Data Mining and BI Software

We introduced this segment last year, and found that most of the competition here is between the top four giants sitting in the Users' Choice Club, namely Oracle, IBM, MS, and SAP. Oracle continues to lead in this space. Microsoft, though at the second position has managed to gather more points compared to last year. SAP remains where it was last year, points included. IBM, though at number four, has lost a few points compared to last year. While Cognos Impromptu and PowerPlay might be new to join the club, they're definitely not new in this space. In fact, they're one of the oldest in this space. 

Business Intelligence and Data Mining are no longer hyped like it was earlier on. And that is a good sign of the maturing of solutions in this space. Also, BI assumes that an ERP is in place and functioning. To that extend, BI and datamining follows ERP implementation. With ERP implementations in many industry verticals having reached maturity, one can expect this segment to gather steam. 

Unfortunately Datamining and BI are not the answer but pointers to the answer. It is a bit like the Oracle of Delphi. The answer you get depends on the question you ask. So, one needs not just the solutions implemented, but also people well versed in asking the right questions and in interpreting the answers that the solution churns out. And that skill does not reside in the IT department, but in the user departments or in the market research department, if you have one. Oracle enjoys the maximum brand loyalty here at 94%, with only about 3% of its existing customers wanting to shift to SAP, and another 3% to others. Oracle has consolidated its position over last year. Up next is IBM, which continues to enjoy the same brand loyalty as it did last year at 86%. Last year, it faced competition from SAP, while this year, its from MS SQL. 14% of IBM's existing customers want to shift to MS SQL. Incidentally, MS SQL has consolidated its position compared to last year. It was at 66% brand loyalty, and has moved up to 73%. The maximum competition it faces is from Oracle, with 20% of its existing customers wanting to shift from. The worst hit seems to be SAP, which faces competition from across the board, barring MS SQL. 12% of its existing customers would like to move to Oracle, while another 8% would want to move to IBM. 

Yet another 8% want to move to others. Coming to regional support, we find that Oracle and SAP fight it out in the west, while all others lag behind. Oracle was ahead of others in the north and south. SAP was fairly weak in the east, while IBM had a lead over everyone there. Oracle also enjoys maximum support from all industry verticals barring the BPO segment. 

There SAP rules the roost. Cognos seems to be trailing behind everywhere. Even when we look at the users breakup according to their company's turnover, we find that Oracle leads over others across all companies. In smaller companies with up to 100 crores turnover, it faces some competition from MS SQL. So while 43% of users in companies with less than 50 Crores turnover prefer Oracle, 33% prefer MS. In companies with turnover of 50 to 100 Crores, 30% of the users voted for MS, while 25% voted for Oracle.