The acquisition of Acta Technology by Business Objects has left Ascential Software as the only independent vendor of data integration and ETL (extraction, transformation and loading) tools in the South African market.
This is the word from Julian Field, GM of Ascential South Africa, who says the Business Objects-Acta axis has seriously proscribed the choices companies and partners have when considering tools in this high-impact and highly strategic market.
"Since breaking away from Informix, Ascential has consciously and fiercely focused on being an independent partner to other vendors and solutions companies," says Field. "This is because of the strategic facilitating and enablement role data integration plays in business intelligence, ERP and CRM.
"In effect, data integration should stand separate from any one vendor in any of these spaces, precisely because of the pivotal role it plays in extracting data from any source system and preparing it for further manipulation in any target system. With Acta now tightly aligned with Business Objects, customers and partners may feel that their vendor-independent stance has been compromised."
Business Objects has announced plans to acquire privately held Acta for $65 million in a highly publicised deal. Acta has become one of the market`s highest profile ETL vendors, especially in the ERP space, but its attractiveness for customers and partners could be tarnished now, adds Field.
"Our experience with Informix showed us how easy it is to lose market share when you are seen to be aligned with just one vendor. Companies such as Sybase were reluctant to partner with us. As our R3 million deal with Sybase at Telkom shows, that reluctance is something of the past."
As an independent vendor with significant cash reserves, Ascential is also in a position to invest as heavily as it chooses in research and development and acquisitions, benefits Acta might lose as a company which must report to its new owners on how it deploys its resources, Field points out.
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