Current Challenges etc. in the PowerHouse World (SHRINKING !)
Mark Stewart
markstewart@consultantsclub.biz
Tue, 30 Mar 2004 09:15:25 -0800 (PST)
Tim, I think maybe it boils down to people, politics,
and the bottom line at Cognos. With the release of
ReportNet, last fall, it would stand to reason that
the bulk of Cognos's advertising expenditures would
focus on ReportNet. The success of ReportNet and the
other BI tools is key to the success of Cognos's
bottom line and continued growth.
Bob D. pointed out that PowerHouse generated around
29.5 million in the fiscal statements. At a Cognos
conference back in 1998 I saw Ron Zambonini do a
speech. During his speech in 1998 he said that
PowerHouse generated about 75 million. Seems revenue
is down some from 1998.
I went to a little bar beside the 1998 conference
hotel one night. All the ADT staff were hanging out
there. They all were very easy to talk and
approachable and very knowledgable about
ADT/PowerHouse. It was a fun night. I didn't see any
of the BI staff in the same bar. It seems to me that
the ADT guys over at Cognos are kind of like the
Rodney Dangerfields of Cognos. I could be wrong.
I was at a party last year when I travelled to Ottawa.
I met a Cognos salesperson at the party. He said he
had worked at Cognos for five years. I told him that
I had worked with PowerHouse for many years so I was
quite familiar with Cognos. He looked at me like I
had rocks in my head. Then he asked, "What's
PowerHouse?".
I think it was last week all the top business
websites, in Canada, had column about the record
setting pace of Cognos and the success of the company.
Cognos is doing excellent and better then it ever has
because companies are spending so much on Data
Warehouses these days.
Companies have cut way, way back on ADT spending.
Also remember too that 40% of so called ADT IT
professionals are still out of work in the United
States. The ADT decline has effeected all vendors not
just Cognos/PowerHouse. Data Warehousing and the need
to slice and dice for immediate decision making has
been on a steady rise even during all these massive IT
budget cuts.
Companies are trying to catch up to Cognos, to provide
BI solutions, so they have to advertise that part of
the business to stay ahead of the pack. I'd imagine
they wouldn't spend a penny on ADT advertising now if
they didn't have to.
Upper level management at Cognos isn't too worried
about the challenges of PowerHouse right now. There
are jealous BI competitors out there and are still
trying to achieve what Cognos has done. Cognos
probably more worried about that part of their
business.
Personally, I would love to see PowerHouse Web emerge
as a leader in Intranet\Internet development. Mostly
because I have that skill and I'd have a lot of work
down the road with a product that I'm very familiar
with. Now as days though I'm trying to sell my
BI/Database skills more because I have to pay the
bills and there is more of a demand for it. Cognos is
just doing the same.
Isn't Cognos in existance today because of PowerHouse?
If so do most employees at Cognos know that?
Mark
--- Tim Cummings <tim.cummings@frequencymarketing.com>
wrote:
> Bob,
>
> Is there a reason that Cognos does not advertise PH?
>
> Tim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deskin, Bob [mailto:Bob.Deskin@cognos.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 9:34 AM
> To: '"Selfors, Bjørn"'; powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
> Subject: RE: Current Challenges etc. in the
> PowerHouse World (SHRINKING !)
>
>
> We have published a date for PowerHouse on MPE/iX.
> We did so very soon after
> HP's announcement. As previously announced
> PowerHouse on MPE/iX will be
> supported until Dec 31, 2006. We have also matured
> PowerHouse on VAX (due to
> HP's end of life on VAX), and on AS/400 and Tru64
> (due to business reasons).
> We have updated the supported products list on the
> support.cognos.com web
> site to include these dates.
>
> All other platforms, OpenVMS Alpha, UNIX (HP-UX,
> AIX, Solaris), and Windows
> NT/2000/XP are fully supported.
>
> Don't ask me how long PowerHouse will be supported
> on those platforms
> because there is no end-of-support date. If there's
> business, it will go on
> forever. If not, we will make that decision based on
> the business at the
> time.
>
> Hopefully you saw Cognos' announcement of their
> annual results. Application
> Development Tools' revenue for our last fiscal year
> was about 29.5 million
> dollars US. That is not insignificant. We're not
> going away any time soon.
>
>
> Bob Deskin
> Senior Product Manager, Application Development
> Tools, Cognos Inc.
> bob.deskin@cognos.com (613) 738-1338 ext 7268 FAX:
> (613) 727-1178
> 3755 Riverside Drive P.O. Box 9707 Stn. T, Ottawa ON
> K1G 4K9 CANADA
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Selfors, Bjørn"
> [mailto:Bjorn.Selfors@bergen.kommune.no]
> Sent: March 30, 2004 2:50 AM
> To: Deskin, Bob; powerh-l@lists.sowder.com
> Subject: SV: Current Challenges etc. in the
> PowerHouse World (SHRINKING !)
>
>
>
>
>
> HP has been honest and given us the 3000-date, Dec
> 31, 2006.
>
> What about Cognos? Will they give us the
> PowerHouse-date soon?
>
> "We have no plans for that" they probably say, but
> what are the Cognos plans
> for PH? No marketing for years, that gives us a
> clue! I think you know
> Bob, are Cognos going to let it slowly die, or are
> you going to be straight
> and give us the date?
>
> Bjørn Selfors
>
> -----Opprinnelig melding-----
> Fra: Deskin, Bob [mailto:Bob.Deskin@Cognos.COM]
> Sendt: 29. mars 2004 22:18
> Til: 'Bill D Michael'; 'powerh-l@lists.sowder.com'
> Emne: RE: Current Challenges etc. in the PowerHouse
> World (SHRINKING !)
>
>
>
> We've had a version on Windows for years. We've had
> articles in SupportLink.
> It's mentioned on the PowerHouse web site (which is
> somewhat out of date but
> not that out of date).
>
> It's full PowerHouse including QUICK.
>
> Bob
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com [
> mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com
> <mailto:powerh-l-admin@lists.sowder.com> ] On Behalf
> Of Bill D Michael
> Sent: March 29, 2004 3:04 PM
> To: 'powerh-l@lists.sowder.com'
> Subject: RE: Current Challenges etc. in the
> PowerHouse World (SHRINKING !)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >How well are sales of PH on the windows platform?
> Do you have any data
> >on
> that?
>
> You mean there IS a version that runs on Windows?
> How is anyone supposed to
> know that? Is this buried somewhere in the Cognos
> web site? Advertised in
> all the major media? What are the specs? Advantages?
> Missing features?
>
> :-(
>
> Bill
>
> ------------------
> "This posting reflects the individual views and
> opinions of the author and
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