In the Business Intelligence (BI) arena, the lines are becoming blurred by mergers and acquisitions from the bigger vendors. Where as hardware vendors, ETL (Extract Transform & Load) vendors and BI Software suppliers all used had their niche, recently it’s been a dizzying experience keeping up with ‘who’s bought whom’ – and I believe that the purchases and consolidations will continue. The purchase of Knightsbridge by HP was a bit of a surprise. Often the intention of the vendor is to be able to create a ‘one-stop-shop’ – IBM for example with its various hardware solutions and websphere tools – but is that always the best for the customer?
To the eternal question: “Single Supplier ‘or’ Best of Breed” - the answer is not always a simple Yes or No!
Making a direct comparison between competing vendors is not always easy. Often articles on a website described as “white papers” are actually little more than marketing hype. One respected vendor (with great BI products) even had a sentence within their “white paper” paraphrased along the lines of “our product is the best solution for you now and the best solution in the future”…. White paper or toilet paper ?
Paul Daniells & Associates will always be objective and recommend solutions that fit your specific needs.
