Richard Kellett

UK

Head of Technology Strategy, SAS UK

Everyone had been seeing a shake-out coming in the BI space, whether it was going to be IBM/Cognos, IBM/Business Objects, then most recently, Business Objects and Hyperion. The rumours have been flying and SAS has been expecting consolidation. This recent acquisition sees one of our smaller niche competitors being taken out of the market.

Oracle’s recent purchase is good news for SAS. Having looked at Hyperion as a competitor in the performance management market and to a smaller extent in the BI space, we see a lot of openings in the current sell cycles.

In addition, SAS is vendor-agnostic when it comes to database or ERP vendors, so we can work with Oracle's and SAP's database/ERP systems and others, and have been for a long time.

The acquisition may pose as a concern for existing Oracle and Hyperion customers, who can expect delays in upgrades and new functionality as money and resources are diverted toward integrating the two companies’ technologies.