Calumo Quits (Kinda Sorta) TM1, heads for Redmond

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Alan Kirk
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Calumo Quits (Kinda Sorta) TM1, heads for Redmond

Post by Alan Kirk »

Some members will have undoubtedly used Calumo (previously SPF and/or Beachware) add-on products for TM1.

It appears from this announcement that they've decided to jack in at least the TM1 tools that they were selling, and concentrate on MS.
For many years CALUMO has created software that sits on top of the two leading Business Intelligence platforms: IBM and Microsoft.

Today, CALUMO announces its platform choice for the future of BI.

It’s unequivocally Microsoft.
"Unequivocally" is an interesting choice of word, since there does (in my opinion) seem to be a bit of equivocation in the "Find out what this means to CALUMO customers using TM1 and Calumo for TM1" link:
The future of CALUMO software is Microsoft. What does this mean for our TM1 customers?
Fifteen years ago, under our previous brands of Dynamic Decisions and SPF we were responsible for massively growing the adoption of the OLAP product TM1. At the time, there just wasn't anything else that could match its performance, affordability and simplicity.
I'd argue that there still isn't. OK, "simplicity" may not be as present today as it once was, but that's just because the feature load has increased so much. (Sandboxes, Contributor et al.)
With today's announcement - we'd like to reassure our TM1 & CALUMO for TM1 customers that we're still here for you. We continue to support you, provide the training you love and the consultants you trust.
I read this to mean that they'll continue support for released versions but won't be bringing out new ones, and will continue to provide consulting and training services but as I said... it strikes me as equivocal. I read it as "Yes, there will be one and only one product that we'll be dealing with, and that will be MS. Except when it's not."
Let's be realistic - there can only ever be one best platform ...
Let's be even more realistic... there is never, ever one "best" anything, unless you define the parameters very, very narrowly which is why the expression "best practice" grinds my teeth so much. Every solution to every problem has a combination of strengths and weaknesses, and all you can do is pick the one that has more of the former and fewer of the latter when applied to your own unique situation.
... and for us, it's Microsoft on every conceivable front. We've worked with TM1 for 14 years now. Evolution is now more important than ever; and what's coming in SQL Server 2012 is incredible.
I have to admit that this piques my curiosity since I'm a major SQL Server fan and often describe it as "the last decent product that Microsoft makes". (Although VB.Net isn't bad. I'm more concerned about MS becoming an evolutionary dead end since it seems to have spent the greater part of the last 10 years hacking users off with bad decisions from effectively killing the entire VB6 code base to trashing 20 years of user experience and training via the (in 2007) uncustomisable (ef)fluent user interface to trashing the user security model in Access 2007 to withdrawing upgrade pricing for Office to designing its mobile phone platform so that I kid you not, it is actually easier to sync with Outlook from an Android platform (especially securely via a USB link) than it is from a Windows one to... I could go on. You can only do that kind of thing for so long, even if you have market dominance on your side.)

However I mostly work with the database engine; what I've seen of MSAS hasn't overwhelmed me (especially in comparison to TM1) but I'll admit that I haven't put in the time to really explore it in depth yet, much less know what's planned for 2012.

On the other hand...
It has become clear to us that the Microsoft platform provides the single most effective technology from which to offer Business Intelligence and Planning to organisations

The only truly unified platform for BI - from transaction to dashboard to data mining, its one single code-base, one unified application.
I'll grant that point. Though SAP and Oracle probably won't. Certainly TM1 is always going to be an "outsider" to some extent given that IBM has no (significant) end to end solution from purchasing and sales through to reporting and BI. But on the other hand... this statement presupposes that all of the BI can be or should be internally generated, and that's not a valid assumption in my opinion. And TM1 is seriously good as a platform for bringing different information types from different sources together.
For performance and stability, Microsoft BI consistently outperforms other leading platforms.
I think that's very, very arguable.
Microsoft's licensing is clear, affordable and has none of the pitfalls that other vendors often exploit to leverage money where no real value is created.
Cheezes, did I just see a bright light beam down from the heavens and hear an angelic choir belt out the Hallelujah chorus? I don't think I've ever seen a statement that was more right on the money. One thing that I've always loved about SQL Server is that the licencing costs are clear, unambiguous and out there in public. Both MS and Adobe are really good at this; this is what you get, this is how much it costs you, want a volume deal? Then we can negotiate. None of this nonsense about the price being set according to what the buyer will bear, or causing you to have to factor the number of cores that your processor has into your purchasing choice as if the hardware that you're running an application on makes even a cent of difference to the development cost of it. (Granted SQL Server 2012 will offer a core-based licencing model though Standard edition will still have a server + CAL licence model as an option. And, to reiterate, repeat and even belabour the point, IBM, I'm betting that the costs will still be out there in the open.)

I can guess which big blue organisation with a pricing policy which has all the transparency of wet concrete that particular comment was aimed at.
Microsoft’s partnering strategy fosters partner focus on customer outcomes better than any other vendor in our discipline. That means better service to you.
I don't know anything about MS's partnering, but know a bit about IBM's. Hmm, I'm going to zip my lip on that one.

We've been off maintenance with Calumo for years for reasons that I shan't go into, but it's a pity to see them withdraw from the TM1 field to the extent that they are; they've done some useful and innovative stuff over the years.

(And there's our 500th post in General.)
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
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Olivier
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Re: Calumo Quits (Kinda Sorta) TM1, heads for Redmond

Post by Olivier »

Hi Alan,

I was reading through the announcement on their site too.
did I just see a bright light beam down from the heavens and hear an angelic choir belt out the Hallelujah chorus?
Me too, is saw it ;)
HTH
Olivier
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