In a 2007 year-end wrap-up, InfoWorld declared BI to be "dead," citing it as it's ninth-most underreported story of 2007.
Hmmm. An entire industry and technology sector disappears under our noses, and it only rates number nine as a news item?
Actually, it appears the author, Bill Snyder, was being somewhat facetious, mocking the pundits that predicted the end of the market as we know it, resulting from the mega-acquisitions of leading vendors that took place over the past year -- Business Objects being gobbled up by SAP, Hyperion by Oracle, and Cognos now falling into IBM's orbit.
But, keep in mind that there is still a huge market remaining with players such as SAS, SPSS, MicroStrategy, and Actuate.
Oh, and what's the name of that vendor out in Washington state again? I think they have something or other linked to their database product.
As Rob Tholemeier, a former industry analyst turned private investor, put it, the acquisitions of the big players creates space for other companies to flourish. The same thing happened to the database market, he notes: “There are more database companies around now than when Informix was purchased.” There's going to be plenty of competition and solutions for a long time in this market, with enough room for everyone.
Long live BI.
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