Calumo - Business Intelligence and Performance Management Blog

ORANGE PEEL AND CALUMO GROUP FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO TAKE ENTERPRISE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TO THE MICROSOFT DYNAMICS COMMUNITY

A Shared Vision for Joint Technology to Drive New Growth Opportunities

SYDNEY & LOS ANGELES – 31 March, 2009 — CALUMO Group and Orange Peel Corporation have today announced a strategic alliance based on their joint release of Budgeting, Forecasting and Reporting (BFR) for Microsoft Dynamics for Business Performance Management. The application will provide an effective and scalable entry point for all Microsoft Dynamics users to set a roadmap for business intelligence and planning, leveraging the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform.

“Orange Peel has the deep understanding of BPM, the US market and the Microsoft Dynamics portfolio required to bring tremendous value to the Microsoft Dynamics community. BFR is the first fruit of our alliance and we couldn’t be more excited about the value it can create for Microsoft Dynamics clients. The first steps to enterprise BPM are always rapidly addressing immediate pain points and showing immediate tangible business value. Our applications’ emphasis on performance, reliability and ease of use make that a reality,” said Dominic Parsons, CEO, CALUMO Group.

Orange Peel CEO, Per Solli, further explains, “CALUMO 11 is the perfect platform for BFR. The Microsoft Dynamics community can now achieve immediate results needed to service their business and leverage their systems investment while staying firmly on the Microsoft platform. When businesses are ready and able to invest in their future to drive deeper deployment and greater value from their BPM, CALUMO provides the perfect answer for scaling on the Microsoft platform.” By engaging the companies at the technology and business levels, the alliance will allow both companies to drive new growth opportunities and improve productivity for its customers.

Orange Peel has elected to only offer BFR through Microsoft Dynamics certified partners. These partners have the extensive knowledge of their clients and the Microsoft Dynamics range required to ensure their clients reap immediate benefit. Orange Peel are working with both end users and partners to help them move through a road map for BPM that sees them doing better business sooner.

About Orange Peel Corporation
Orange Peel Corporation is the North American distributor for CALUMO. OPC has a solid background from implementing BPM solutions for both enterprise clients and the mid-market, based on the Microsoft BI Stack. OPC is recognized for innovative thought-leadership in the BPM arena and has adapted agile SCRUM methodologies for customers and partners to use, in order to achieve quick results on their BPM investment. Orange Peel Corporation head office is situated in Los Angeles, USA. For more information visit www.orangepeelcorp.com.

About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence. Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations. These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives.

The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specialisations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

It's not all about software.  Impressive as it is, we create our software for our clients to use to effectively drive better management and performance. It's really about people, our prospects and clients, and about the engagement and alignment that business intelligence can bring.

Our professionally qualified people (mainly CAs and CPAs) have long experience in a wide range of businesses, and their unique skills are in ensuring that enabling with technology enabling is more than just that.  Our people ensure that the information made available is integrated into day to day workflows, supports ready decision-making and downstream commercial activity.  This makes sure that the business outcomes are realised, rather than remaining as bullet points on PowerPoint slides no-one looks back on.

Richard Parsons, BCom CA, joins CALUMO
So it is with pride, in our increased capacity to engage with professional services firms, that we welcome Richard Parsons as General Manager Queensland.  A CA himself, Richard has been on both sides of the professional services fence, as an accountant with PriceWaterhouse, as Financial Controller and General Manager of SMEs, and most recently, as a 9 years veteran Change Manager with law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques.  His fluency in practice drivers, enthusiasm for identifying and then releasing untapped business value, and understanding of professional services firm stakeholder dynamics is invaluable.

Take what he said to our developers about CALUMO 11 in his first week:

“I love it - its best of breed, and your development process and validation routines are to die for.  But while best-of-breed technology is important, breakthrough business intelligence is about people and processes, not just technology - its the Consultants that elevate people’s thinking to what’s actually attainable, get the process right and the people engaged.  I could do it with a slate and chalk - but happily we can do it with your stuff instead.”

If you think you’re up for Richard’s energy, straight-talking and razor sharp focus, give him a call on +61 7 3367 9301.

About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence. Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations. These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives. 

The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specializations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

PerformancePoint Services included in MOSS
On 24 Jan Microsoft announced the decision to consolidate PerformancePoint Server Monitoring and Analytics into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Microsoft is making it easier for customers to achieve "BI for the masses" by including PerformancePoint Services in the SharePoint Enterprise license thereby delivering the complete Microsoft BI Platform (SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server) to customers at an even lower total cost of ownership.
 
PerformancePoint Planning Discontinued
Microsoft also announced that PerformancePoint Planning will be discontinued. It must be remembered that PerformancePoint Planning was only a planning application built on the Microsoft BI Platform. Discontinuing this first version planning application is actually liberating to what is now an even more unified BI platform comprising SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server.

Performance Management = Planning + Business Intelligence
Discontinuation of PerformancePoint Planning does not mean that customers cannot "do planning" on the Microsoft BI Platform. The essence of planning applications (budgeting and forecasting) is allowing users to input feedback both numbers and text (write back). Planning also includes other features (eg manipulating data according to business rules etc), but most of these are also BI features. The term Performance Management is used to describe the convergence of Planning and BI on a unified platform – the cycle of Plan, Monitor, Analyze. The advantages of true Performance Management are readily evident by integrating planning with BI in order to analyze and compare history with future plans and what-if analyses. The architecture of effective Performance Management must be unified.  Failing to do so requires constant batching and transformation as the many parts of the system exchange data.  Few (if any) vendors other than Microsoft can lay claim to this architecture.

How then to achieve Planning + Performance Management on Microsoft's BI platform
CALUMO Planning is a complete planning application built on the Microsoft BI platform. The CALUMO features below summarize planning capability, the missing pieces of the performance management puzzle, with integration to SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server.

1. Planning input forms - Bottom-Up and Top-Down write back
2. Self Service Reporting and Analysis - Ad-hoc (pivot) browse and dynamic reports
3. Excel and Web client for ad-hoc browse, reports and input forms
4. Simple, flexible architecture - Planning over any SQL Server Analysis Services cube structures
5. Support for: Drill Down (Members), Drill Through (Transactions or Cubes), Grids, Charts, Freeze frames, Text management, Slice to Excel etc.
6. Integration with SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server

Alfred E. Neuman "What, me worry?"  Hecklers will claim a gap-toothed smile in Microsoft's BI capability. Don't be fooled, CALUMO is evidence that planning is not missing and will continue to work with customers and Microsoft to offer true Performance Management on Microsoft’s unified BI Platform. Web budgeting at the University of New South Wales is just one example of this.

CALUMO - Microsoft Business Intelligence Partner of the Year
For the CALUMO Group, 2008 Microsoft BI Partner of the Year, the withdrawal of PerformancePoint Planning has removed any perceived confusion or conflict over differences between PerformancePoint Planning and CALUMO Planning. CALUMO Performance Management, including planning has a credible track record and heritage, including Microsoft case studies at the University of New South Wales and Aevum

About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence. Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations. These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives. 
 
The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specializations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

CALUMO and Microsoft will co-present  “The Business Intelligence Scenario” at The 2nd Annual Southern Region CFO Symposium 2008, where more than 100 CFO’s are scheduled to attend over two days.

Business Intelligence has gathered increasing profile in recent years as both the IT and Finance functions have become aware of its potential to improve business. Tim Dawson (Financial Services Industry Manager, Microsoft ) and Chris Mentor (Director Consulting Services CALUMO Group) will profile typical BI scenarios focusing on deployment challenges and outcomes.

When: Monday 13th and 14th October 2008
Where: Hilton on the Park, Melbourne

About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence.  Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations.   These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives.

The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specialisations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

Calumo is partnering with Microsoft in a series of sessions, to illustrate how Microsoft, one of the world's largest companies, reduces the cost and risk associated with financial reporting.
Microsoft Corporate Accounting Group Manager Lisa Nelson, and Director of Corporate Accounting Alice Jolla, will be discussing in detail how Microsoft's financial reporting process creates a well controlled work environment.

CALUMO Group will be discussing the relevance of this best practice to Australian close and reporting. These practices enable Companies to dramatically streamline time-consuming traditional methods by operating out of one consolidated environment. Companies can collaborate and manage calendars, task lists, documents, and sign offs with a complete audit history and streamline the audit process to boot.

• Microsoft has benefited through this best practice as follows:
• Reduced annual report filing time from 50 days to 31 days
• Shaved approximately five days out of internal checking process
• Reduced black-out periods for stock trading
• Enabled quarterly reporting simultaneously with earnings press release
• Streamlined auditor involvement and reduced related costs

These events are scheduled for:
Melbourne: 23 September 2008
Sydney: 24 September 2008
Perth: 26 September 2008

Please Register Here.
Places at this complimentary event are limited - don’t miss your chance to attend an exclusive invite only session.

About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence.  Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations.   These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives.

The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specialisations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

Sydney, NSW, - September 9, 2008 — Today, MIKADO DYNAMICS is proud to announce that we are now an IBM Cognos Platinum Reseller Partner, making us one of only a few other Australian partners to achieve Platinum status and with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane! The Platinum partner status is the highest level of distinction within the IBM Cognos partner program and MIKADO DYNAMICS has achieved this through our continued success in delivering successful business solutions and increased product sales.

"Going Platinum with IBM Cognos recognises that MIKADO DYNAMICS is seriously committed to its customers, it's people and its partnership with IBM Cognos and the Cognos TM1 BI Platform" said Dominic Parsons - MIKADO DYNAMICS CEO.

About IBM Cognos Reseller Partners and Partnering with IBM Cognos
IBM Cognos Reseller Partners sell IBM Cognos products and provide business intelligence, enterprise planning and corporate performance management consulting services, ensuring the successful implementation of IBM Cognos products. IBM Cognos Partners provide products, services, and technology expertise that help our customers improve and direct corporate performance. Our broad range of partnerships allows us to meet the distinctive needs of our customers in purchasing, deploying, and servicing their business intelligence and performance management solutions. Cognos TM1 offers a single software suite that supports all the components of corporate performance management - from planning and budgeting, to measuring and monitoring performance, to reporting and analysis. Through their industry expertise and specialized knowledge, our partners extend that offering, helping our clients maximize their technology investments.

About MIKADO DYNAMICS and The CALUMO Group
MIKADO DYNAMICS (a CALUMO Group associated company) is the longest standing performance management solution provider in Cognos TM1, with over 12 years experience. The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence.  Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations.   These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives.

Port Douglas, Queensland,— August 7, 2008 — Today, CALUMO Group proudly announced that it has won the Partner of the Year Award for Business Intelligence at the 2008 Microsoft Australia Partner Program Awards. The company was chosen out of a local field of top Microsoft Partners as delivering market-leading customer solutions built on Microsoft technology.

Pictured: holding the award and celebrating were Bruce McCarthy, Dominic Parsons, Johann Potgieter, Brenden Russell, Jeff Walter and Mike Henegan of CALUMO Group.

Accepting for CALUMO, group CEO Dominic Parsons said “I am proud to accept this award on behalf of the CALUMO team.  Our developers and professional services teams work tirelessly to deliver truly innovative, effective and world-class solutions for our clients.  This is our second award from Microsoft in as many years and to be recognized with the inaugural Microsoft award for BI is a great affirmation of our vision for Performance Management.”
 
The CALUMO Group has been providing Business intelligence and Performance Management solutions for over 12 years and began working with Microsoft only 3 years ago.  Their unique BI application and pragmatic approach to delivering fully fledged BI has been openly embraced by its clients.
 
This award recognises partners who provide data-warehousing and business-intelligence solutions that improve organisations by providing business insight to all employees — leading to better, faster, and more-relevant decisions.  CALUMO Group was recognised for superior technology and innovation in Business Intelligence. 
 
“Our partners are the lifeblood of Microsoft’s business and through the Awards we’re able to highlight and recognise those who have gone above and beyond in delivering exceptional technological solutions and services to Australian customers,” said Mr Paul Voges, Director of Small and Mid Market Solutions and Partner Group, Microsoft Australia.
 
“It’s an honour to acknowledge their dedication and success as part of the Microsoft partner community, and also to recognise the broader role that they play as leaders in Australia’s IT sector.”
 
The Microsoft Australia Partner Program Awards recognise Microsoft Partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the last year.
 
 
About CALUMO
The CALUMO Group (www.calumo.com) is a leading provider of Performance Management solutions for enterprise-wide reporting planning and Business Intelligence.  Since 1998 the group has successfully delivered solutions to a wide range of enterprises from SME's to some of the largest listed companies and government organisations.   These solutions provide quantifiable and valuable business insight, offering a single platform from which to integrate Corporate, Financial and Operational performance and objectives. 
 
The Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business intelligence (achieving full competency in both Platform and Performance Management Specialisations), Data Management Solutions and ISV/Software Solutions.

Please join us as our guest at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Summit in Melbourne on 28 November, or Sydney on 29 November. The focus of this complimentary one day event is to excite and educate high level delegates with solutions built on Microsoft’s comprehensive BI platform.

One of the presentations, by Lea Munro of Queensland Rail, is a CALUMO user story titled “Forecasting & Reporting – How Queensland Rail have Extended the Microsoft BI Platform”.

One of the greatest risks to effectively embedding any corporate BI system is the failure of IT and operations to connect, agree and move forward together.  By choosing the Microsoft Platform and CALUMO, QLD Rail set out with the best possible start – an infrastructure that IT knew, understood and trusted; and an application layer that offered end users the depth and flexibility they need to both submit and extract the information they need.  This approach has provided QLD Rail with a successful initial roll-out and the capability to scale rapidly across its enterprise.  In this session Lea Munro discusses QLD Rail’s process for selection, the success of the initial roll-out, lessons learned and plans for the future.

The Business Intelligence Summit delves into the technology and practical benefits behind Microsoft’s leading business intelligence products, and how to seamlessly integrate them within your organisation. It’s the first of its kind to be held in Australia.

Click here to register.

Johann presented new data visualisation techniques using sparklines (aka in-cell charts or microcharts) and gave some examples of predictive analytics and data mining to extract opportunities from data.

The CPA Congress is the biggest event for public sector and business professionals to discover insights for sustainable performance. Each year the CPA Congress attracts over 2,500 like-minded industry professionals and maximises professional development by offering over 80 sessions across a range of topics from high profile speakers www.cpaaustralia.com.au

Click on the link to view/download the Exception Reporting presentation.

One of the Six Most Promising Private Technology Ventures from Australia

Red Herring 100 Asia is an exclusive event honouring 100 cutting-edge private technology companies from across the Asia-Pacific region.  The event brings together an elite roster of entrepreneurial and global venture investment firms to showcase excellence in innovation.
 
Winners were selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants based in 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Vietnam.  The names of the 100 announced winners can be found online at www.herringevents.com/asia07/redherring100.html#100.
 
The Red Herring editorial team carefully selected the winning companies based on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem. The 100 winners are based in 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Vietnam.
 
"After a rigorous evaluation process, we’re very happy with winners we selected,” said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring.  “There was a large pool to choose from and we’re impressed by the calibre an innovative talent bursting from Asia’s business and technology sector.”

About CALUMO Labs Pty Ltd
CALUMO Labs software is the only complete, unified Performance Management and Business Intelligence solution built entirely in .Net2 and powered by Microsoft’s Analysis Services 2005. CALUMO provides planning, forecasting, consolidations, reporting, analytics and dashboards across financial, executive and all operational departments. CALUMO Labs empowers the enterprise through insight, integration and collaboration. For more information, visit www.calumo.com.
 
About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology research, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit www.redherring.com.

SYDNEY, Australia, August 31, 2007 –  At a gala function at the 2007 Microsoft Australia Partner Conference held at Hamilton Island, Microsoft awarded Calumo Labs Pty Ltd the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in the category "Data Management Solutions, Database Management".

The award recognises the partner that provides outstanding solutions in data warehousing and business intelligence. The winning partner’s solutions provide organizations with a competitive edge in performance reporting and business insight across the enterprise, leading to better and more timely business decisions.

"The award is a testament to the depth of experience and innovation that Calumo Labs brings to customer solutions delivered on the Microsoft platform" said Christine Bishop, Product Marketing Manager SQL Server, Microsoft Australia. "Given the significant investments that Microsoft have recently made to make BI capabilities more accessible across the organization, partners such as Calumo Labs are vital to the future success of Microsoft and its customers."

"We are delighted to have received this award from Microsoft” said Jeff Walter, Marketing Director, Calumo Labs. “It confirms our leadership position in delivering innovative BI solutions to clients using Microsoft technologies. For us, the award underlines the enormous opportunities for Business Intelligence delivered on the Microsoft platform and reflects the dedication, talent and professionalism of the entire Calumo Group team." Mr Walter also offered "Special thanks to the Microsoft Australia team for their ongoing support and willingness to always ‘go the extra mile’ for their partners."

Pictured: Jeff Walter holding the award and celebrating with Christine Bishop (Product Marketing Manager SQL Server) and Tony Mudie (ISV Business Solutions), Microsoft Australia.

About CALUMO Labs Pty Ltd (formerly SPF Pty Ltd)
CALUMO Labs software is the only complete, unified Performance Management and Business Intelligence solution built entirely in .Net2 and powered by Microsoft’s Analysis Services 2005. CALUMO provides planning, forecasting, consolidations, reporting, analytics and dashboards across financial, executive and all operational departments. Calumo Labs provides comprehensive consulting, training and support services for BI solutions built with Calumo on the Microsoft BI platform. CALUMO Labs empowers the enterprise through insight, integration and collaboration. For more information, visit www.calumo.com.

One of the Most Promising Private Technology Ventures in Asia

Red Herring carefully selected the finalists based on criteria such as technology innovation, financials, business model, management team, customers and alliances.  The 200 finalists are based in 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Vietnam. The names of the 200 companies short-listed as finalists for the "Red Herring 100 Asia 2007" can be found online at http://www.herringevents.com/asia07/redherring100.html

"The 200 finalists we selected from across 16 countries and regions are all excellent contenders," said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring. "They are exceptional companies who thrive on innovation and strongly define the important role of technology in Asia’s economy and throughout the world."

About CALUMO Labs Pty Ltd
CALUMO Labs software is the only complete, unified Performance Management and Business Intelligence solution built entirely in .Net2 and powered by Microsoft’s Analysis Services 2005. CALUMO provides planning, forecasting, consolidations, reporting, analytics and dashboards across financial, executive and all operational departments. CALUMO Labs empowers the enterprise through insight, integration and collaboration. For more information, visit www.calumo.com.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology research, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit www.redherring.com.

CALUMO has been chosen as one of five finalists in the "Applications and Infrastructure Tools" categories for the prestigious 2007 iAwards.

The Applications and Infrastructure Tools award is presented to the most innovative nomination for the development of applications and infrastructure tools. Any software program that operates hardware increases the efficiency of systems, measures and/or monitor systems usage and performance. Any software program that provides for data access/retrieval, data manipulation (eg.sort/merge), data management, data warehousing and program design/development. It includes all database management system (DBMS) software; decision-support and executive information system (EIS) programs; spreadsheet programs; front-end and back-end CASE tools; and emerging areas like cooperative processing and/or object management application development tools.

The iAwards finalists reflect the diversity of innovation across the Australian high-tech community. The iAwards program recognises the need to celebrate the significant contributions that ICT makes to the Australian economy.
 
The iAwards will be co-presented by AIIA, the Australian Financial Review, the CSIRO ICT Centre and MIS Australia at the iAwards gala dinner on Wednesday 30 May 2007 in Sydney.

The Australian iAwards are an initiative of The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).

About AIIA
The AIIA is the leading national body representing the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. With almost 500 member companies right across the country, from every sector of the industry and representing every size of company. AIIA sees itself as the representative of the Australian ICT industry.

The role of AIIA is to set the strategic direction of the ICT industry, influences public policy, engages industry stakeholders and provides member companies with business productivity tools, advisory services and market intelligence to accelerate their business growth. AIIA assists the ICT industry to meet its business objectives, both locally and globally.

Business Intelligence and Performance Management Home

– In Part 1, I discussed the rise of Microsoft’s OLAP market share and how this benefited us by educating the market on the benefits of business intelligence and what has become Business Performance Management.
– In Part 2 last week, I discussed our decision to embrace Analysis Services including our research findings and the enormous opportunity we saw for BPM applications on Analysis Services 2005.
– This week I will discuss our BPM vision and product roadmap and explain in some detail the CALUMO Microsoft Partnership where we’re embracing elements of their BI platform whilst applying our subject matter expertise to provide a more sophisticated and complete offering..

Let me start by saying that in our view Microsoft’s entry with PerformancePoint is an important validation of the BPM market as a whole.

For PerformancePoint, the immediate opportunity is to see how ProClarity has been combined with existing capability such as Business Scorecard Manager and other new capability to provide a framework for budgeting, forecasting, planning, and consolidation. In light of PerformancePoint and other developments, we will continue to embrace any new capability if we think there are components of the technology that make sense and add value for our customers. CALUMO is a certified member of the “Microsoft SQL Server Data Warehouse Alliance” and for a long time now we have leveraged elements of the Microsoft BI platform to deliver our BPM applications. We intend to continue to rely on this approach.

What differentiates our offering is that we continue to offer significant application logic over and above the Microsoft platform. As I mentioned in my previous post, the market understands BI and BPM because of Microsoft’s reach, but often needs or wants a more sophisticated solution than is available through vanilla Microsoft. The OLAP Report has just released its annual OLAP Market Shares showing Microsoft's share increase by nearly 4% from 2005 to 31.6% for 2006. Tellingly the report also states that “Microsoft Analysis Services is typically chosen by smaller organizations”. CALUMO extends the reach to medium and large organizations with more advanced capability than would otherwise be satisfied by a non-Microsoft solution such as Hyperion, Cognos, or Business Objects.

Partnership with Microsoft

In our view, Microsoft sees the value of working closely in partnerships that can add value to their stack. An example of this is their Office Business Applications (OBA) initiative. Microsoft wants Partners to develop applications that integrate closely with Microsoft Office to front-end business applications. These OBA’s are important to Microsoft because they provide a way to get Office entrenched in businesses. By the way, OBAs are for use with Office 2007 only. With our extended Calumo OBA we take the program even further with extensive integration with Internet Explorer, SQL Server 2005 and support for older versions of Excel.

Our technical partnership makes sense too. If you look at the BI/BPM landscape as a whole, it’s increasingly becoming a black and white choice between new technology solutions versus old technology solutions. CALUMO had a blank canvas technology wise and functionality wise. As a result, we don’t have any integration issues with multiple products or legacy code. Everything is .Net2.0 and SSAS. Technically therefore working closely with Microsoft is mutually beneficial. Originally it was only a question of an order of magnitude increase in performance between 2000 and 2005. Of late it’s been a best practice approach in database design and high-end business requirements.

Our value-add over PerformancePoint includes operational analytics, predictive analytics, and depth and breadth across our applications. To try and be more specific regarding depth and breadth across applications, some of our features available through both Excel & the Web include:

• Ad-hoc Browse (through Excel and or the Web)
• Slice to Excel
• Rich Excel client functionality
• Web Reports - functionally rich, dynamic, freeze frames
• Read Only or Write back (through Excel and or the Web)
• Bottom-Up (basic & advanced)
• Top-Down  (basic & advanced)
• MDX Support
• Support for Stacked Dimensions
• Multiple Cubes within a single view
• Report/Batch Manager
• Text management
• Drill Down (Members)
• Drill Through (Transactions or Cubes)
• Advanced Member Search & Sort
• Save Data Views
• Save Member Subsets
• Support for Member Aliases
• Support for Grids, Charts, Gauges
• Data Filter - rankings, top/bottom n or %
• X64

Regarding our competitors, a significant differentiator is our ability to offer a complete BPM application on a single unified platform (no legacy code, no integration issues with multiple products). Our Excel Add-in is also very advanced including no less than 35 spreadsheet functions. We have given Excel a lot of thought and focus in development.

This brings us to where we are today where we continue to forge ahead with our vision and believe that the Microsoft BPM Applications gap remains a significant opportunity. We continue to diligently draw upon our previous 10 years subject matter expertise to build sophisticated BPM applications. While we are doing this, the number of Calumo customers continues to grow.

– In Part 1 last week, I discussed the rise of Microsoft’s OLAP market share and how this was beneficial by educating the market on the benefits of business intelligence and Business Performance Management (BPM). This week I discuss our decision to embrace Analysis Services including our research findings and the enormous opportunity we saw for BPM applications on Analysis Services 2005..

In 2003, we began a “from the ground up” development of our BPM application powered by Analysis Services 2005 (SSAS). Our product CALUMO is the result of these efforts. The development brief was to build a sophisticated BPM application at least equal to or better than what we had done in the past (SPF Plus on TM1 OLAP Server). It also had to be better than the solutions offered by our competitors (Cognos, Hyperion, Outlooksoft etc).

A standout item of research that illustrates the opportunity we saw is the chart below which correlates OLAP Market shares (per the OLAP Report) against the BPM Applications market shares (per IDC).

Note that Hyperion has almost precisely the same OLAP and BPM market shares, yet Microsoft has nearly 30% OLAP market share, but only a trivial BPM share. This is an enormous gap of nearly 25%. Although there are other 3rd party players who leverage Analysis Services filling some of this gap (eg about 2% each from Outlooksoft and GEAC, plus others which were not tracked by IDC), our research showed that most of these customers needs were not being fulfilled. They were either:

• Not using Analysis Services (ie they were using SQL Server, but the OLAP module was shelf-ware), or
• the applications were very simple and could not be classified as BPM.
• In some of these cases the gap was or is being filled with a non Microsoft solution for both the OLAP and BPM components (eg Hyperion, Cognos or TM1).

We believed that providing for and filling the Microsoft BPM Applications gap was the most significant and neglected market opportunity at the time. For us, it has been about being first to market with the latest technology on Analysis Services 2005. It’s also about providing a more sophisticated application than Hyperion, Cognos and our other competitors on a unified platform.

Software development is never easy, but our decisions and efforts so far have been more than vindicated:

• Analysis Services 2005 has proven to be a dramatic improvement on 2000,
• and, because we built CALUMO from the ground up, we don’t have any legacy code, or integration issues with multiple products. Everything is .Net2.0 and we are not trying to support customers on both MSAS and SSAS.
• Also, the subject matter expertise we have from our previous 10 years of BPM software development, has allowed us to design what we consider to be a complete, sophisticated and functionally rich application (for Web, Excel, Reporting, Analysis, Write-back and predictive analytics on one unified platform).

Looking back, we achieved what we set out to do, but how do we continue on this path of judicious serendipity? In light of PerformancePoint and other Microsoft BI initiatives, we’re now even more excited about leveraging Microsoft technology and our ability to build software that could fill the 25% BPM applications gap.

– In Part 3 next week, I will discuss our BPM vision and product roadmap and explain in some detail the CALUMO Microsoft Partnership where we’re embracing elements of their BI platform whilst applying our subject matter expertise to provide a more sophisticated and complete offering..

With the imminent release of Microsoft PerformancePoint, I have been asked several times how this will effect our vision for CALUMO and the impact it will have on the BI market generally.

The best way to answer this question is to provide a bit of our history and consider Microsoft’s gradual entry into the market [the market being OLAP, Business Intelligence, and Business Performance Management]. One cannot just consider Microsoft’s play based on PerformancePoint alone. One must view Microsoft’s entry based a long history of software releases starting with Excel Pivot Tables, then OLAP Services for MS SQL, Analysis Services 2000, Data Analyzer, Analysis Services 2005, and now PerformancePoint (built out of ProClarity).

We’ve been in the BI business since the early 90’s. It was around the time, Excel Pivot Tables were released by Microsoft. I remember the fear I felt when some analysts and prospects told us that our business could not survive Microsoft's entry into our space. The same thing happened when OLAP Services was released at the end of 1998 and again later when OLAP Services became Analysis Services 2000. Over the years I’ve watched in awe as Microsoft’s OLAP market share soared from nothing to nearly 30% in 2006. At the same time, our business also grew and has been very successful since those early years.

So why do we think both businesses and others in the space have continued to prosper and grow?  Well, as you can imagine we take understanding this pretty seriously.  The key things we believe are:

• Microsoft’s incredible reach and marketing machinery educated the market about OLAP and multi-dimensionality.
• Pivot tables and Analysis Services 2000 did not have enough features and performance to satisfy many of our customers which were mid-market to large corporates (for example, query performance in conjunction with write back was a problem in Analysis Services 2000 which is a major improvement in 2005).

So, rather than going out of business, we met more prospects who understood multi-dimensionality because of Microsoft, but who wanted more than Pivot Tables and Analysis Services 2000 could offer. Many of these organizations became our customers.

Whilst it was a huge relief to still be in business, we were not naïve enough to think that Pivot tables and Analysis Services 2000 would not one day mature into significantly more complete and competitive offerings.

Based on our research, we considered it significantly more likely that Analysis Services would mature as an OLAP engine before Pivot Tables was enhanced sufficiently to be considered a competitive BPM application.  So, how do you take the successful components of a strong BI business not built on Microsoft and align and prosper with the Microsoft platform -  once again, we spent many hours considering what our business needed to do to remain competitive and continue to delight our customers.

– In Part 2 next week, I will discuss our decision to embrace Analysis Services including our research findings at the time and the enormous opportunity we saw for BPM applications on Analysis Services 2005...

CALUMO is a three syllable word pronounced Cal (as in the first syllable of calculate) + Lieu (as in “in lieu of” meaning “in place off “) + Mow (as in mow the lawn).

CALUMO is derived from celeusma, a Greek word (but used also in Latin: ke>leuma) meaning the song, chant or command given by the chief oarsmen that gives power and rhythm to the rowers.

In the same vane, CALUMO empowers people facilitating collaboration within an enterprise for unified business performance management.

Some people have told us the name also sounds like calculate from “Cal”; numbers from “umo” derived from numero; and illuminate from “lumo”.

All this is true and reflects a sense of what CALUMO is about, but most importantly we think that people using CALUMO are Business Intelligent.

Business Intelligence and Performance Management home.