Current Challenges etc. in the PowerHouse World (SHRINKING !)

[Darren Reely]

Mark Stewart wrote:

>Tim, I think maybe it boils down to people, politics,
>and the bottom line at Cognos.
>
>[and some other words to calm the PH mob at the gates]
>
So, the decision makers don't wish to market Powerhouse but instead 
choose to affect the bottom line by minus $45 million dollars. The value 
assumes your numbers are correct. Note, that I haven't accounted for the 
down turn in I.T. spending and competition. So maybe that isn't as 
serious as it sounds, given the times. But...

Your most telling statement was the story of the sales person. Looking 
for opportunity is one of the jobs of sales staff. That sales guy cannot 
be fully supporting Cognos (and its shareholders and his own pay cheque) 
if he is not aware of all of the Cognos products. At the very least I 
would expect all of the sales people to have a basic understanding of 
the ADT tools and where they could fit within their client base. After 
all, BI tools are for reporting and analyzing data, not the day to day 
data entry and control of data. Cognos should be actively looking at 
selling their data creation tools!

I have this mental picture of the Powerhouse team; They are in a 
separate unmarked building from the rest of the company, having been 
moved there to allow the BI team (the new silver bullet) to move into 
the well marked brightly lit Cognos headquarters.  Luckily for us, the 
ADT team are a mentally strong bunch that knows they produce great 
products that their user base appreciates and takes full advantage of.

Darren