Picture taken in October 2001, in Bled in Slovenia, one of the more scenic locations for OLAP seminars
Nigel Pendse is the lead author of The OLAP Report and The OLAP Survey, and is a consultant and speaker on a variety of OLAP-related subjects. Before becoming independent, he had worked both as a user and then in a variety of roles as a vendor of business intelligence products since 1973. He has a master’s degree in nuclear reactor engineering from Imperial College, London, though he has not practised as a professional engineer.
Since 1995, he has done work for about 30 vendors, but is independent of both software vendors and consulting firms. He helps with product and marketing strategy, functionality, positioning, pricing, partnerships, etc. He also sometimes advises investment firms and VCs planning to invest in OLAP vendors. To ensure neutrality, he does not invest or trade in in any OLAP vendors, and turns down any work that would lead to a conflict of interest (for example, invitations to serve on the boards of OLAP companies).
He also writes occasional articles for publications such as DM Review, the late lamented Byte and Datamation, and very occasional vendor white papers. However, he does not allow his name to be associated with any marketing materials or white papers that promote a single vendor’s products.
Picture taken in October 2001, in Bled in Slovenia, one of the more scenic locations for OLAP seminars |
He speaks at conferences in both Europe and North America and is popular for his forthright, irreverent views. Having worked for many years in sales, marketing and product management roles as a vendor, he has a strong insight into the truth (or otherwise) of vendor hype, and is never afraid to puncture any bubbles.
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Research on The OLAP Report started in 1994, and the first two-volume edition was published in August 1995. At that time, OLAP was just beginning to be noticed, and Nigel felt that there was a growing information gap in the market. Many more organizations had an interest in buying OLAP products and applications, but there were few sources of solid and impartial information — The OLAP Report was the result. Several other authors have been involved in writing for it, but the bulk of the content has always been written by Nigel Pendse.
The OLAP Report covers OLAP technologies, applications, products, case studies and implementation advice. The contents are somewhat more technical than is usual, and are aimed more at experienced buyers than complete OLAP novices. In fact, The OLAP Report does not seek to provide a basic primer for those who want a simple introduction to OLAP, as there are many such explanations freely available on the Web or in business books.
Vendors do not pay to be included, and although they have an opportunity to correct technical errors, they have no right to veto content or opinions. Most product reviews include criticisms, so it is rare for vendors to want to purchase reprints!
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In this fast developing market, paper-based content soon becomes dated, so by late 1996, updates were being published on the Web. By the following year, the entire contents were available on the Web, with a significant proportion available freely to anyone, with the rest available only to subscribers. The OLAP Report has an old-fashioned commitment to the traditional Web ethos, and it is browser-neutral, advertisement-free and uses no cookies, plug-ins, Java applets, ActiveX controls, PDFs or other intrusive technologies. Printed editions continue to be published (though they may be dropped in the future), but they are now just a snapshot of part of the Web site (older archives remain on-line, but are not reproduced in the hard copy versions). |
Unlike
The OLAP Report, The OLAP Survey
is a quantitative analysis of how organizations select and use OLAP products.
It provides fascinating insights into which products were considered, why, selection
rates and reasons, shelfware rates, applications, implementation issues, Web
deployment, problems encountered and goal satisfaction rates. There were many
surprises, with some well-known products turning out to have disloyal, unhappy
users, while others did much better than expected.
Last updated in January 2002
