Yesterday, both companies jointly announced that an existing technology agreement that has allowed IBM to offer Hyperion’s Essbase multidimensional server as part of its DB2 OLAP Server offering will now morph into a strategic co-selling relationship, whereby both companies will continue to work closely to sell IBM and Hyperion technology and services.
In a joint statement, officials from both companies pointed to a natural evolution of the market and our respective product lines.
IBM will no longer offer new sales of DB2 OLAP Server to customers. [We] feel that this arrangement has reached its logical conclusion as it no longer satisfies the needs of our customers, the statement read.
Both companies are now trying to soften the impact on mutual customers. IBM officials said that DB2 OLAP Server customers on active maintenance contracts will be offered a smooth migration path to Hyperion’s native Essbase products over the next several years. The migration program officially kicked off this week.
IBM and Santa Clara, California-based Hyperion have enjoyed a close technical and marketing partnership for over a decade. In addition to the OEM, both companies have engaged in a cross-branding effort that combines IBM’s Business Consulting Services (BCS) and Software divisions and Hyperion’s BI and performance management technologies to deliver joint solutions to the banking, insurance, and federal sectors.
The companies have also cooperated on risk and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance solutions that pull together IBM’s Workplace for Business Controls and Reporting along with Hyperion’s Intelligence query and reporting software.
IBM is also one of Hyperion’s largest customers, deploying 100,000 seats of Hyperion’s Intelligence product.
IBM certainly seems to be moving its BI strategy up a gear. Its acquisition of Alphablox Corp, a developer of Java-based BI development tools, a year ago hinted that the IT giant is no longer willing to let its partners cream off lucrative software license revenue from its large, best-of-breed BI implementations. Plus its purchase of Ascential Software Corp earlier this year shows its ambitions in the data warehousing market as well.
