So Just What IS this New Category Called Then?

So if we're to believe Pat's previous post (and I've made lots of money from believing Pat), then the BI category, as we know it, is pretty much gone. (Pat says it's "BI" that's going away, but without consulting him, I'd bet he means the category, obviously not the functionality).

Interestingly, the more you hear about how SAP is going to operate Business Objects, the less likely it seems to be sustainable over any period of time. For the last 18-24 months we've been hearing about the consolidation of the industry we're now experiencing, and that MSFT, SAP, ORCL, maybe IBM, would all have a share. And so it's coming to pass (we'll assume that given even Cognos is now not confirming that they'll be around forever) that IBM is the 4th one in the mix).

Is it really realistic to think that Business Objects, "an SAP company," is going to be able to disassociate with its parent in non-SAP shops where they're in a competitive deal? Any chance SAP is going to let Business Objects keep developing new connectors to Oracle ERP and Hyperions CPM for the betterment of "independent BI?" I'm not so sure. The other Three from above will go to great pains to paint Business Objects as nothing more than an extension of SAP, lumping all the things that Business Objects does as SAP technology (with one heck of a product roadmap, but that's beside the point). So while the marketing may stay unique, the "black is the new black" look and feel may stay in place, conventional wisdom is already coalescing around the idea that if you're an SAP shop, you'll go with BOBJ; if you're something else, you'll go with something else (We'll leave the question of "what if you're none of the above" to another time).

So that leaves Four big tech vendors all with BI and performance management functionality resident within their offerings, but not at the core of them. Which means that we're in another category of technology. As BI is consumed into the overall portfolio of these companies, it follows that these offerings, along with all the resident technology, must add up to something new. But what is it?

Little noticed last month was the acquisition of former CPM leader Longview Solutions by a Dutch company called Exact Software. Longview was once a high-flyer when CPM was new, and had the potential to be what other vendors ultimately achieved. Last month they were sold for $50M, a fraction of their competition's selling prices. In the acquisition press release, Exact conjures up a new term to describe what they now do with their ERP, CRM, and now, CPM portfolio--Business Empowerment.

So is that our new category name here? Business Empowerment? Seriously?

Ugh...