TDWI World Conference Fall 2005 – Exhibit Hall Highlights

The conference featured 43 exhibition booths. The exhibit hall was open Tuesday (November 1) from 11:15 am to 2:15 pm and from 5 pm to 7 pm and on Wednesday from 11:15 am to 2:15 pm. Classes were
scheduled around the exhibit hall hours. While the included “free lunches” and free dinner certainly helped attract attendees to the exhibition hall, it was the exhibits themselves that kept
their attention; most attendees seemed to visit most, if not all, of the booths and spend significant time at many of them.

As many exhibits featured multiple products and services, the following list focuses on the products or services that appeared to be their main attractions.


ANALYTIC APPLICATIONS

Vendor Product
DecisionPoint Software DecisionPoint FPM Solutions
Siebel Business Analytics Siebel Enterprise Analytics
Systems Union MIS Enterprise Planning


 


BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS AND PLATFORMS

Vendor Product
Actuate Enterprise Reporting, e.Spreadsheet
Business Objects BusinessObjects XI Release 2
Cognos Cognos 8 Business Intelligence
Corda Technologies CenterView  (data visualization software)
Fair Isaac Enterprise Decision Manager
Hyperion Solutions Hyperion System 9
Information Builders WebFocus 7
MicroStrategy MicroStrategy 8
Oracle Oracle Business Intelligence 10g
SAP Netweaver Business Intelligence
SAS SAS9 Platform
Systems Union MIS Decisonware, MIS DeltaMiner
Theoris Theoris Vision (dashboard software)


 


DATABASE AND DATA WAREHOUSE APPLIANCES

Vendor

Product
DATAllegro DATAllegro Data Warehouse Appliances
IBM DB2 Data Warehouse Edition
Netezza Netezza Performance Server
Sybase Sybase IQ
Teradata, a division of NCR Teradata Warehouse


 


DATA INTEGRATION 


Vendor

Product
Ab Initio Co>Operating System
Business Objects BusinessObjects Data Integrator
Composite Software Composite Information Server
DataMirror DataMirror Integration Suite
Informatica PowerCenter 8
Information Builders iWay Software Product Suite
Oracle Oracle Warehouse Builder
QlikTech QlikView 7.2
Sunopsis Sunopsis Data Conductor
Sybase Avaki EII
Syncsort DMExpress
XLCubed CubePort (from Exologic, an XLCubed partner)


 


DATA QUALITY 

Vendor Product
DataFlux DF PowerStudio V7
DataMentors DataFuse
Firstlogic IQ Watch
Group 1 Software DataSight
Similarity Systems AXIO 5.0
Trillium Trillium Software Discovery, System Series 7


 


MONITORING, MODELING, METADATA MANAGEMENT, ADMINISTRATION

Vendor Product
ASG Software Solutions Rochade
Sybase Sybase Power Designer
Teleran Technologies iSight, iGuard Query Manager


 


PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND CONSULTING 

Vendor Service
Cognizant Technology Solutions DW&BI Maturity Assessment Framework

Conversion Services International

ClarityPath Strategy Framework
DecisionPath Consulting BI Pathway
Knightsbridge Solutions

Pathways Methodology

TDWI DW Education and Research
Unisys 3D Visual Enterprise Methodology

SHOW FLOOR OBSERVATONS

  • When open, the exhibit hall was always active with attendees engaging in serious discussions with exhibitors about their products and services. Attendees were more interested in acquiring
    knowledge than they were in acquiring tradeshow toys and giveaways.
  •  

  • The somewhat remote location of the hotel kept attendees onsite and at the conference. In general, the exhibiting vendors seemed to appreciate this and were pleased with the venue.
  •  

  • The primary applications emphasized were business performance management, regulatory compliance, and homeland security.
  •  

  • While most of the exhibitors were TDWI Conference veterans, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Corda Technologies, and Theoris exhibited for the first time.
  •  

  • Among the missing vendors who appeared at the previous TDWI Conference but not this one were Embarcadero Technologies and Ambeo. These companies may have had other priorities as in the week
    prior to the conference Embarcadero announced that it had acquired Ambeo.
  •  

  • BI vendors tended to feature their integrated product suites with Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, MicroStrategy, and SAS featuring the latest (and in some cases yet to be released)
    announced versions of their BI platforms.
  •  

  • Although some vendors, in particular IBM, have previously shared their booths with a few of their partners, only XLCubed, featuring CubePort from Exologic, appeared to do so at this conference.
  •  

  • Vendors displaying recently acquired technology included IBM displaying the technology it acquired with its acquisition of Alphablox, Similarity Systems displaying a new release of the data
    profiling technology resulting from its July 2005 acquisition of Evoke, and Sybase displaying the EII technology from its May 2004 acquisition of Avaki. Note: Similarity Systems acquired Evoke from
    fellow TDWI exhibitor, Conversion Systems International.
  •  

  • Several vendors issued press releases from the conference including DATAllegro (general availability of its P2 and P5 data warehouse appliances), Firstlogic (launch of IQ Watch for interdiction
    list compliance; general availability expected by end of 2005), Informatica (launch of data integration platform PowerCenter 8; general availability expected in Q2 2006), and Similarity Systems
    (launch of Axio 5.0 data profiling technology with general availability expected by the end of November 2005).
  •  

  • Although Microsoft did not have an exhibit hall booth, it (along with Business Objects and MicroStrategy) participated in Cindi Howson’s excellent “BI Tools in Action: Evaluating BI
    Toolsets” course on Wednesday afternoon.
  •  

  • Along with acquiring Ascential Software, IBM obtained also its exhibit hall slot for the conference and thus had two contiguous booths at the show. Ascential’s data integration software has
    now been integrated into IBM’s Information Integration Solutions Group under the WebSphere Information Integration umbrella, and the Ascential brand was not in evidence at the booth. (There was no
    mention of Informix either.)
  •  

  • SAS and DataFlux, its data quality subsidiary, also had contiguous booths.
  •  

  • Joint hospitality suites make strange bedfellows as IBM and Siebel Business Analytics jointly hosted one on Monday night. This is unlikely to occur again since in September 2005 Oracle
    announced its intention to acquire Siebel. The acquisition was endorsed by Tom Siebel and the Siebel board and is expected to close in early 2006.
  •  

  • Cognos also hosted a hospitality suite Monday night while Informatica hosted one Sunday night and SAS hosted one Tuesday night.
  •  

  • Speaking of pending acquisitions, Pitney Bowes, which acquired Group 1 Software in July 2004, announced in September 2005 that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Firstlogic, a
    Group 1 competitor. As the Federal Trade Commission has recently asked for additional details and the acquisition is not yet a done deal, the two companies maintained their distance at the show
    with each having its own booth.
  •  

  • Continuing the mystique of its stealth marketing, no literature was on display at the Ab Initio booth.
  •  

  • Making his 20th+ appearance, magician Danny Orleans wins the TDWI perennial presenter award as he continued to draw crowds to the Knightsbridge booth.

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Michael Schiff

Michael Schiff

Michael is the founder and principal analyst of MAS Strategies. MAS Strategies specializes in helping vendors market and position their BI and DW products.

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