OEM: The Pendulum Swings Toward Buy versus Build

If you Google “OEM: build versus buy,” you’ll get nearly a million results. It almost doesn’t matter what area of technology you pick, at some point there’s going to be a build versus buy bridge to cross. 

For example, let’s take embedded analytics. That’s a hot topic right now among bloggers and industry analysts. ISVs that build line-of-business applications see embedded analytics as a way to differentiate their products. And, since they’re software companies, they could develop and embed the analytics themselves, right? Yes, they could.

But should they? Probably not. There are a lot reasons, not the least of which is time to market. While ISV “A” is developing and embedding analytics in its app, competitors “B” through whatever have already embedded someone else’s best-of-breed analytics. First mover advantage is not to be underestimated.

TIBCO Spotfire OEMs Attivio’s Data Catalog

TIBCO Spotfire is a smart, secure, governed, enterprise-class analytics platform with built-in data wrangling that delivers AI-driven, visual, geo, and streaming analytics. And to help it stay ahead in the ultra competitive BI market, it elected to offer Attivio’s data catalog as the TIBCO Spotfire® Smart Data Catalog. For more information, you can find the press announcement here.

Like ISVs that choose not to develop their own embedded analytics, TIBCO chose not to build its own data catalog. Instead, it decided to go with Attivio—a Forrester Wave leader in cognitive search and knowledge discovery. Attivio’s data catalog answers the question: “What data’s out there and what does it mean?” Without tying IT into knots. Or as TIBCO describes it on the company website, “The brand new Spotfire Smart Data Catalog makes navigating your corporate data as easy as searching the web for content.” Well said.