Short answer is MicroStrategy, Inc
Long Answer: Look around, why there is scarcity of MicroStrategy guys. There are very less number of clients. Less than 10K compared to 23K of Cognos and 45K of BO. I wouldn't compare to SAP BW, as that's the crappiest BI tool around, even worse than Oracle BI Discoverer or SQL Server 2005. Hyperion, the original BI tool, lost to late entrants.
Now who needs MicroStrategy. Not small companies. Usual license cost of MicroStrategy is around ~500K PLUS cost of support and kind of support (Bronze, Silver, Gold.. Upcming Diamond, Platinum and Crude oil -;. That's hell lot of money for even a big companies. The only and only reason I would ever support any company going for MicroStrategy is the the size of warehouse (back-end). BO and Cognos are known to get slow with bigger Warehouse where as back-end scalability of MicroStrategy is immense. MicroStrategy has better COE in long term over BO and Cognos. Learning curve of MicroStrategy is very steep.
This has infected the consulting companies with rotten MicroStrategy professionals. Even they (Companies and professionals) can't help it. People with zero or near zero MicroStrategy experience are working for MicroStrategy implementation of Fortune-100 companies. That's what I call gamble. For service based companies what matter is the billing and MicroStrategy gives them top dollars compared to other BI tool.
Now is the worst part. MicroStrategy education as well as certification are obscenity costly. Giving exams costs USD 650. Education is even costly. Getting a 2 week training and 3 certification will take some aback by USD 6500. Well, that makes finding a good MicroStrategy professional hard to come by. Search amazon and you won't find a single book on MicroStrategy, where as for other BI tools, you will find tons of books. MicroStrategy training the books are privileged one and unavailable outside.
Probably the companies buying MicroStrategy never factor out the cost of hiring a MicroStrategy professional (feeding him) and the time required to hire a suitable candidate. Else 50% companies who purchased MicroStrategy wouldn't have purchased it. Not only quality even quantity resource are hard to find. BTW, most of companies purchasing MicroStrategy get the initial setup and development done by MicroStrategy Inc itself at some USD 100+ per hour. As company MicroStrategy Inc has very much right to charge it but lack of reasonably charged good education (that implies in getting good guys to maintain a company's BI system) should defiantly deter or think thrice before purchasing MicroStrategy BI platform. There are more number of MicroStrategy implementation and development consultation in MicroStrategy Inc then rest of world; something that's not true in case of BO and Cognos. One should not take it as joke.
So as long as MicroStrategy Inc doesn't change its lookout for reasonable cost education, it is not so good picture for MicroStrategy Inc. Till then I can actually sit, relax on couch.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
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I must disagree and give an example of how this is a wrong idea…MicroStrategy Educational offer is very competitive and allow to train a power user by few more then 3.000 USD…this is peanuts comparing to train other software’s power users. This is available for customer and partners, so, if customers don’t want to use MicroStrategy Consulting services, easily can find partners with qualified people for the job or even train is own personnel by this low amount of money.
ReplyDeleteExpensive for me is the number of consultants, hardware and user’s training that other BI platforms require just to maintain a few under users! If anyone is really interested is cost then you should read more about TCO!
What I'm trying to emphasis is that quality consultant are not so easy to come by as far as MicroStrategy is concerned. Peer BI tool's education is less than available at one 3rd cost. Though it may should OK, this has a very big impact on the implementation of MicroStrategy at client side. Just search about BO and Cognos training cost.
ReplyDeleteMy experience of having Power users knowing (they know it half hearted as its not their prime job) MicroStrategy is, it brings more chaos that clarity about the reports. Power user can not have not knowledge level on a full time consultant.
I know clients are free to take up consultation/implementation from MicroStrategy Inc other 3rd party but why would MicroStrategy loose that moolah making opportunity. The Sales consultant would lose its bonus [:)].
I may not be able to strongly put the words, how costly education is hurting MicroStrategy implementation / consulting and in turn MicroStrategy Inc but MicroStrategy Inc is looking for a quick big buck over this.
The blog is full of the TCO things. That's the only thing good about MicroStrategy.
I just hope MTSR doesnt contact you to shut down educating on your forum .. :)
ReplyDeleteMicrostrategy offers free software and course material to Colleges in the US. So I think your entire blog entry is not only wrong, but also disingenuous and misleading.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess, still shorting shares of MSTR?
Also, to say that TCO is the only good thing about MSTR is a strange comment. One, you're complaining about their prices and then point out that their TCO is good. Second, you've dedicated a blog to MSTR and you think their only redeeming value is their low cost?
Lastly, to anyone stumbling upon this blog as I have. MSTR has a customer forum with a LOT more useful information then the "education" this forum provides.
I can very well tell who is this person having openID called "dharkk" and why in recent time he had made so many negative comments on the blogs.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe about free software and course materials to be distributed to colleges as MicroStrategy will not give anything free to their partners, not a single page. Even if you purchase the license, training material (whose language is easier then manuals) is not provided.
It takes a very long time compared to BO/Cognos to realized TCO ASA MSTR is concerned.
Yeah, MSTR have a customer forum that has less than 1 thread posted a day since May 2004 and more than 60% queries are unanswered. Just access the MicroStrategy Customer Forums or ask your MicroStrategy liaison to check and he will reiterate. The problems posted on the forum are pretty tough ones that's why 70% are unanswered, so it is not really useful as you don't get any knowledge by reading that.
Dude,
ReplyDeleteThough the cost of TCO is high the business value on return on user time spent is low. also Mstr allows for more users to use the reporting with the lowest level of infrastructure requirements per gigabyte of warehouse. Also most companies need a fewer number of employees to manage and maintain reporting applications. Also the main selling point for mstr is that the customer dont have to buy multiple tools separately from the user licenses, like the other BI Vendors
Fewer number of employees needed spells a doom as the available market of good MSTR resource also decreases.
ReplyDeleteThere are different licensing in MSTR too for different purposes. anything specific you are mentioning?
MSTR licensing is maily of two varities : User based or cpu based. When you get MSTR you are actually buying the license which enable the usage of software. but with other tool you genrally pay for both a client user license and a server license.
ReplyDelete"Fewer number of employees needed spells a doom as the available market of good MSTR resource also decreases"
ReplyDeleteIe the Law of Supply and demand . Keep a lot of people away from diving deep into MSTR from a consulting perspective. As long as there are More jobs than people the Pay for MStr resources is higher.