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Oracle launches Business Integlligence 10g
Oracle introduced a new BI platform, Business Intelligence 10g that rolls up into one solution all of their BI tools.
However, more interesting than the nitty-gritty details of what is included is the back story taking place at the same time.
If you want those nitty-gritty details take a look at my story on the InfoWorld site or the one on the Yahoo News site. Yahoo News gives a fairly comprehensive rehash from the press release with an analyst comment thrown in for good measure.
However, here's what's really going on.
It's a battle between the point solution vendors like Hyperion and Cognos versus the big ERP vendors like Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP.
Up until now the point solution guys had the field all to themselves with industry specific solutions. However, now the ERP vendors realize the only way to keep growing is to start swallowing up other industry categories like BI.
Microsoft isn't the only company that buys what it can't build.
While Cognos and Hyperion may have more industry specific solutions
companies like Oracle have a few big advantages.
The first is that IT wants to reduce the amount of software it needs to support. So one big solution from a trustworthy vendor like Oracle has appeal.
Secondly, even though Oracle may not have everything a company needs CTOs have told me more than once they are willing to wait.
Bill Hostmann, a Gartner analyst told me, for example, Oracle's Discoverer BI component has been around for years but "they let it languish." And now that it is unbundled from the application server they are bringing it from the 90s into the year 2000 said Hostmann.
While that doesn't sound too good when tech vendors like Oracle assure CIOs and CTOs that the features they want are on the roadmap and will become available at some point in the future that's enough for them.
Oracle wants to be the Wal-Mart for enterprise applications. So does SAP. As these guys fight it out it will be interesting to see what happens to the little guys. 08.12.2004, Oracle
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