Publications

Here is an article by Rick Sherman, Bi Briefs, August 2004 Issue.

Did you see all the press about a software sales slump after Q2 2004 results were pre-announced last month? It's really not as bad as they made it out to be. Let me explain.

Part of the slump was not really declining sales, but rather sales not meeting Wall Street and the software vendors' expectations. Several software stocks took nosedives when they pre-announced or announced disappointing sales or earnings. Ascential Software and Embarcadero Technologies each had one-day declines of over 20% plus additional declines. Other firms that didn't have such steep one-day declines still had 7-8% one-day drops with further sell-off in the accompanying days.

There has been much talk about the possible reasons for the disappointing sales. Much of the blame has been pinned on an inability to meet sales expectations, with many of the software vendors saying that anticipated deals in Q2 did not close and were postponed until Q3.

What are the reasons for the shortfall in expectations? Let's look at three areas: overall economy, software spending, and issues specific to data warehousing (DW) and business intelligence (BI) software markets.

Here is the rest of the story.