Info Builders Sees Strong Mid-Market Growth

Published: May 22, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Now that IBM has chosen it as the basis for its System i business intelligence offering, Information Builders is ramping up its sales and marketing efforts for WebFOCUS, the Java-based reporting tool that will replace Query/400 and that IBM will resell as DB2 Web Query for System i.

Last week, Info Builders announced several new "midmarket" customers have adopted WebFOCUS, including the Hillman Group, Star Lumber, ABC Financial, and Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS). While the company didn't say specifically that these customers will run WebFOCUS on System i, the fact is that at least two of them--Hillman Group and Star Lumber--already are running it on their i5/OS server.

In a March interview, Info Builder's president and chief executive Gerald Cohen said there were about 300 customers running WebFOCUS on IBM's System i platform. That number is expected to increase once the special OEM version of WebFocus from IBM, DB2 Web Query for System i, starts shipping later this year.

Chances look good that Info Builders will capture a greater share of IT spending in the years to come, especially as spending on business intelligence continues to grow. According to IBM, IT spending in the mid market is growing at rate of 6.4 percent a year, which is a faster rate than enterprise spending is growing. As the market matures and sophisticated business intelligence capabilities trickle down into the mid market, smaller companies will be able to take advantage of that.

"Today's mid size companies are experiencing the same compliance, reporting, and integration pain points as the corporate powerhouse competitors," Cohen says. "Leading mid market companies are realizing the business value business intelligence solutions can provide to address these challenges."

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