Business Objects Delivers Next Version Of Comprehensive Business Intelligence Suite
Business Objects, a leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools, has announced the release of the next version of its integrated decision support (DSS) tools.
The Business Objects integrated product line enables non-technical business users to access, analyze, and share information stored in corporate databases. Business Objects provides a suite of decision support tools that are easy to learn, use, and deploy, scaleable from 10 to 20,000 users, and integrated to provide one infrastructure for enterprise information technology (IT) departments to set up and administer.
"Five years ago we put a stake in the ground and defined integration as a critical feature of enterprise business intelligence tools," said Dave Kellogg, senior vice president of marketing at Business Objects. "The market has validated our approach, as for the past seven quarters Business Objects has continued to gain market share on our primary competition. Now, with the delivery of the Business Objects enterprise suite, we are taking the ease of use and administration benefits of our integrated solution to a higher level."
The Business Objects enterprise business intelligence suite includes the following set of integrated products:
WebIntelligence 2.5 is the leading platform for e-business intelligence applications. Business Objects customers worldwide are using WebIntelligence as their platform for applications that tie together companies, their suppliers, vendors, and customers via private extranets. Customers are currently pursuing extranet deployments for applications in industries including finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare, publishing, logistics, and government.
WebIntelligence 2.5 brings with it programmability features including a new WebIntelligence application programming interface (API) and a customizable user interface. This enables corporations to tailor the WebIntelligence entry point to give it the same look and feel as their own web site.
In addition, WebIntelligence 2.5 will support leading UNIX servers from Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.
Performance Improvements. WebIntelligence 2.5 tests show significant performance improvements. Examples include an 86% reduction in log-in time and a 60% reduction in report refresh time.
"Business to business deployments of reporting and analytical applications in extranet environments will be one of the fastest growing segments of business intelligence through 2002/2003," said David Folger, program director, Workgroup Computing Strategies, META Group. "With WebIntelligence, we expect Business Objects to be one of the key players in this emerging market."
BusinessObjects 5.0 is an update of the company's flagship decision support solution. BusinessObjects 5.0 introduces analytical reporting which integrates enterprise reporting functions such as strong report distribution and management, with traditional DSS functions such as ad hoc access to corporate data, report creation, and OLAP functions such as slice and dice and drill, thus providing users with an unprecedented breadth of functionality.
BusinessObjects 5.0 provides users with powerful, interactive, and easy reports; self-service information access; a scaleable report and broadcast server; seamless application integration; and minimal total cost of ownership.
In addition to combining enterprise reporting functionality with the usability, analytical power, and information access capabilities found in previous product versions, BusinessObjects 5.0 provides users with enhanced ease of use, support for OLE DB for OLAP, and application development.
Broadcast Agent 5.0 is a robust, multi-tier server that enables non-technical users to quickly and easily publish, push, and broadcast pre-built or ad hoc reports on corporate data. Broadcast Agent provides users with enterprise scaleability, personal information broadcasting, and a low cost of ownership.
Using a sophisticated distributed component architecture (DCA) first developed in WebIntelligence, Broadcast Agent scales to meet the needs of users across the enterprise. This architecture is built on a CORBA-compliant object request broker (ORB) and provides load balancing, automatic failover, and self healing. Because of the flexible architecture, additional servers may be added or removed, allowing virtually unlimited scaleability for enterprise deployments.
Broadcast Agent can trigger time-based, regularly scheduled reports and, using intelligent agents, can automatically trigger reports and natural language messages based on unusual business events or conditions. In addition, Broadcast Agent provides reporting bursting and publishing, and through a scripting language, allows output to devices such as pager, fax, email, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Broadcast Agent supports both BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence, and, because it shares the setup, security, and administration of those tools, is easy to deploy across the enterprise.
"Although competitive advantage has been clearly linked to the ability of enterprises to access and analyze corporate data throughout the enterprise, the challenges are daunting: many information consumers, many questions, many business users with varying skill sets, and many locations," said Bob Moran, vice president at Aberdeen Group. "By melding technical prowess with customer-driven business insight, Business Objects has delivered many of the capabilities that information-hungry customers now demand. These features include analytical software, which can be distributed according to the skills and needs of a wide spectrum of users, as well as report distribution abilities that can reach users in many locations and scale as user populations grow."
Set Analyzer is a new product that builds on the integrated query, reporting, and OLAP capabilities of the existing Business Objects product line while providing additional functionality that enables users to execute fast, more complex queries and perform set-based analysis of very large data sets.
Using a unique process called set-based analysis, Set Analyzer enables users to perform highly complex queries and analyze very large, and often quite complex, data stores. A "set" is a customized grouping of specific customer, product, or transactional data. Set Analyzer is integrated with and extends the functionality of both BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence.
Set Analyzer was designed to meet the specialized needs of sales and marketing applications, specifically those in retail, banking, and telecommunications markets. Set Analyzer is optimal for use in customer relationship management (CRM) applications, such as customer acquisition, retention, and cross-selling opportunities.
Developer Suite enables customers to jumpstart the development of tailored BI applications and provides developers with everything they need to develop a highly customized business intelligence solution.
Developer Suite repackages the components of the Business Objects fulland thin-client BI software along with the company's report and broadcasting server, the standard development environments of Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Active Server Pages (ASP), the Business Objects standard API, and additional sample programs and documentation.
Developer Suite is targeted at several markets: value-added resellers (VARs), end users, and companies building extranet applications. VARs will now be able to more easily customize and integrate BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence into their applications. End user companies will also be able to customize their applications, as well as build executive information system (EIS) style interfaces. And companies building extranets with WebIntelligence will be able to more fully tailor the "look and feel" of their e-business applications for their own customers, artners, and suppliers.
WebIntelligence 2.5, BusinessObjects 5.0, and Broadcast Agent have undergone comprehensive beta testing and evaluation by more than 70 corporate beta sites worldwide.
"Customer response to these next generation products has been tremendous," said Crispin Read, director of product marketing at Business Objects. "With these releases, we maintain our position as the innovative leader in the BI market and continue to enable customers to further leverage their data warehouse investment throughout the enterprise."
Companies involved in the beta program include:
WebIntelligence 2.5 is available immediately on Windows NT and is expected to be available on Sun Solaris in August 1999 and HP UX and IBM AIX in 4Q99.
BusinessObjects 5.0 is available immediately on Windows 95 and NT. French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions of BusinessObjects 5.0 and WebIntelligence 2.5 are expected to be available in 3Q99.
Business Objects Broadcast Agent 5.0 is available immediately on Windows NT and is expected to be available on Sun Solaris in August. Broadcast Agent is a replacement product for the existing Document Agent Server. BusinessObjects Set Analyzer is available immediately on Windows 95 and NT. Business Objects Developer Suite is available immediately on Windows 95 and NT.
Business Objects is the world's leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools. Business Objects products provide non-technical business users with access to information stored in data warehouses, data marts, and packaged business applications. 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 1,180,000 licenses to over 8,100 organizations in more than 60 countries worldwide.
Business Objects may be reached by phone at 408/953-6000 or on the worldwide web at http://www.businessobjects.com. The Company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbol BOBJ.