Bi Marketplace Observations Rick
Sherman " width="50" height="64" border="0" align="right">
by Rick
Sherman , Athena IT Solutions
Software sales slip for BI and ETL vendors
Did you see all the press about a software sales
slump after Q2 2004 results were pre-announced
last month? It’s really not as bad as they
made it out to be. Let me explain.
Part of the slump was not really declining sales,
but rather sales not meeting Wall Street and the
software vendors’ expectations. Several
software stocks took nosedives when they pre-announced
or announced disappointing sales or earnings.
Ascential Software and Embarcadero Technologies
each had one-day declines of over 20% plus additional
declines. Other firms that didn’t have such
steep one-day declines still had 7-8% one-day
drops with further sell-off in the accompanying
days.
There has been much talk about the possible reasons
for the disappointing sales. Much of the blame
has been pinned on an inability to meet sales
expectations, with many of the software vendors
saying that anticipated deals in Q2 did not close
and were postponed until Q3.
What are the reasons for the shortfall in expectations?
Let’s look at three areas: overall economy,
software spending, and issues specific to data
warehousing (DW) and business intelligence (BI)
software markets.
>>>
Read the complete article, Software sales slip
for BI and ETL vendors |
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>>>
Read the complete article, Do You Need a DICE?
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About Athena IT Solutions
Athena IT Solutions provides data warehousing and
business intelligence consulting
services to help businesses increase the return on investment
of their corporate data. Athena IT Solutions founder
Rick
Sherman has more than 17 years of business intelligence
and data warehousing experience, having worked on more
than 50 implementations as an independent consultant
and as a director/practice leader at a Big Five firm.
He founded Athena IT Solutions, a Boston-based business
intelligence and data warehousing consulting firm
and is a published author, industry speaker, instructor
and consultant. He can be reached at rsherman@athena-solutions.com
or (617) 835-0546.
© 2004 Athena IT Solutions |
