Semantic Web

I recently read an article about the semantic web. Like search, the semantic web is a powerful way for a person or organization to extract information from data. The idea (over-simplified, if not half wrong) is that a group of experts in a domain can define a way of representing data for that domain. Applications or people that generate data for that domain do so in the official format which allows computers to use that data to make inferences, i.e. "learn".

The semantic web could potentially provide even more power than search for corporations trying to optimize their business. It's a little fuzzy like search in that there is not necessarily a clear path to the one true answer. On the one hand, how do you sell someone on a dashboard that may or may not return a useful answer? But on the other hand, why shouldn't corporate dashboard users have access to tools that are powerful enough to answer questions the user hasn't even thought of yet.

At a minimum I think ideas from the semantic web can be leveraged for business intelligence analytics and could make it much easier in the future to write applications that integrate with multiple different data sources.

Analysis of the SAP Business Objects Deal

Some analysis of the purchase of Business Objects by SAP.

And more from this Computer World article:

"However, more than ever, there now seems to be a role for an independent BI/performance management vendor not tied to any database or applications company," Vesset said. "Informatica holds this place in the data integration market, and Cognos may be able to do the same in the business analytics market."

The question in my mind is when a large customer comes calling on SAP to integrate their best of breed applications (that don't include SAP), will Business Objects have the autonomy to do the deal like normal, or will the customer just get the big sales pitch from SAP.

This does seem like a good opportunity for Cognos, as the last of the big BI vendors that isn't tied to a specific ERP solution. How long will they stay independent though? And who's left that would buy them? Microsoft has already invested a lot of resources and money into their own BI solutions.

Infor? They are almost my former company. I worked for Dallas Systems which was bought by EXE which was bought by SSA which was bought by Infor - I left during the SSA buyout. Infor is one of the largest Cognos resellers and you can tell from the history that they're not opposed to a little M&A now and then. Maybe they're due for another large acquisition followed by an IPO followed by a private equity buyout followed by an IPO...