Event
Summary
On November 15, QueryObject Systems (AMEX: OBJ) announced that it has
partnered with Cognos Corporation (NASDAQ: COGN; TSE: CSN) to create and
market a high-capacity analytical data mart accessible for analysis over
the Internet. QueryObject will provide the back-end with its analytical
data structure (a type of data mart), which is optimized for high volume
transactions over the Internet. Some of the features of the QueryObject
System include the ability to handle large data volumes and number of
users, fast data mart builds, dense (highly compressed) data marts, and
a patent-pending Distributed Replication Server to handle both server-centric
and distributed network caching Internet architectures.
Cognos
will provide and integrate the front-end business intelligence solutions
in the form of its products PowerPlay and Impromptu, (market leaders in
OLAP technology and query/reporting respectively), with the QueryObjects
System.
As
partners, the two vendors will participate in selected joint sales and
marketing activities worldwide. What they hope to provide is a "single
high-capacity analytical data mart that is accessible to multi-task analysis
over the Internet".
"This
is an important alliance for us," said Robert Thompson, QueryObject CEO.
"Cognos pioneered the Business Intelligence market and is a leader in
the transition to eBusiness Intelligence. Its established suite of analytical
engines and applications is a natural complement to QueryObject's Internet-optimized
analytical data structure. We look forward to significant market development
opportunities together."
Market
Impact
QueryObject has suffered significant losses in the last three fiscal years
reported, and is currently trading at 1-3/16. However, it is 60 percent
owned by investment firms, so it has a little more wiggle room than other
publicly held companies would. The addition of Cognos, possibly the premier
business intelligence software vendor, as a business partner will lend
additional credence to QueryObject's claims, and should spur customer
interest.
QueryObject
has always supported any industry standard analysis tool as the front-end,
but tight integration with a specific toolset will be compelling for customers.
According to Patrick O'Leary, Cognos vice president of strategic alliances,
"QueryObject's open data structure is a high performance data mart that
can be integrated with Cognos' query and analysis solutions. Its ability
to concurrently support both Web-server implementations and client implementations
over the Internet will be of significant interest to companies looking
to offer a range of business intelligence to all classes of knowledge
workers across their extended enterprise."
User
Recommendations
Customers evaluating business intelligence and e-business solutions should
consider the combined offering of QueryObject and Cognos.
Companies
looking to make business intelligence purchases should keep in mind that
they may not use the Internet as the access method for data analysis now,
but all of the industry trends indicate that every business will be forced
in that direction to stay competitive. Therefore an Internet-based solution,
like the one that QueryObject and Cognos are putting together, should
definitely be considered seriously.