,,,and then IBM swallows the whole lot

Funny how just recently Cognos were singing the tune to me of being the last independent BPM player. I guess in a way that still holds true. One thing that does remains true is that Cognos will still be ERP independent (which it would not have been if Oracle or SAP or Microsoft had acquired it)

Recently Cognos swallowed Applix (see my last post) and now, well IBM have the lot for a $5B transaction.

So what is worth saying here? Well when I think about it I guess I can only say that there really is still plenty of choice out there... Let's see....

what we have left here is the following at the top end of town:

• Oracle (incl Hyperion)
• IBM (incl Cognos and Applix)
• SAP (incl Outlooksoft and Business Objects)
• Microsoft
• HP (?) -- hmm...not too sure whether they are a player or not!

For anyone who knows me this is what I have been saying for years .... there will only be four big players left!

Ok, so what options does an Aussie mid-sized company have?

Well there are still many small players left to choose from for those companies not wanting to get into bed with one of the big four, there is:

• ZAP Technology
• Corvu
• Calumo
• SeeMore Data
• Microstrategy
• Qliktech
• Satori
• Prophix
• Board

see, there really are still many choices for you!

IBM/Cognos Press release: http://www.cognos.com/news/releases/2007/1112.html?mc=-web_hp