Applix and Sybase join forces on analysis tools

Sybase is to integrate Applix business performance management technology into its tools

Business performance management (BPM) software specialist Applix has this week signed a major technology alliance with database vendor Sybase as the company also detailed plans to reposition itself as a provider of operational as well as financial performance management software.

Under the terms of the alliance, Sybase will integrate Applix's TM1 BPM suite with its Risk Analytics Platform for the financial sector in a move designed to provide real-time trade and risk analytics functionality for securities trading and risk management solutions.

The two companies said the ability to track and analyse trading performance in real time would help firms comply with new financial regulations such as the imminent Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).

However, Martin Richmond-Coggan, vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Applix, claimed the combined functionality would also help firms better manage traders' performance. "Traders' performance has been traditionally measured on how much money they made, but that did not tell you if they could have done better or if they were outperforming the market," he said. "This type of high volume, high velocity analysis gives firms that insight."

Richmond-Coggan added that this latest alliance is part of Applix's broader strategy to offer operational performance management solutions alongside its traditional financial performance management toolset. "We saw that customers who used TM1 to monitor finance performance were using it do things outside the finance department and managing nitty-gritty operational issues and performance, " he said.

This strategy was bolstered earlier this year by Applix's acquisition of analytics software specialist Temtec, according to Richmond-Coggan. "With o pera tional performance management business managers aren’t as adept at handling spreadsheets as finance execs, so acquiring Temtec gave us a great easy to use front end for line managers to access our BPM information and functionality," he argued.

Richmond-Coggan said this shift had been underpinned by the combination of Applix's strategy of using RAM to process analysis of business performance and the emergence of 64 bit hardware. "We have always processed in RAM which is a strategy that has got better and better," he said. "32-bit systems limited us to working on moderate sized datasets, which was OK for financial data but less useful for masses of rich operational data. But the emergence of 64-bit has allowed us to provide analysis of larger operational datasets in real time."

The move into operational performance will also help defend Applix against increased competition from Microsoft's Excel 2007 release, which is expected to feature significantly enhanced business intelligence (BI) and BPM capabilities designed to make the spreadsheet more robust for use in finance departments. " We are protecting [ourselves] against Microsoft moving into the market," said Richmond-Coggan.