Business Objects, the provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, has announced the local availability of BusinessObjects Data Integrator 6.0. This version of its real-time and batch data integration tool allows organisations easier and more effective data access, integration and delivery, cutting the cost and time required to transform the data contained within organisation databases into meaningful business information.
"Data Integrator 6.0 enables customers to more easily manage their metadata, thus speeding the time to delivery of the end-user reporting solution and reducing maintenance costs," explains Gary Lawrence, country manager, Business Objects South Africa. "Now with a push of a button, data analysts can create and update Business Objects universes, the patented semantic layer that presents a graphical business representation of underlying structures."
Business Objects first launched Data Integrator in August 2002, when it completed the acquisition of Acta Technology. Data Integrator 6.0 combines enterprise-class extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) with leading business intelligence capabilities. "Version 6.0 insulates users from underlying changes in source data by their ETL tool for the first time, eliminating the need to re-create scores of reports after the data is reorganised," explains Lawrence.
In addition, Data Integrator includes enhanced native support of relational database and extensible markup language (XML) schemas, and leverages open standards such as common warehouse metamodel (CWM) and XML metadata interchange (XMI).
"The new universe creation capability will significantly speed the time to deployment of the first iteration of the business intelligence solution, and will help us prove the value of BI to end-users at a very early stage," comments Lawrence. "This is very important, as we will now be able to show reports to users near the beginning of the deployment process, aiding us in refining the data organisation and in getting a speedy BI roll-out."
Data Integrator also delivers improvements in centralised administration functions such as managing multiple job servers, and simplifies complex tasks such as creating new data flows and designing transformations.
Platforms and availability
Data Integrator 6.0 is currently available on Microsoft Windows and IBM AIX platforms, with support for Sun Solaris and HP-UX expected in the next two months.
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Business Objects is the world`s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organisations access, analyse, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers and partners. Business intelligence helps organisations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships and develop differentiated product offerings.
The company`s products include BusinessObjects 2000, the industry`s leading integrated business intelligence toolset and platform, and BusinessObjects Analytics, an integrated suite of enterprise analytic applications.
Business Objects pioneered the modern BI industry in 1990 by inventing a patented "semantic layer" that insulates users from the complexity of databases. In 1995, the company was first to focus on enterprise-scale BI deployments and today supports customers with more than 20 000 users. The company moved aggressively to the Internet in 1997 by pioneering the market for BI extranets, a market that it continues to lead today. In 2000, the company delivered the industry`s first interactive wireless BI solution. Today, Business Objects continues to innovate, creating and delivering a unique vision for enterprise analytic applications.
Business Objects has more than 14 000 customers in over 80 countries. The company`s stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris: code Euroclear France 12074, and included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408 953 6000 and www.businessobjects.com.
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