Seagate Software Inc claims that its announcement yesterday of a free front-end business intelligence tool will highlight the vulnerability of some of its competitors in the light of Microsoft’s entry into the marketplace. The Seagate Worksheet, described as a full featured OLAP client tool, will be available as a free download from Seagate’s web site. According to Seagate, the market is awash in OLAP client tools, all having to access Microsoft DSS through OLE DB, and all offering variations of the same simple functions. Worksheet was previously available as part of the Crystal Info and Holos products, but Seagate has now separated it out as a standalone tool. It says that simple OLAP data browsing does not solve complex business intelligence problems and has become a commodity, and that Worksheet users attracted by the free price tag will then be tempted into a seamless migration up to full scale Seagate Crystal Info and Seagate Holos back-end systems. The strategy appears to be mostly aimed at competitors such as Arbor Software Inc, which charges up to $1,000 for its Wired for OLAP front-end (CI No 3,445). But whereas Arbor has a Microsoft- avoidance strategy in place through its Hyperion Software Corp acquisition and new emphasis on vertical market applications, Seagate claims that Cognos Inc appears to be still unprepared for Microsoft’s launch of Plato and SQL Server 7.0. Cognos now has two somewhat conflicting front-end tools – Powerplay to work with its own OLAP engine and Aristotle for Microsoft’s Plato – but according to Seagate the Cognos OLAP engine will directly compete with Plato, an unenviable position, it says, that could result on it having to rely on sales of its front-end tools. That’s the area Seagate hopes to undermine with its own free offerings. As to its own back-end tools, Seagate believes that its own OLAP server will hold up against Plato through the Open OLAP strategy it announced back in April (CI No 3,399). Worksheet will be fully supported when it becomes available in the third quarter, and will remain free, says Seagate. Beta versions can be downloaded immediately.
