According to former Applix executive Martin Richmond Coggan, who is now an IBM vice president responsible for financial performance management applications in Europe, which collects together TM1-based analytic applications with Cognos Planning (the former Adaytum Planning system) and Cognos 8, which incoroporates reporting and analysis tools such as PowerPlay and Impromptu.

IBM held back from the market until it was sure that Cognos version 8, combined with the more analytical Applix applications, could fit into IBM's "information on demand strategy", Richmond-Coggan explained.

"IBM felt that before you can do anything intelligent with BI, you needed a single, trusted version f the data. All its acquisitions in information management have focused on that. IBM waited for Cognos to deliver version 8, when it could see that Cognos had a complete product set that fit in neatly to give the end-user that [information on demand] strategy," he said.

"Once we got over shock of the successive acquisitions, we have been very clear with customers that the roadmaps for Cognos and TM1 will remain the same within IBM. TMI will remain and be developed as a separate database."

The fit between Cognos and Applix applications was good, with little overlap, he added. "If you want good RAM-based analytics and calculations that are easy to install, can plug in to corporate systems and delivered via Excel, Applix is still a good choice," he said.

While Cognos did not cover real time analytic applications in the same way, Applix did not do much around consolidation and planning. "From that point of view, the marriage was great. We've got a product strategy that keeps them together, but the service oriented architecture of Cognos 8 enables us to plug TM1 in quite easily. You can deploy [TM1] separately, but in a few montyhs it will also be exposed through the Cognos 8 infrastructure.

"We're looking forward to defining performance manage, which we'd always espoused as bringing financial applications and operational planning together."

An online research note from Ovum endorsed the view that the Cognos/Applix products meshed well into IBM's information on demand (IOD) strategy by linking strategy plans to operational execution.

"However, it's a territory and technology that is relatively new to IBM compared to the more familiar areas of BI and analytics," commented the Ovum team. "While we believe IBM recognises the need and relevance of PM technology and its fit within IOD, we have some reservations about how much it understands the business and discipline. That's something that Cognos no doubt will be keen to educate its new owners on."

Meanwhile, SAP is putting the finishing touches to BusinessObjects XI 3.0, the first release since it completed its $6.8bn takeover of Business Objects in January. The project was well in train before SAP entered the scene and does not offer much new in the way of integration with the German company's enterprise software range.

What BusinessObjects XI 3.0 does offer are updates to the constituent parts, including 2008 version of Crystal Reports and the Xcelsius data visualisation tool. The suite includes a new version of the Web-based Web Intelligence query and reporting tool, which allows users to analyse unstructured data such as e-mails and documents online or offline.

Ovum's Madan Sheina told our sister site MyCustomer.com that SAP's hands-off approach to the new BusienssObjects XI release was significant because it indicated that SAP was willing to let Business Objects continue supporting third party systems. "But included in that roadmap will surely be a new strand that will aim to forge tighter links to SAP applications and infrastructure in the future," the analyst added.

The new BusinessObjects did include some linkages with SAP's Business Warehouse which means that users of the upgraded analytical systems will get better performance when working with data from SAP business applications or Business Warehouse. "What's still missing is the integration of SAP's own advanced analytic tools and applications. That's an area ripe for innovation and differentiation in the near term," Sheina said.

The two software giants are doing all they can to convince users that integrating their respective acquisitions will not detract from innovations within the product lines, which were beginning to exhibit some marked similarities.

"IBM's vision of 'business optimisation' and SAP's vision of 'performance optimisation' have a surprising amount of similarities and overlaps. Both companies see the next phase of market growth coming not from the traditional domain of business automation, but from optimisation through closed-loop decision-making. This is the ability to tie strategic plans with operational execution using BI to provide the necessary insight and recommendations that guide and improve business performance, both on-the-fly and over time," Sheina said.