Pentaho Takes Open-Source Path To Business Intelligence
Company:
Headquarters: Orlando, Fla.
Technology Sector: Software
Key Product: Pentaho Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition
Year Founded: 2004
Number of Channel Partners: 150 worldwide
Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution provider
Why You Should Care: Pentaho's open-source approach to business intelligence eliminates costly licensing agreements in favor of annual support subscriptions.
The Lowdown: As global economies continue to crumble, one technology that's attracting steady interest is business intelligence. That's because business intelligence offers all-important agility and insight to companies that have tons of data residing on back-end systems and need to get a handle on it.
Business intelligence software is expensive, however, and this has kept many firms on the sidelines. Recent consolidation in the business intelligence market also has driven prices up. But Pentaho, an Orlando, Fla.-based vendor, has found that an open-source business intelligence model works well in a space that has been dominated by proprietary vendors such as Business Objects, Cognos and Hyperion.
Pentaho's flagship Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition offering includes reporting, analysis, dashboards, data warehousing and data mining tools. Customers can pick and choose individual pieces that fit their needs. Pentaho doesn't charge software-licensing fees, and instead generates revenue by offering support, services and product updates through an annual subscription.
Pentaho is especially attractive to smaller firms because they can download the software and test it out before spending a dime, said Lance Walter, vice president of marketing for Pentaho. "The value proposition of business intelligence is universal. People use BI in every industry, and it lets companies get more value out of the information they already have," Walter said.
Pentaho relies primarily on its direct sales force to reach customers in North America, but does work with government-focused VARs on some deals, Walter said. In other parts of the world, Pentaho utilizes its channel of 150 resellers, and the vendor's overall direct-channel split is about 50-50, according to Lars Nordwall, senior vice president of business development.
In February, Pentaho launched its Gold Reseller program, which kicked off with signing of resellers in Australia, Hong Kong, Latin and South America, and India, Nordwall said. Pentaho's goal isn't to build a huge channel, but to find resellers with business intelligence knowledge that can represent Pentaho's products.
"We could easily get to 500 resellers within a short period of time, but we've chosen quality over quantity," Nordwall said. "We're looking at partners that can actually provide the most value to customers."