Pure-play BI vendors strike back

Operational BI is just one of many ways to compete against the acquisition-hungry big guys As I've said in three recent blog posts on consolidation in the BI (business intelligence) industry, BI will disappear as a separate application category soon enough. Its inevitability is part of a larger trend, in which point-solution vendors disappear through acquisitions by the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and IBM.

Operational BI is just one of many ways to compete against the acquisition-hungry big guys

As I've said in three recent blog posts on consolidation in the BI (business intelligence) industry, BI will disappear as a separate application category soon enough. Its inevitability is part of a larger trend, in which point-solution vendors disappear through acquisitions by the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and IBM.

It is only fair then that I let the other side have its say. As you might guess, pure-play BI vendors don't subscribe to my bleak view of their future. My first comeuppance came from Sanju Bansal, COO of MicroStrategy, a 17-year-old BI pure-play.

Keying off IBM's acquisition of Cognos, I proclaimed in my Nov. 12 post that BI will be subsumed into the database, citing the fact that Oracle can now offer Hyperion technology, Microsoft has announced reporting and analytical tools for SQL Server, and IBM can now add Cognos analytics to its DB2 database.

Bansal parried: "It would be hard to justify spending $3 billion, $5 billion, and $8 billion for Hyperion, Business Objects, and Cognos, as did Oracle, SAP, and IBM, respectively, and give them away for free," Bansal told me in no uncertain terms.

Rather, Bansal says the acquirers are buying access to customers in order to cross-sell, upsell, and tap distribution opportunities, meaning that SAP's acquisition, for example, allows it to leverage Business Objects' strong presence in the midmarket.

Bansal adds, as many have before him, that customers have a plateful of heterogeneous systems that require a BI company willing to optimize for a wide array of databases and platforms.

A point well-taken and true. You have to believe that when SAP buys Business Objects, it is going to focus on integration with NetWeaver first and foremost. Finally, to make amends with Bansal, I'll allow him this free plug for MicroStrategy.