The world of Business Intelligence is shrinking and growing both at the same time. With the recent purchases of Hyperion by Oracle, Business Objects by SAP, and Cognos by IBM, the top three players, the number of independent vendors has shrunk significantly.
So why have they bought into these companies? Obviously, the sector is growing exceptionally fast, booming in fact. Regardless of what else has happened technologically the dashboard remains the Killer app of the early 21st century, particularly for senior leaders.
The three purchasing companies anticipate buying market share, a developed and mature technological solution for integration with their own products, and purchasing some of the talent that has developed the products and sales pipelines for these companies.
Sounds like a good plan, particularly the first two; but holding onto the talent in these companies could prove incredibly difficult. In fact, MicroStrategy, the remaining leader in the sector, is relying on it.
Within a day of the IBM announcement, this company was setting out its stall for disgruntled employees of the three recently purchased companies. Why not, Aberdeen Group noted in their recent report “Delivering Actionable Information to the
So there is a pool of talented people, experts in their area and knowledgeable of their markets, suddenly drafted into much larger companies, finding that their goals and ambitions are now not aligned with those of their new parent company, and quickly starting to feel like small fish in a very large pond.
MicroStrategy sees the whole acquisition phase as a great time of opportunity, possibly the greatest one they have had as a company to date. There overt statements and approaches to employees of recently acquired BI companies is one area where they can snap up disaffected talent and possibly buy their way into some long term relationships within this sector.
Other advantages come from the acts of acquisition itself. All three companies will have to focus on maintaining their client base, integrating their offerings with those of their new parent companies, and aligning their messaging and sales efforts.
MicroStrategy, on the other hand, is free to poach disaffected clients, unhappy with the change in suppliers, and they will be free to continue to develop their products and technologies, while other companies focus on integration.
This will also be a time for them to look at extending partnerships and growing their distribution channels. Why would Accenture, or CapGemini, dominant management consultancies that offer Cognos to their clients, want to represent the products of IBM, One of their direct competitors?
BI is very safe as a separate sector despite the removal of the top three players as independent companies. It will of course get tighter for the existing players, but the MicroStrategy approach shows that with a bit of innovation, and the right level of determination, this could be their best opportunity for breakaway growth.