Picking up where the previous post left off:
That said, I just want to go off now on a philosophical tangent that ties this all into what I do for a living. I’m an industry analyst. Specifically, I’m an industry analyst with Current Analysis. Like all industry analysts, I’m essentially a reporter, responding to the events of the day and dissecting them in depth. As an industry analyst with Current Analysis, I’m event-driven in a more real-time, fine-grained way than most folks at other firms (e.g., Burton Group, where I once worked). Bottom line: a vendor in my space (Data Management) makes an important announcement (as determined by me), and I respond to that event within 48 hours with analytical/research report that examines that event in depth, laying out—within what amounts to a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis—how that event changes the competitive dynamics/balance, in some major or minor way.
I’m an event processor. To drive that home for you, here (in reverse chronological order) are the 23 events to which I’ve responded in the past 3 months with published reports:
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Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Oct 01, 2007] Oracle announced the first commercial fruits of its partner- focused DW appliance strategy, setting the stage for the vendor to deliver its market-leading DBMS as pre-optimized, scalable hardware/software solution for enterprise deployment.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 28, 2007] Compassoft released version 3.5 of its spreadsheet governance solution, adding real-time spreadsheet monitoring and best- practices templates that strengthen its ability to enforce governance, risk, and compliance policies at the desktop level.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 28, 2007] Business Objects launched new text analytics and search solutions that leverage the recently acquired Inxight technology, but has taken only the first tentative step toward integrating unstructured data into its extensive product family.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 26, 2007] TIBCO released TIBCO Collaborative Information Manager (CIM) 7.0, the latest version of its best-of- breed MDM solution, which provides incremental enhancements and a new GUI in support of cross-catalog, multi-domain, multi-hub deployments.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 25, 2007] Initiate Systems has improved its support for multi-hub, multi- domain deployments with the latest major enhancement release to its flagship MDM platform, and now may be considered a best-of- breed enterprise-grade MDM solution provider.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 21, 2007] Microsoft has released the long-awaited Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, re-launching the vendor into the hotly competitive financial CPM arena with a feature-rich, user-friendly, midmarket-focused solution.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 20, 2007] Harte-Hanks Trillium Software released a fully integrated version of its DQ product family, introducing new collaborative data stewardship and non-name/address features to stay in the thick of this very competitive market.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 19, 2007] SPSS released the latest enhancement version of its flagship statistical analysis tool, improving the product’s integration with the vendor’s Predictive Enterprise Services environment for life-cycle governance of predictive analytics models.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 18, 2007] Business Objects launched its BI on- demand solution family, further deepening its mid-market value proposition, supplementing its premises-based offerings, and providing a clear migration path for crystalreports.com users.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 14, 2007] Business Objects launched EPM XI, its comprehensive CPM product suite, which fully integrates all acquired CPM applications and positions the vendor well for greater penetration into this hotly competitive segment.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 13, 2007] Cognos announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with Informatica, focusing on resale of Informatica’s DQ solutions into Cognos customers’ CPM deployments and Cognos provision of DQ-focused professional services to CPM customers.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 11, 2007] Siperian released the latest version of its MDM hub product, extending its already strong data governance functionality through security, metadata, workflow, and other enhancements in support of complex, multi-hub, multi-entity deployments.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Sep 07, 2007] Cognos plans to acquire rival financial CPM vendor Applix, further broadening its range of CFO-focused analytic applications. However, the converged vendors face growing competition from Oracle, SAP, Business Objects, SAS, Microsoft, and others.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 23, 2007] DATAllegro pre-announced future grid-enabled versions of its DW appliances. However, the vendor did not provide independent benchmarks to substantiate its grid price-performance claims, nor did it commit to specific general availability dates.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 22, 2007] Netezza released query optimization enhancements to its DW appliance product family. However, Netezza has not corroborated the claimed performance improvements with independent benchmarks, nor has it reduced the price for its DW appliances.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 15, 2007] Oracle released a distributed, In-memory data-grid middleware product incorporating technology acquired from Tangosol. This release further integrates and optimizes the data-grid middleware as a component of the Oracle Fusion product family.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 15, 2007] Oracle announced the general availability of its 11g DBMS for Linux x86 platforms, as well as pricing and packaging, but has still not announced when versions for Windows and other platforms will become available.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 09, 2007] Business Objects committed to integrating its diverse CPM applications into the XI platform through an integrated data model, but did not publish a specific roadmap/schedule of CPM product enhancements that will carry out this plan.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 08, 2007] IBM announced a grid-enabled, blade- based appliance version of its IBM Information Server DI/DQ suite, complementing and extending its recently revamped its IBM Balanced Warehouse DW appliance product family.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 06, 2007] IBM announced its intention to acquire information lifecycle management software vendor Princeton Softech, in a move that will deepen IBM’s ILM portfolio but overlap with existing WebSphere, FileNet, and Tivoli offerings.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Aug 03, 2007] Business Objects has enhanced the product data support in its DQ solutions, but it still has not completely integrated its DQ products with its DI solutions, nor has it leveraged its DQ products into a credible position in the MDM market.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Jul 17, 2007] IBM announced that it is acquiring DataMirror, a pure-play vendor of real-time CDC, event processing, and replication solutions, and that it plans to incorporate DataMirror’s technology throughout its data management product portfolio.
Competitive Intelligence Report Data Management - [Jul 13, 2007] Oracle formally announced the next-generation Oracle Database 11g, which will include an impressive range of enhancements to the vendor’s market-leading DBMS. However, Oracle has not provided a general availability date or pricing for the product.
ARTICLES TO PRINT June 19 2007
http://www.esj.com/news/article.aspx?EditorialsID=2660
http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=209754,00.asp
http://www.it-director.com/technology/infrastructure/content.php?cid=9569
http://xml.coverpages.org/EKMI-SKSML-Reqs.pdf
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ekmi/faq.php
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199903507
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199905270
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199903446
http://go.techtarget.com/r/1614932/2433922
http://www.seewhy.com/content/view/170/87/
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/esps.index.html
