embraced it with several solutions that are available on-demand, and will deliver new solutions via the cloud. They will deliver new modules via the cloud which will significantly reducing time to value; as well as reduce the frequency, cost and disruption of on-premise platform upgrades. This will be a fine line to walk but is necessary to prevent penetration into the SAP client base by SaaS competitors in a changing market place.

Will clients think of SAP when they think of the cloud? They don't yet but SAP is trying to change that.