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The short term impact of this move (Reuters news) will be that Cognos, Hyperion and all the medium and small sized Corporate Performance Management (CPM) players and some niche vendors in the budgeting and planning market will face some more competition. As Cognos does after the Adaytum takeover, Business Objects now face the problem of platform integration, but due to the fact that BO have no own database engines, they will probably find this an easier task. So for the Business Objects customer who wants a complete solution the short term effect will be, that the BO sales person will suggest to use one and the same integrated platform from Business Objects, only to discover later that integration between the technologies is a pain in the ass. The mid term effect will undoubtedly be, that Microsoft will increase it’s efforts to bring a professional suite of their own, drive the licence costs down and by doing so will finally enable much smaller companies to take advantage of Corporate Performance Management Solutions.

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BPM
Performance Management
Business Intelligence

Just found this interesting panel discussion (webcast video) on the 05 innovation summit about the (open) future of licencing and information exchange. Check it out…

Just stumbled across this essay by Scott Berkun. Very striking. If it wasn’t so serious I could *rofl*…

Here’s how to find out whether you are / have a bad manager:

There are many different factors that contribute to negative opinions of managers. It’s not the goal of this essay to list them all, but here are some of the basics:

* Inconsistent: Says one thing, does something else.
* Arrogant. Always believes they are right, and makes sure you know it.
* Egocentric. Makes every issue and decision about them.
* Doesn’t listen: is offered advice but ignores it before even considering it.
* Self-centered: Doesn’t support, encourage or look out for their team.
* Mean/Abusive: Makes people feel bad for no reason.
* Micro-manager: Refuses to delegate anything, despite what they say.
* Coward: Backs down whenever challenged.
* Isolated: doesn’t involve others in decisions, and rarely looks for ways to support/encourage the work of their team.
* Incompetent: Lacks basic communication, intellectual, or emotional skills needed to for their role.
* Checked out: Isn’t committed to their work or their team.

…sounds all too familiar.

Nachdem ich jetzt 2 Jahre lang in England gelebt habe und dort von den Kundenprozessen der meisten Banken, Versicherungen, ISP’s, Telekoms etc. schwer beeindruckt war, mache ich nun die ersten schmerzlichen Rückkehr - Erlebnisse. Tele2 / UTA beispielsweise schickt mir ein Schreiben mit der Post, obwohl bei der Anmeldung als bevorzugte Kommunikation e-mail und Telefon angegeben war, antwortet überhaupt nicht auf eine zwischenzeitliche e-mail Urgenz und teilt in Ihrem Schreiben, in dem es um die Freischaltung meines beruflich benötigten Breitband - Anschlusses geht, lapidar mit: Wir werden uns in den nächsten 2 Wochen mit Ihnen in Verbindung setzen, um Ihnen mitzuteilen wann der Anschluss freigeschaltet wird! Eine Woche fürs Schreiben, 2 Wochen fürs Nachdenken wann wir freischalten und dann wie lange bis wir freischalten? Das ist zu langsam liebe UTA. Diese Prozesse lassen sich auf längstens 2 Tage verkürzen.

Während ich diesen Artikel in der Computerwelt las unterbrachen mich ein e-mail, ein skype chat und ein Anruf :

Laut einer Studie überprüfen 62 Prozent aller Erwachsenen fast manisch ihre E-Mail-Accounts auf neue Nachrichten - egal, wann und wo. Die Hälfte hat zudem das Gefühl, auf Nachrichten spätestens innerhalb einer Stunde antworten zu müssen. Der Journalist Carl Honore hat ermittelt, dass Büroangestellte alle drei Minuten eine einkommende Information wie etwa ein Telefonat, eine E-Mail oder eine SMS erhalten. Problematisch daran sei, dass der Mensch rund acht Minuten benötigt, um sich wieder in die ursprüngliche Tätigkeit einzufinden. Das heißt, dass die digitale Kommunikation Menschen ineffizienter macht und dazu führt, dass Mitarbeiter ihre wichtigen Aufgaben nicht mehr im gegebenen Maß erfüllen.

…ich denke wir müssen einfach anfangen , den Mail - Client nur mehr periodisch zu öffnen und e-mails konzentriert zu bearbeiten, das Mobiltelefon auszuschalten, Instant Messengers zu deaktivieren etc. um die neuen Kommunikationstechnologien wirklich produktiv zu nutzen…

The Business Intellingence software market has so far been quite protected. The dominating players such as Hyperion, Cognos and Business Obejects and a number of smaller players e.g. MIS AG or Geac used to charge fortunes for their software licences (compared with paying almost nothing as with Microsoft) which were mostly sold to large organisations. These software vendors offer solutions for controlling departments, planning and reporting, management information systems etc. that will be implemented by implementation consultants in a project manner. In principle every company, even the smallest, needs such solutions, but due to the high price of such solutions and the need for extensive consultancy Business Intelligence remained a niche market until now. With Microsoft SQL Server 2005, which is due to be launched coming November Microsoft has got a realistic chance bring significant unrest to this cosy niche market and at the same time enable smaller companies to adopt state of the art technology instead of messing around with Excel only. The renewed OLAP component Microsoft Analysis Services is now significantly improved for performance, scalability, modelling capabilities and features, with Reporting Services, the launch of which Microsoft even brought forward by a year, Microsoft is attempting to replace competitive products from the lower end (e.g. Chrystal Reports from Business Objects) to the higher end (e.g. Actuate) at virtually no additional costs. Also the new ETL component which is now going to be called Integration Services promises to be nearly as powerful as traditionally very costly components such as Informatica or Business Objects Data Integrator. Even on the frontend side, which currently is covered by
Panorama, Outlooksoft, ProClarity or MIS AG, some very close Microsoft partners Microsofts Office and Applikation groups are going to offer their own products.
Those product and solution initiatives will mean for the other participants of the BI market that they will have to step up to the challenge in the short term. They will have to deliver higher quality software at far lower prices and or move into new niches…it’s going to get very interesting!

Technorati tags:
BPM
Performance Management
Business Intelligence