Yesterday, Microsoft launched PerformancePoint Server 2007 using an impressively dense array of well-worn BI clichés, presumably confident that many of their potential purchasers had never heard any of them before.
Here’s the ComputerWorld article on the launch. If any other BI vendor had said these things, would they have printed it?
Cliché #1: Information vs. insight
“Customers have spent hundred of billions of dollars over the past 15 years for ERP, supply chain management [and] sales force automation,” said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s business division. “But how can that be channeled to deliver better insight?
Um… maybe business intelligence, an industry that’s been around for almost 20 years?
Cliché #2: Information is only available to the few
“BI is really only used by 10% or fewer information workers today.”
Didn’t he get the memo?, 15% is the standard, unverifiable, out-of-thin-air number that everybody quotes. And you’re supposed to say “it is estimated that…”
Cliché #3: You have to be an expert
“Raikes compared the state of business intelligence today to the status of word processing 20 years ago, when only a select few workers had access to the software. Today, he said, only a company’s “high priests of data” have access to BI and analysis tools.”
Since today’s biggest BI deployments have over 100,000 users, that makes for a heck of a lot of high priests. And isn’t accessing standard reports part of BI? Microsoft have sold a LOT of Crystal Reports since 1993 …
Cliché #4: Democratizing information
“Our vision is to bring the powerful capability of BI to all information workers … to democratize access to critical business insight,” he added.
Well, at least we can agree on something. 🙂
Comments
One response to “Microsoft Launches Impressive New Suite… of BI Cliches?”
Yes they are cliches, but I think you’d agree that most of them continue to be true. I would have preferred a cool black website and a biblical slogan. Come on Chris, get with it!