Microsoft Crowds Business Intelligence Space

Microsoft's big advantage in this arena is that it is Microsoft, a company that already reaches into a huge percentage of the world's businesses, and has enormous resources to throw at the problem. Its major disadvantage is that it is Microsoft, the No. 3 player in the database market with a share of just 13.4%, compared with IBMIBM with 30.6% and OracleORCL with 41.3%, according to market researcher IDC. And because BI software works closely with the database, being restricted to the least popular major one is a significant disadvantage.

However, there is significant disagreement over the quality of Microsoft's BI offerings and the extent of the threat it poses to the pure plays. "Microsoft tends not to be on the leading edge, but the fact of the matter is, it does a fine job. Customers are using it [BI] and getting a real return on their investment," says Ian Campbell, the CEO of Nucleus Research in Wellesley, Mass.

But analyst Bert Hochfeld of the Hochfeld Independent Research Group, says, "Microsoft does not have the track record in complex high-end apps that suggest it could compete. Microsoft, he said in an interview, "is not the reason to be concerned about the near-term performance of Cognos." Hochfeld's company does not have an investment banking business.

Sherlund singled out Business ObjectsBOBJ as a company that could suffer from Microsoft's increased BI efforts because its revenue is concentrated in query and reporting tools, segments that Microsoft is targeting, although the effect won't be immediate.

Not surprisingly, Rene Bonvanie, chief marketing officer of Business Objects, minimized the competitive threat, saying Microsoft's BI plans are a nonevent. "This is what we and other companies were talking about five years ago. It's like being in a time warp."