BPM Partners and OLAP Report Form Alliance to Deliver Objective Research on Business Performance Management (BPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) Markets.

Leading Advisory Services/Research Firms Form Partnership to Provide Customers With Comprehensive and Holistic Overview of Performance Management Market

STAMFORD, Conn. -- BPM Partners, the leading independent authority on business performance management (BPM) solutions, and the Business Application Research Center (BARC), publishers of The OLAP Report, an independent research resource for organizations buying and implementing on-line analytical processing (OLAP) applications, today announced a partnership that allies the two leading vendor independent performance management and business intelligence consultancies. As a result of the agreement, BPM Partners will distribute The OLAP Report research in North America, and the two firms will co-develop future research. Companies looking to learn more about acquiring this research can go to http://www.bpmpartners.com/bpmcentral_thebpmreport.shtml .

"Our alliance represents a partnership of two different perspectives for considering BPM solutions," said Craig Schiff, CEO, BPM Partners. "We are applying BPM Partners' historic strength in analyzing the business process and end-user side of BPM solutions with the OLAP Report's strong technical reporting on BPM tools and applications. Ultimately, our combined research will be a single source for the detailed evaluation of performance management offerings."

This announcement points to a growing trend within the industry: the emergence of a more integrated approach to BPM by combining best-of-breed BPM applications (such as budgeting, financial consolidations, operational analytics) and business intelligence tools. It also illustrates the increasingly global nature of BPM and BI tools.

"Companies that sell BPM solutions can be found across Europe, Asia and throughout North America," said Nigel Pendse, Lead Author and Founder of The OLAP Report. "The OLAP Report's broad appeal across all markets will be strengthened through this relationship. Our combined global presence and reach will aid our customers as they search for the optimal performance management solution that will meet their individual business needs."

BPM Partners publishes a variety of reports, including the influential BPM Pulse Survey that features customer satisfaction ratings on 20 leading vendors including: Applix, Business Objects, Cognos, Infor, Oracle/Hyperion, OutlookSoft, SAP and SAS.

The OLAP Report is an internationally respected, authoritative source of information on OLAP products, applications, suppliers and trends, as well as practical advice on selecting software and implementing applications. The OLAP Report features detailed reviews of over 25 products.

BPM - a growing software category with more than 100 vendors - is a combination of business processes, select measures (metrics, key performance indicators) and systems that enable an organization to understand, act on and influence its business performance. Budgeting, planning, consolidation, scorecards, dashboards, business intelligence (BI) and analytic applications all fall under the BPM umbrella. In addition, regulatory issues such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, and IFRS compliance are often business drivers for today's BPM applications.

About BPM Partners

BPM Partners is the leading independent authority on business performance management (BPM) solutions and a founding member of the BPM Standards Group. BPM Partners' vendor-neutral consultants guide companies through their BPM initiatives from start to finish, helping companies attain the maximum value from their business performance management initiatives. This is done through hands-on services that provide insight on how to collect and analyze the right information to address specific business goals. BPM Partners leads clients through requirements definition, vendor selection, and deployment of departmental or enterprise-wide BPM systems. In 2006 BPM Partners was named a 'Small Jewel' in Consulting Magazine's annual selection of the most innovative consulting companies.

By analyzing and then matching the client's requirements with the appropriate vendor, BPM Partners helps companies narrow the selection of vendors from a lengthy industry list that includes Applix (Nasdaq: APLX), Business Objects/Cartesis (Nasdaq: BOBJ), Clarity Systems, Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN), Infor, Longview Solutions, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Oracle/Hyperion (Nasdaq: ORCL), OutlookSoft, SAP (NYSE: SAP), SAS and others. For further details, go to www.bpmpartners.com.

About BARC - Business Application Research Center

The Business Application Research Center (BARC) was founded in 1994 as a spin-off from the University of Wurzburg's Chair for Information Science. BARC's mission is to bring transparency into the software market and provide truly unbiased support for organizations in search of suitable IT solutions.

The institute offers neutral surveys and market analyses in the field of software for Business Intelligence, Document Management, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management and Project Management. BARC organizes conferences and seminars where leading vendors present their products, and where new trends in the software market are discussed.

BARC employees have been researching software markets for more than 12 years, and have helped more than 2000 customers find the right tools and IT strategies for their business needs.

BARC acts, rates and consults independently and impartially - no software vendor is connected to BARC in any way or has to pay fees to be tested in our reports. BARC's Reports on tools for Business Intelligence, Document Management, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management and Project Management have made it one of the most recognized analyst houses in Europe.

For further details, go to www.barc.de/en/ .