In one word, no.
In many words, plato is an issue, but a very minor one for hyperion solutions.
We don't know exactly what plato looks like yet since it is only in its beta form, but it is only an engine, not a complete tool kit and not a completed application.
Total Essbase only revenues on the NT platform in the forward 12 months will be something under 10% to 15% of HYSL revenues. But plato is really meant as an entry level, easy to use OLAP engine.
In its first release Plato looks like (65% chance) it will lack a write back capability which is key to over 70% of hysl essbase customers. In addition, it clearly lacks many of the high level financial functions that the high end of the market need. Finally there are real questions of scalability, performance, security and robustness that would appear to make plato unsuitable for many of the enterprise scale applications that HYSL targets.
Longer term, HYSL is delivering more applications and tools that will further reduce the relevance of plato at the enterprise analytical level, segregating plato as a product for the entry level of olap applications. Plato's entry might cause HYSL to release an Essbase lite product at a reduced price, but if you talk to current and prospective hysl customers it seems to be uniformly viewed as a major non-issue.
Right now of course, in it's beta form, Plato can leap tall cubes in a single bound and respond to any query faster than a speeding bullet....kind of reminds me of the threat that sql-server posed to oracle in its first release five years ago.
The folks at HYSL aren't standing still on the issue, but i'd have to say it's a risk to probably under 3% of total revenues over the next year. Over time, that risk will decline even more. Given the rather conservative guidance HYSL management has given for revenue growth relative to the level of pipeline and business activity, I'd say there's ample room for the product.
TD |
