Business Objects and Microsoft To Make War in the Midmarket

Seeing a huge market opportunity to sell business intelligence software to companies with 100 to 1,000 employees and $100 million to $1 billion in revenue, Business Objects today announced a major new-product family and larger initiative aimed at catering to midsized companies. The midmarket now buys $2.1 billion worth of BI software each year, according to IDC, and Business Objects says that figure is growing 12.5 percent per year — 50 percent faster than BI sales growth among large enterprises.

To cater to the tighter budgets and leaner IT staffs of midsized companies, Business Objects is introducing Crystal Decisions, a “holistic” product that will be offered in Standard, Professional and Premium editions. The Standard edition, which includes reporting, query and analysis, is being released today starting at $20,000. The Pro and Premium editions, which will add data integration and performance management capabilities, will debut in the second and fourth quarter, respectively. All three editions will be able to deliver data, reports and analyses within Microsoft Office and SharePoint.

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Business Objects hits the Mid-market

Hoping to find a market among mid-range companies for sophisticated business intelligence (BI) tools, Business Objects has launched specially priced applications for SMEs.

There are three options with a variety of different features. These range from a standard edition with basic facilities, available now, through to a professional edition with data-integration facilities, which should be available in the second quarter of this year.

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Business Objects throws down Collaborative BI Gauntlet

The solution, the BI Collaborator, enables users to communicate with colleagues and partners to detect presence, and view and share reports. Business Objects’ demonstration depicts a map-based report that uses Google Maps, with drill-through functionality. Furthermore, collaboration is to be a key part of the company’s strategy for the future; it is positioned as a core element of its newly-published vision for BI 2.0. That vision is encapsulated by the term “Ambient BI”. It defines pervasive BI beyond 2006 that has easy visualization, with analytics, search, and collaboration that can be embedded in applications. In the Business Objects world of Ambient BI, structured and unstructured data are brought together as input, including data from external Web sites. BI output is delivered in a flexible way to any device, mobile or not, and/or via mashups.

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Business Objects updates tool set

November 06, 2006 (Computerworld) — SAN FRANCISCO — Business Objects SA today unveiled an update to its current tool set at its user conference here and provided a glimpse of its take on the role of BI in the burgeoning world of Web 2.0. The new BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite, expected to be available during the first half of 2007, is an update to the company’s tool set that is designed make it easier for business users to access the analysis and reports they need on a daily basis. The upcoming suite will not require users to migrate to new software but will be available as an add-on to XI Release 2, said John Schwarz, CEO of Paris-based Business Objects. The update includes added search capabilities, new visualization tools and a faster OLAP client.

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IBM, Business Objects Team Up

The two companies will develop and sell new products using IBM hardware, middleware and services. In addition, they’ll announce a new center designed to improve the efficiency of the joint-services practice. Business Objects will contribute its business-intelligence software and tools.

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Business Objects nets 14,000-seat Australia Post deal

AUSTRALIA Post is planning to boost its business intelligence capabilities. It has signed a 14,000-seat software licence with Business Objects. The three-year installation and support deal is the largest local win for Business Objects, which originated in France and is now listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. “Australia Post is embarking on a performance management initiative, and will use our software to help it do all reporting and analysis,” Business Objects Asia-Pacific general manager Keith Budge said. “It’s a pretty significant project, certainly a world leader for the postal industry.

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Business Objects ‘not up for sale’

Despite evidence that Business Objects SA was once a takeover target of Oracle Corp., the business intelligence specialist has clung to its independence through a period of consolidation in the software industry. And that’s how Business Objects Chief Executive Officer John Schwarz wants things to stay.

“Business Objects is not up for sale,” Schwarz said Thursday in an interview.

“There are a lot of rumors, but we are managing the business to remain independent, and believe our customers want that,” he said.

That independence shows in the company’s operating system platform strategy. While Business Objects offers its applications on Windows, Unix and Linux, and integrates its reporting tools with Microsoft Corp.’s Office suite, Schwarz would like to see the open-source OS grow.

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Business Objects Introduces BusinessObjects Data Quality XI for Siebel Customer Relationship Management Applications

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 – BOB), the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced general availability of BusinessObjects™ Data Quality XI for Siebel Customer Relationship Management Applications. The new solution, powered by Business Objects Data Quality XI Release 2, provides a single, tightly integrated data quality platform that scales across operating and application environments. Now, users of Oracle’s Siebel CRM Applications can have immediate access to trusted business data to help improve the success of their customer relationship management initiatives. Data Quality XI for Siebel CRM Applications offers a centralized business rule repository that allows companies to easily create business rules and apply them enterprise-wide. A service-oriented architecture allows multiple departments within an organization to access and share the business rule repository. By consolidating data from disparate sources and using a consistent data quality process, Data Quality XI for Siebel CRM Applications delivers more reliable data quality and provides real-time access to information needed to monitor business operations and react rapidly to changing business needs.

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Business Objects to Share Vision for the Future of Business Intelligence

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Thousands of customers, partners, and industry luminaries are expected to gather in San Francisco this November, for the Business Objects Insight Americas 2006 User Conference. Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 – BOB), the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, will host the BI industry’s foremost event for helping organizations learn how to simplify access to information and gain competitive advantage. The 12th annual Business Objects User Conference will be held November 5-8, 2006, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For detailed information or to register for the event, please visit www.businessobjects.com/userconference. This year’s conference will address how organizations can use business intelligence today to easily gain insight into all aspects of their operations to improve performance. The conference will feature more than 150 break-out sessions led by customers, partners, industry analysts, and experts from Business Objects. Attendees will have a unique opportunity to network with thousands of Business Objects users and share valuable information about the success of their business intelligence deployments.

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Business Objects Delivers CX Now!

SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ – News; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 – BOB), the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced CX Now!, a free lightweight version of Crystal Xcelsius(TM), its data visualization software for creating interactive presentations and business dashboards. Designed for anyone who analyzes data or gives presentations, CX Now! is an easy-to-use application that transforms ordinary Excel spreadsheets into dynamic charts, graphs, and interactive dashboards. Engaging presentations created with CX Now! can be exported to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents or to the Web, with point-and-click simplicity.

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