Where does PowerHouse rank these days?

[Robert Edis]

G'day all

I did a search on DICE this morning.  It was for a friend who needed a
Progress 4GL programmer.

Searching on "progress" returned 3,455 hits.
Searching on "powerhouse" (once the leader in 4GLs) returned only 39
hits!!!

Is this indicative of where PowerHouse ranks in the development world
today?  Does this demonstrate that PH is a dying product?  Does Cognos
care?

I met the product manager for Cognos BI Series 8 at a seminar in Sydney
last year.  I was excited about the possibilities of this product as it
appeared to be Cognos' attempt at an integrated, one-stop package that
could supply an (almost) end-to-end solution (as Cognos promotes).  Given
that it includes Data Manager (DecisionStream) for data transformation and
CRN and Analysis Studio for end-user reporting the only piece missing was
something to get data IN to a data store.  I suggested that PowerHouse Web
should be included to fill this gap.  The response was vitriolic!  This guy
HATED PowerHouse, was sick of hearing about PowerHouse, thought that anyone
who mentioned it must have been on the Ark, and would not even consider the
suggestion.  This is my opinion of course and I am paraphrasing his words
and body language.  Nevertheless it was an unpleasant experience.

Do we as a developer community want to change this situation?
What can we do to influence Cognos' attitude towards PH?
Is there a future for PH without Cognos?

I have to say that I personally am no longer interested in promoting PH Web
to any clients and I haven't actively sought out PH work since 2002.  I now
focus solely on DW/BI work (more money and opportunity).  However I
continue to see a need in virtually every DW project for a way to maintain
data that does not come from an ERP.

Back to data modelling.  Have a great day! :)

Blue