Business Intelligence Survey Ranks Applix #1 In
Fast Rollouts, Performance, Customer Loyalty and Ease of Use
Westboro,
MA, March 25, 2002 – Applix, Inc., (NASDAQ: APLX), a leading global provider of
interactive financial analysis and CRM/CRM analytics software, today announced
that an independent survey cites Applix iTM1 as the industry’s leading solution
in rapid implementations, performance, customer loyalty, and ease of use —
outranking business intelligence competitors such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT),
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Hyperion (NASDAQ: HYSL), Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN),
MicroStrategy (NADAQ: MSTR), Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ) and Brio (NASDAQ:
BRIO). Announced at a recent Gartner conference in February, The OLAP
Survey, conducted by market research firm Survey.com, also found that
Applix iTM1 builds the quickest proofs of concept in the industry.
The OLAP Survey, the largest of its kind ever conducted, asked
644 business intelligence users worldwide to rate 11 vendors on implementation,
performance and overall satisfaction of business intelligence products.
"Applix iTM1 came out well in The OLAP Survey, with its users
reporting well above average loyalty, very high repurchase intentions, high
project success rates and a very low shelfware rate," said Nigel Pendse,
author of The OLAP Survey. "This
confirms other product research that Applix iTM1 provides exceptional
performance and convenience when used for interactive financial analysis. None
of its major competitors come close to Applix iTM1 in its sweet spot."
·
Rollout time:
According to survey respondents, Applix iTM1 was the fastest solution to
rollout, with 82 percent of iTM1 sites completing initial rollout within six
months. By contrast, 73 percent of Microsoft OLAP sites and only 56 percent of
Oracle Express sites were in production within the same period. In fact, Applix
customers were twice as likely to value speed of implementation than other
respondents: fifty percent of surveyed Applix iTM1 buyers cited the fact that
Applix completed proof of concept faster than others as a key reason for
purchase, compared to 20.8 percent for all others.
Applix iTM1’s reputation for quick, inexpensive rollouts was
highlighted in other OLAP Survey findings.
Ø Low external
consulting spend: The average
for Applix iTM1 users was
$61,590, less than half the average consulting costs of
$139,801.
Ø Low shelfware
rates (defined as the
proportion of licensed software seats remaining undeployed after purchase):
Only 19 percent of Applix iTM1 implementation seats were inactive, versus a
survey average of 39 percent.
·
Performance:
The survey found that Applix iTM1 is 12 times faster than MicroStrategy and
Essbase at “load/build times,” eight times faster than Oracle Express and more than
twice as fast as Microsoft Analysis Services. “Load/build times” is defined as
the amount of time it takes to recalculate a business model after loading new
data or changing input values on-the-fly. As further evidence of Applix iTM1’s
unrivaled power, 92 percent of Applix customers cited performance as a reason
to buy Applix iTM1, compared to an average of 49.9 percent of customers for all
other vendors.
·
Customer Loyalty (Intention to Purchase More Seats): The OLAP Survey
reported that Applix iTM1 users were the most loyal in terms of their
intentions to purchase more seats. Seventy-five percent said they intend to
purchase more Applix iTM1 licenses—well above the average response rate of 53
percent.
·
Ease of use:
Sixty-seven percent of respondents who purchased Applix iTM1 cited ease of use
as a key selection criterion, also the highest such response in the survey. By
contrast, only 43.3 percent of all other products were cited for ease of use.
(For a synopsis of the Applix placements in the OLAP Survey results, see below.)
“We are
extremely pleased by our high rankings in this prestigious and definitive report,” said Alan Goldsworthy,
president and CEO of Applix. “Our customers have been giving us tremendous feedback
over the years about how Applix iTM1 has helped them manage their businesses
better in a measurable way — The OLAP
Survey confirms this feedback.”
Applix iTM1 is the leading
high-performance technology platform that powers a suite of planning, reporting
and analysis solutions used by Global 2000 enterprises, including 50 percent of
the Fortune 500 companies. Applix
iTM1 helps executives throughout the world improve the performance of their
businesses with an unrivaled real-time planning approach that enables
interactive “insight on demand.” Applix iTM1 is sold and supported directly and
through a global network of partners and value-added resellers.
About Applix
Applix (NASDAQ:APLX) is a leading global provider of
enterprise performance management solutions that include interactive financial
analysis and CRM/CRM analytics solutions, enabling companies to achieve better,
faster decision-making. Applix solutions capture information from across the
extended enterprise and enable continual marketplace responsiveness. Adaptable, scalable and real-time, Applix solutions support
unique, complex and disparate business processes, providing analysis, planning,
measurement and response to changing customer requirements and business
dynamics. Headquartered in Westboro, MA, Applix has more than 2,600 customers
worldwide, including over half of the Fortune
500. For more information on Applix, please visit
http://www.applix.com.
Synopsis of the Applix placements in the OLAP Survey results
Praise
for Applix iTM1 as reported in The OLAP Survey
“The OLAP Survey,” an independent survey of 644 OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) users worldwide, documents users’ responses to standard questions about their OLAP selection criteria and their overall satisfaction with the OLAP solution they implemented. The survey was conducted in 2001 and announced in February 2002 at a Gartner user conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, entitled Business Intelligence 2002 – Managing Effectively in Times of Economic Uncertainty.
The author of The OLAP Survey is the internationally renowned business-intelligence expert Nigel Pendse, who also co-authors The OLAP Report, a regularly updated Web site that provides in-depth evaluations of OLAP products.
Pendse recently said this about Applix iTM1:
"Applix iTM1 came out well in The OLAP Survey,
with its users reporting well above average loyalty, very high repurchase
intentions, high project success rates and a very low shelfware rate. This
confirms other product research that Applix iTM1 provides exceptional
performance and convenience when used for interactive financial analysis.
None of its major competitors come close to Applix iTM1 in its sweet
spot."
Among the products represented in the survey were Microsoft Analysis Services, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Express, Hyperion Essbase, Cognos, MicroStrategy, Business Objects, WhiteLight, Seagate Holos, Seagate Info and Brio.
Time to roll out |
Solutions rolled out within 6 months: Applix iTM1: 82% Microsoft: 73% Oracle Express: 56% |
|
Data load/build times |
Applix iTM1: 15 minutes Microstrategy, Essbase: 3 hours Express: Over two hours Microsoft: Over 30 minutes “This level of performance indicates that iTM1 is suitable for truly interactive, read-write OLAP applications” – Nigel Pendse |
|
Customer loyalty |
Likelihood of Customer Buying More SeatsApplix iTM1: 75% of users Others: 53% of users |
|
Reasons customers cited for buying OLAP Servers: |
||
Performance |
Applix iTM1 92% |
Average of all other OLAPs
49.4% |
Ease of Use |
67% |
43.4% |
Reasons customers cited
for buying OLAP Servers (Continued): |
||
Quickest proof of concept |
50% |
20.8% |
Plans for wider deployment |
“Express and iTM1 users were the most likely to see no
deterrents against a wider deployment, and Microsoft OLAP and Essbase the
least likely” – Nigel Pendse |
Applix iTM1 is the second most likely product to have been implemented (and not shelved) |
Applix iTM1 81% |
Average 61% |
Media Contacts: John Todaro Douglas
Russell/Tim King
Applix, Inc. Schwartz Communications
508-870-0300 x456 781-684-0770
jtodaro@applix.com applix@schwartz-pr.com
###