Business Objects, the world`s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced an expanded alliance agreement with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y), a member firm of one of the world`s largest independent management and IT consulting organisations.
The strategic alliance will encompass joint product development, co-marketing and reseller capabilities worldwide. CGE&Y will also expand its team of consultants certified in Business Objects products and as part of the agreement, proactively market joint solutions to its customers.
The new alliance provides a powerful endorsement by CGE&Y for the successful completion of the Business Objects acquisition of Crystal Decisions. CGE&Y has a long history of working together with both Business Objects and Crystal Decisions. The expanded relationship with CGE&Y will build upon these alliances to help provide the industry-leading business intelligence solutions from Business Objects to a broader range of customer organisations around the world.
"The business intelligence market is one of the fastest growing segments of enterprise software," said Brian J Queenin, vice-president and global leader of the CGE&Y Business Intelligence practice. "By partnering with Business Objects, we have the opportunity to work directly with the world`s leading provider of enterprise business intelligence solutions. We have had great success in our previous business intelligence engagements with both Business Objects and Crystal Decisions, and we are looking forward to greatly expanding the relationship as we move forward with our alliance agreement with the new Business Objects. Together, we will provide the breadth of business intelligence solutions our customers require to track, understand and manage their enterprise performance."
In March 2003, CGE&Y and Crystal Decisions joined forces to launch the Business Intelligence Index. The BI Index is a jointly developed solution that helps organisations understand their existing information business model, business intelligence maturity and competitive positioning. In addition, it helps companies define their strategic options, start a roadmap for BI optimisation across their organisations, and monitor their return on investment through a built-in ROI calculator. CGE&Y also had an existing alliance with Business Objects to help customers take full advantage of the enhanced enterprise analytic applications and improved web functionality of BusinessObjects Enterprise 6, the industry`s leading suite of query, analysis and performance management products.
"We are excited about this alliance agreement with CGE&Y, especially as it is based on a series of successful customer wins and the creation of a common go-to-market strategy around the BI Index," said Bernard Liautaud, chairman and CEO of Business Objects. "The combination of CGE&Y`s domain expertise with our technology will provide companies with a solid foundation to maximise their return on data investments as they use business intelligence to deliver cost savings and improve enterprise performance."
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The Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Group is one of the world`s largest providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The company helps businesses implement growth strategies and leverage technology. The organisation employs approximately 52 700 people worldwide and reported 2002 global revenues of more than 7.04 billion euros. More information about individual service lines, offices and research is available at www.cgey.com.
Business Objects
Business Objects is the world`s leading business intelligence (BI) software company. Business Objects enables organisations to track, understand and manage enterprise performance. The company`s solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Popular uses of BI include enterprise reporting, management dashboards and scorecards, customer intelligence applications, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimise the supply chain, increase productivity and improve financial performance.
In December 2003, Business Objects completed the acquisition of Crystal Decisions, the leader in enterprise reporting with more than 16 million licences of Crystal Reports shipped worldwide. The combined product line includes software for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, analytic applications, and data integration. In addition, Business Objects offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.
Business Objects has more than 24 000 customers in over 80 countries.
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