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The future of Applix TM1?

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With the acquisition of Applix by Cognos and the subsequent acqusition of Cognos by IBM, does anyone really believe that IBM will maintain the Applix/TM1 product line family?

Clearly, IBM purchased Cognos for their strong BI reporting and analytic applications. ReportNet has been a strong competitor in the marketplace ever since it was first introduced a few years ago.

But with Cognos' patchwork family of budgeting and planning and consolidation applications (which were all purchased separately) the future of the low end Applix TM1 product is even further in question. The existing BPM (or CPM as Cognos refers to it) financials applications were already barely able to communicate with each other in any kind of a unified offering, what will IBM do with Applix (another completely non-integrated low end application)?

Time will tell whether the IT departments that have played a significant role in influencing the purchase of Cognos BPM products (based on their technology bias towards Cognos BI) will continue to override the finance department who tend to favor more robust, mature products or, alternatively, products based on an entirely new product platforms.

We'll see how the Cognos sales force will be able to overcome this obvious uncertainty in not only the Applix product line, but even within the existing BPM product line. As I mentioned, I have a lot of respect for their sales team, so it would not surprise me that they will be able to minimize this and somehow turn it into a positive!

Posted by Steve Berry on Fri, Dec 21, 2007

COMMENTS

Hey Steve, When you say low end TM1 are you referring to price or the product. Cognos clearly bought TM1 for the engine. What they do with it is a question. Remember how VHS beat out Betamax -Marketing. But Betamax was a more efficient system. I'm just saying.

posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 10:20 AM by Bruce Licht


Hi Bruce.
My comments regarding "low end" with regard to TM1 are based on its more departmental solution focus and cost. While it does have a decent engine for OLAP analysis, both Essbase and Analysis Services have really established their market presence.
In adidtion, since there are so many variables with this acqusition by Cognos then IBM, it will be a good 2-3 years before the dust settles.
Cognos already had a habit of acquiring applications and not reinvesting in them.
And with the IBM acqusition coming so shortly after Cognos' purchase of Applix, it seems likely that they were purchased for their strong BI (ReportNet/PP) apps.
It makes you wonder where TM1 will fit and if anything will be invested in the product.
It could easily be lost in the process. However, you never know! IBM may make a difference, but it will take a few years to truly know.
In the mean time, we will continue to work with products that are being invested in and have a clear upgrade/enhancement strategy.
{I understand your VHS/Betamax example, ask me about how many Divx DVDs and those album size DVD records I invested in 20 years ago! Market forces can be stronger than great technology}

posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 2:49 PM by Steve Berry


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