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."

 

Applix iTM1 Leads in Fast Rollouts, Performance, Customer Loyalty and Ease of Use

Among the key survey findings, Applix iTM1 outranked its competitors in the following categories:

 

·        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.”

 

About Applix iTM1

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.

 

Categories in Which Applix  iTM1 Was Rated #1 Among All OLAP Solutions

 

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 applicationsNigel Pendse

 

Customer loyalty

Likelihood of Customer Buying More Seats

Applix 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

 

Also Noteworthy

 

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           

 

 

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