Business Objects to Support Native OLAP Access
to SAP Business Information Warehouse
ACTION ITEMS
Business Objects, a leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools, today announced that BusinessObjects intends to support native access to data in SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) and is working with SAP on joint development and testing of integration between Business Objects and BW. Business Information Warehouse is SAP's preconfigured data warehouse system for R/3, the world's most-used standard business software for client/server computing.
Joint customers including Lawson Mardon, a Zurich-based major manufacturer of food and tobacco packaging products, will soon begin testing BusinessObjects access of SAP BW data via the OLE DB for OLAP, or ODBO, interface. Optimized for SAP BW, the SAP-certified BusinessObjects interface will offer customers benefits over SQL-based data queries including:
"Many early BW sites are seeking to make the business information content more widely accessible by means of additional end user tools that complement SAP's Business Explorer," said Henry Morris, program director at International Data Corporation (IDC). "By working closely with SAP on certification for BW, Business Objects is addressing this market need with a robust tool for query, reporting, and analysis that makes a company's investment in SAP BW even more valuable."
"BusinessObjects builds on the value of SAP R/3 by integrating data from Business Information Warehouse and other sources and delivering it to the end user in the form of business intelligence," said Dave Kellogg, vice president of corporate marketing at Business Objects.
One of the first decision support vendors to strategically commit to providing R/3 data access, Business Objects will provide customers with a certified, supported alternative to the unorthodox R/3 data extraction methods that some decision support vendors are promoting. Business Objects offers customers numerous ways to access their data including the business application programming interface (BAPI) or through BusinessObjects rapid deployment templates.
Business Objects and SAP are working toward a late 1998 timeline for SAP BW certification, with general availability of a certified solution scheduled for early 1999.
Business Objects provides a complete suite of decision support tools including query, reporting, online analytical processing, data mining, and DSS administration for both client/server and Internet environments. Business Objects has sold more than 870,000 licenses to over 6,700 organizations in more than 60 countries worldwide. Business Objects may be reached at http://www.businessobjects.com