The BI Survey 10: Arcplan Dominates Third-Party Frontend Market Again

Online, October 11, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The BI Survey 10, the largest independent survey on Business Intelligence software deployment, has again confirmed arcplan as the leading BI software vendor for customers using third-party frontends to create analytical applications on top of their SAP BW, Oracle Essbase and IBM Cognos TM1 data. arcplan dominates the markets for three out of four database products that the authors of The BI Survey looked at. This is the 7th year in a row that arcplan Enterprise proves its viability for SAP BW environments. Additionally the survey reports arcplan as the BI frontend with the broadest multidimensional data source access in customer organizations, leading the ranking in front of 25 other products like Information Builders, Oracle, and IBM. The BI Survey 10 (www.bi-survey.com), published by the Business Application Research Center (BARC), uses data from about 3,000 IT professionals all over the world to rank BI software in a variety of categories.

The survey verifies arcplan's leading position in the market for frontends for multidimensional databases. Over the last year, utilization of arcplan grew especially for IBM Cognos TM1 and Oracle Essbase environments. For the latter, 32 percent of Essbase users responded that they use arcplan for their reports and analysis, up from 13 percent in last year's survey. This makes arcplan Enterprise by far the most essential third-party frontend to Essbase, besting many of Oracle's own frontends. Prominent organizations such as Turner Broadcasting, Wegmans, Sodexo, IMAX, and Deutsche Telekom are using arcplan Enterprise to analyze their Essbase data, solidifying its top spot in this year's ranking.

Thirteen percent of SAP BW users replied that they use arcplan for their reports, reconfirming arcplan as the leading third-party frontend for the 7th time in a row and demonstrating its popularity in some cases over SAP's own tools.

As for being named the BI tool with the broadest connectivity to server platforms, arcplan's customers are seeing value from its wide array of communication interfaces. New partnerships in 2011 have yielded even greater access to data sources like Teradata and Oracle OLAP via Simba Technologies' MDX Provider.

"The latest edition of The BI Survey portrays an agile BI market that does not confirm the big vendors as dominant players for analysis and reporting," commented Tiemo Winterkamp, Senior VP, Global Marketing at arcplan. "Companies want to rely on tools that offer broad data connectivity in order to consolidate and integrate their solutions. We are pleased to see arcplan widely used in this market - it is a strong indicator that we deliver BI solutions that fit to the needs of companies, especially when it comes to working with multi-dimensional databases."

About BARC - Business Application Research Center
The Business Application Research Center (BARC) was founded in 1994 as a spin-off from the University of Wurzburg's Chair for Information Science. BARC's mission is to bring transparency into the software market and provide truly unbiased support for organizations in search of suitable IT solutions.

The institute offers neutral and substantiated surveys and market analyses in the field of software for Business Intelligence, Document Management, Customer Relationship Man-agement, Supply Chain Management and Project Management. BARC organizes confer-ences and seminars where leading vendors present their products, and where new trends in the software market are discussed.
BARC acts, rates and consults independently and impartially - no software vendor is connected to BARC in any way or has to pay fees to be tested in our reports. BARC's Reports on tools for Business Intelligence, Document Management, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management and Project Management have made it one of the most recognized analyst houses in Central Europe. www.barc.de