Nigel Pendse

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 practiced as a professional engineer.

Since 1995, he has done work for over 40 vendors, but is independent of both software vendors and consulting firms. He has helped 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 2003, in Bled in Slovenia, one of the more scenic locations for OLAP seminars

He has spoken as an independent industry analyst at many conferences in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Turkey, the UK and the USA 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.

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!

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. Printed editions continued to be published until late 2001, but had become too unwieldy, so The OLAP Report is now only available on-line.

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.

Seven years of printed editions of The OLAP Report, from 1995 to 2001. The OLAP Report is now on-line only, as printed editions cannot keep up with fast moving developments in the OLAP world.

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 have been many surprises, with some well-known products turning out to have disloyal, unhappy users, while others did much better than expected.

The OLAP Survey started in mid 2000, when Peter Auditore, then president of Survey.com, approached Nigel Pendse with the idea of collaborating on an in-depth, quantitative assessment of the BI market. The proposal seemed promising, but the project turned out to be harder than expected. Like many surveys, The OLAP Survey struggled to get a large enough sample for statistical reliability, but even that first sample was larger than most such surveys manage. The first edition was something of an experiment and took a long time to produce, not being released till July 2001.

Since then, new editions have been published annually, in November. Each edition has been larger and more thorough than ever.

Last updated in February 2007