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Oracle and SAP BI Battle Heats Up

Following rapidly after SAP's acquisition of Pilot Software, Oracle announced this morning they intend to acquire Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion. This heats up the battle between Oracle and SAP for BI and analytical application mind share.

The proposed Oracle acquisition further complicates an already confusing Oracle BI product set. The two obvious questions come to mind. First, the acquisition of Hyperion gives Oracle two multi-dimensional database engines -- one embedded in the Oracle database product, the other is Hyperion Essbase. Second, Oracle's strategy to date has been to offer Siebel Analytics as its premier analytics environment. The Hyperion acquisition adds a second set of analytical capabilities. Whereas the Siebel and Hyperion analytic applications could be considered to compliment each other, the BI toolsets definitely overlap.

The SAP acquisition of Pilot Software adds capabilities that SAP was lacking. However, the Oracle acquisition definitely propels Oracle's BI capabilities beyond those of SAP. The challenge for Oracle will be to integrate its wide range of tools and applications.

The question is who is next? Can Business Objects and Cognos continue to grow given the pressure coming Microsoft, Oracle and SAP?

Posted by Colin White on Thursday, 1 March 2007 |

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