FT.com / Technology - Spreadsheets meet the power of BI
Spreadsheets meet the power of BI
By Geoff Nairn
Published: October 15 2007 13:28 | Last updated: October 15 2007 13:28
If you can’t beat them, join them. After years of trying to wean businesses off spreadsheets and on to full-blown business intelligence software, Cognos has decided the spreadsheet is a pretty good tool – as long as you use it with a BI back-end.
Cognos 8 BI Analysis for Microsoft Excel 8.2 promises business and financial analysts the best of both worlds: the familiarity of spreadsheets with the power and functionality of BI.
Challenge to hackers
Hackers like a challenge and Dell has thrown them one by boasting it has the world’s most secure notebooks. Two models, the Latitude D630 and D680, now come fitted with encrypted hard drives and the Embassy Trust Suite of security software from Wave Systems. The complete solution includes a remote administration server so if a notebook gets lost, IT managers can check to see if the data were safely encrypted – or not.
Banking transactions
SAP has released an integration package to link its enterprise resource planning software into Swiftnet, the IP-based payments network.
The package lets companies manage banking transactions that originate from SAP ERP systems and then format them for transmission via Swiftnet. The aim is to replace the hotchpotch of leased lines and proprietary protocols that have been traditionally used for corporate-to-bank communications.
Managing ideas
IP.com of the US has launched InnovationQ version 3.0 to help businesses better manage their intellectual property. The software uses workflow techniques and a secure document repository to ensure ideas reach the right people in an organisation and protect potential trade secrets from being inadvertently revealed to outsiders. InnovationQ is available both as software-as-a-service (Saas) and as on-site software.
Website workspace
Office Live Workspace is Microsoft’s reply to the clutch of rival web-based productivity software offerings. Instead of sending PowerPoint decks or draft Word documents to colleagues by e-mail, Office Live Workspace lets them read or comment on the document in a password-protected website. Unlike Google Docs and similar online services, the files have to be prepared offline on a PC running Microsoft Office.
Windows XP reprieve
A short, largely symbolic, reprieve for traditionalists who prefer Windows XP: Microsoft has extended the cut-off date beyond which all new PCs will be sold with its successor operating system, Windows Vista, to June 2008, five months later than originally planned.
Vista has been criticised for being resource-hungry and containing bugs. Most off-the-shelf PCs now come factory-installed with Vista although Dell, for example, offers some models with XP.
A successor to Treo
Is there life after the Treo? Palm hopes so and it is called Centro, its first non-Treo smartphone.
Designed to be smaller and cheaper than the Treo, the Centro runs Palm OS rather than Windows and has a touch screen, full keyboard and 1.3-megapixel camera. It is so far only available in the US and costs just $99 if you take a two-year contract with Sprint, the only operator offering it at present.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
ERP/SCM: SAP's Planned Business Objects Buy Signals Strategic Shift
ERP/SCM: SAP's Planned Business Objects Buy Signals Strategic Shift
SAP's plan to buy Business Objects will put SAP into the lead for revenue from business intelligence platform products. However, many integration and execution challenges lie ahead.
Event
On 7 October 2007, SAP announced its intention to buy Business Objects for 4.9 billion euros. SAP expects to close the transaction in 1Q08. Business Objects will be run as an independent business unit under current CEO John Schwarz, who will have a seat on the SAP executive board.
Analysis
Following this announcement, SAP gave few indications of product strategy, but said it will release more details after the transaction completes. SAP did not announce product road maps and pricing changes; it said it would continue to support existing products.
With this planned acquisition, SAP will expand its presence into the "business user" market, which it defines as business roles involved in analytical and information-intensive activities. This acquisition will be larger than other SAP acquisitions and would fill a significant gap in its query and reporting tools.
Gartner believes that the proposed acquisition creates some management challenges for SAP. SAP's NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) product overlaps with several Business Objects products, including data integration and corporate performance management (CPM) suites. Both companies have overlapping sales forces, support organizations, channel partners, independent software vendors and midmarket initiatives. These challenges won't be addressed by simply running Business Objects as an independent business unit.
Nevertheless, in the long term, the merger should make for a powerful combination, as Business Objects leverages SAP's vertical and industry expertise. The integration will exploit market demand for integrating BI closer into business processes and applications. SAP and Oracle will now place more focus on BI and CPM as competitive differentiators.
Recommendations
- SAP business applications customers that have invested in SAP BI and CPM products (for example, NetWeaver BI, Strategic Enterprise Management and OutlookSoft) or customers considering such investments: Until SAP clarifies its pricing and product road map, continue with tactical and incremental investments, but don't initiate any new strategic investments.
- Business Objects customers: Continue investments as planned, but document product capabilities and map them to the stated product road maps — when SAP announces them — for indications of shifts, substitutions and replacements within product lines.
- Companies in an OEM relationship with Business Objects: You face little short-term risk; however, OEMs that also compete with SAP should consider evaluating alternative BI platforms for BI application development.
Additional research contribution and review: Kurt Schlegel
SAP's plan to buy Business Objects will put SAP into the lead for revenue from business intelligence platform products. However, many integration and execution challenges lie ahead.
Event
On 7 October 2007, SAP announced its intention to buy Business Objects for 4.9 billion euros. SAP expects to close the transaction in 1Q08. Business Objects will be run as an independent business unit under current CEO John Schwarz, who will have a seat on the SAP executive board.
Analysis
Following this announcement, SAP gave few indications of product strategy, but said it will release more details after the transaction completes. SAP did not announce product road maps and pricing changes; it said it would continue to support existing products.
With this planned acquisition, SAP will expand its presence into the "business user" market, which it defines as business roles involved in analytical and information-intensive activities. This acquisition will be larger than other SAP acquisitions and would fill a significant gap in its query and reporting tools.
Gartner believes that the proposed acquisition creates some management challenges for SAP. SAP's NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) product overlaps with several Business Objects products, including data integration and corporate performance management (CPM) suites. Both companies have overlapping sales forces, support organizations, channel partners, independent software vendors and midmarket initiatives. These challenges won't be addressed by simply running Business Objects as an independent business unit.
Nevertheless, in the long term, the merger should make for a powerful combination, as Business Objects leverages SAP's vertical and industry expertise. The integration will exploit market demand for integrating BI closer into business processes and applications. SAP and Oracle will now place more focus on BI and CPM as competitive differentiators.
Recommendations
- SAP business applications customers that have invested in SAP BI and CPM products (for example, NetWeaver BI, Strategic Enterprise Management and OutlookSoft) or customers considering such investments: Until SAP clarifies its pricing and product road map, continue with tactical and incremental investments, but don't initiate any new strategic investments.
- Business Objects customers: Continue investments as planned, but document product capabilities and map them to the stated product road maps — when SAP announces them — for indications of shifts, substitutions and replacements within product lines.
- Companies in an OEM relationship with Business Objects: You face little short-term risk; however, OEMs that also compete with SAP should consider evaluating alternative BI platforms for BI application development.
Additional research contribution and review: Kurt Schlegel
Monday, October 08, 2007
FT.com / Companies / Europe - SAP signals hunger for deals
FT.com / Companies / Europe - SAP signals hunger for deals
SAP signals hunger for deals
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt and Pan Kwan Yuk in Paris
Published: October 8 2007 20:20 | Last updated: October 8 2007 20:20
Germany’s SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, Monday signalled it could look at further acquisitions even as its departure from an avowed strategy of organic growth sent investors running for cover.
Outlining an agreed takeover offer worth €4.8bn ($6.7bn) for Franco-American software house Business Objects, SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann said SAP was on its “way to proving we can make larger acquisitions”.
The company’s announcement late Sunday that it was buying the market leader in programmes to collect and sift corporate data knocked 4 per cent of SAP stock in trading Monday.
The shares closed at €39.95 in Frankfurt.
Investors were rattled because Mr Kagermann had for years underlined SAP’s superiority to US rival Oracle by pointing out the German company was focused on organic growth – not dealmaking.
To catch SAP, Oracle has spent billions on buying rival makers of central business programmes as well as end-user suppliers such as Hyperion, a Business Objects rival, it bought for $3.3bn (€2.3bn) this spring.
But at a press conference in Frankfurt, Mr Kagermann said the largest acquisition in SAP’s history was not a reaction to Oracle.
“We have not seen … that Oracle is gaining market share,” he stressed.
He said the move was consistent with SAP’s strategy outlined as far back as 2003. Having “done our homework” in its two core sectors, which would still grow organically, SAP now had time to look at end-users’ needs.
As demand for traditional manufacturing and supply-chain management slows, SAP said that sales of business analysis software were growing at around 10 per cent per year from current annual sales of about €10bn.
In buying Business Objects, SAP would be able to offer its clients more integrated features, Mr Kagermann said, stressing that demand for such end-user features would likely continue to rise over the next years.
“There are other areas in which such a move would make sense,” Mr Kagermann said, noting that ever more companies wanted integrated software. “But [the acquisition of Business Objects] is by far the most important.”
SAP has spent the past years reinventing its so-called business process platform, the nervous systems of companies’ IT systems, and making a foray into the market for mid-sized companies, which critics argue came late.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
SAP signals hunger for deals
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt and Pan Kwan Yuk in Paris
Published: October 8 2007 20:20 | Last updated: October 8 2007 20:20
Germany’s SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, Monday signalled it could look at further acquisitions even as its departure from an avowed strategy of organic growth sent investors running for cover.
Outlining an agreed takeover offer worth €4.8bn ($6.7bn) for Franco-American software house Business Objects, SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann said SAP was on its “way to proving we can make larger acquisitions”.
The company’s announcement late Sunday that it was buying the market leader in programmes to collect and sift corporate data knocked 4 per cent of SAP stock in trading Monday.
The shares closed at €39.95 in Frankfurt.
Investors were rattled because Mr Kagermann had for years underlined SAP’s superiority to US rival Oracle by pointing out the German company was focused on organic growth – not dealmaking.
To catch SAP, Oracle has spent billions on buying rival makers of central business programmes as well as end-user suppliers such as Hyperion, a Business Objects rival, it bought for $3.3bn (€2.3bn) this spring.
But at a press conference in Frankfurt, Mr Kagermann said the largest acquisition in SAP’s history was not a reaction to Oracle.
“We have not seen … that Oracle is gaining market share,” he stressed.
He said the move was consistent with SAP’s strategy outlined as far back as 2003. Having “done our homework” in its two core sectors, which would still grow organically, SAP now had time to look at end-users’ needs.
As demand for traditional manufacturing and supply-chain management slows, SAP said that sales of business analysis software were growing at around 10 per cent per year from current annual sales of about €10bn.
In buying Business Objects, SAP would be able to offer its clients more integrated features, Mr Kagermann said, stressing that demand for such end-user features would likely continue to rise over the next years.
“There are other areas in which such a move would make sense,” Mr Kagermann said, noting that ever more companies wanted integrated software. “But [the acquisition of Business Objects] is by far the most important.”
SAP has spent the past years reinventing its so-called business process platform, the nervous systems of companies’ IT systems, and making a foray into the market for mid-sized companies, which critics argue came late.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
FT.com / Companies / IT - SAP buys Business Objects for €4.8bn
FT.com / Companies / IT - SAP buys Business Objects for €4.8bn
SAP buys Business Objects for €4.8bn
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt and Lina Saigol in London
Published: October 7 2007 21:55 | Last updated: October 8 2007 00:07
Germany’s SAP on Sunday night launched a €4.8bn (£3.3bn) bid for Franco-American software maker Business Objects in what seems a departure from its long-term strategy to expand only organically and by smaller purchases.
The world’s largest maker of business software said it would offer €42 a share for the company, which specialises in business-analysis packages; a 20 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price in Paris.
The decision was seen as a response by SAP to a purchase by Oracle, its US archrival, which in March bought Hyperion, a smaller rival of Business Objects, for $3.3bn (£1.6bn).
SAP denied its agreed bid was a change of tack. Henning Kagermann, chief executive, said the company had bought interesting applications with “end-user appeal” before. SAP would continue to expand its core business organically.
In a conference call, he said that was consistent with SAP’s 2003 strategy statement. After changes to the main software platform, SAP was looking at individual applications.
Mr Kagermann said this opportunity to combine “market leaders in their respective domains” was “an opportunity unparalleled” in the German group’s history. He declined to give details of new products.
SAP said the move, financed by cash and debt, would go through if supported by 50.01 per cent of Business Objects’ shareholders. It hopes to close the transaction in the first quarter of next year.
The deal would mildly dilute earnings in the coming year, but boost profits in 2009 and beyond. “Financially and not just strategically, this is a good deal,” Mr Kagermann said.
It comes at a sensitive time for the German software maker. It is spending €400m to introduce software for small businesses, which will, for the first time, be hosted on the web by its own computer centres.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
SAP buys Business Objects for €4.8bn
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt and Lina Saigol in London
Published: October 7 2007 21:55 | Last updated: October 8 2007 00:07
Germany’s SAP on Sunday night launched a €4.8bn (£3.3bn) bid for Franco-American software maker Business Objects in what seems a departure from its long-term strategy to expand only organically and by smaller purchases.
The world’s largest maker of business software said it would offer €42 a share for the company, which specialises in business-analysis packages; a 20 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price in Paris.
The decision was seen as a response by SAP to a purchase by Oracle, its US archrival, which in March bought Hyperion, a smaller rival of Business Objects, for $3.3bn (£1.6bn).
SAP denied its agreed bid was a change of tack. Henning Kagermann, chief executive, said the company had bought interesting applications with “end-user appeal” before. SAP would continue to expand its core business organically.
In a conference call, he said that was consistent with SAP’s 2003 strategy statement. After changes to the main software platform, SAP was looking at individual applications.
Mr Kagermann said this opportunity to combine “market leaders in their respective domains” was “an opportunity unparalleled” in the German group’s history. He declined to give details of new products.
SAP said the move, financed by cash and debt, would go through if supported by 50.01 per cent of Business Objects’ shareholders. It hopes to close the transaction in the first quarter of next year.
The deal would mildly dilute earnings in the coming year, but boost profits in 2009 and beyond. “Financially and not just strategically, this is a good deal,” Mr Kagermann said.
It comes at a sensitive time for the German software maker. It is spending €400m to introduce software for small businesses, which will, for the first time, be hosted on the web by its own computer centres.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Longview Deal Continues CPM Market Consolidation
Longview Deal Continues CPM Market Consolidation
Exact Software's proposed acquisition of Longview will potentially benefit both companies. It is also evidence of the continuing consolidation in the corporate performance management space.
Exact Software's proposed acquisition of Longview will potentially benefit both companies. It is also evidence of the continuing consolidation in the corporate performance management space.
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