Walter, since you have followed this stock for so long, perhaps you can help me to clarify in my own mind where the competition for this company comes from. Obviously they have some direct competition in the are of Enterprise Portals from Plumtree and Sequoia Software (SQSW) among other (SQSW seems to be particularly strong in the area of healthcare). They also have competition from Information Portal companies such as BRIO, COGN, and BOBJ that approach the problem from the perspective of business intelligence, right? How are these portals different?
Then there are the database portals from IBM, Oracle, IFMX, Sybase, etc. Are these competitors? Or are the database portals simply the building blocks from which an enterprise portal can be built?
Finally, there are the companies who don't call themselves portals at all, but focus on "information sharing", which is really the same thing. What about companies like OTEX, MCTR, TIBX, and BVSN? Are they competitors in the sense that they attempt to solve the same types of problems (i.e. information sharing) from a different approach? If so, then will the success or failure of VIAD ultimately hinge on which approach turns out to the best solution for the problem of information sharing?
I appreciate your insight into this area. Thanks,
Carl |
