Business Objects designs future of business intelligence with Business Objects Labs

Business Objects, the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the formation of Business Objects Labs, a new team dedicated to the innovation and creation of next-generation business intelligence solutions.

The purpose of Business Objects Labs is to work collaboratively with customers, partners and developers to explore new technologies that could be included in future software releases from Business Objects.

The team, which consists of engineers at several sites around the world, is focused on leveraging emerging technologies to deliver innovations that continue to simplify and extend the value of BI to more people.

As part of this collaborative, customer-centric approach, Business Objects invites customers, partners and suppliers to visit the Labs Web site at http://labs.businessobjects.com to download software prototypes and provide feedback to the team.

"The worlds of technology, media and global commerce are going through a massive transformation," said Bernard Liautaud, founder, chairman of the board, and chief strategy officer at Business Objects. "And nowhere is this more evident than in business intelligence, where a BI 2.0 revolution is taking place. At Business Objects, we are leading this revolution, which consists of five components - the user experience, the community, the network, the applications and the platform. The Business Objects Labs are the vanguard in this revolution: by developing technologies along these five areas, we will continue to shape the future of business intelligence. By applying emerging technologies like mashups, search and Web-collaboration, we can dramatically simplify and increase the value of BI to more users, and in so doing allow people to use business intelligence to transform the way the world works. We encourage customers, partners and developers to join us and participate in designing this future."

Following are some of the innovations that Business Objects Labs has delivered or is working on now. Bernard Liautaud highlighted several of these innovations and concepts during his keynote address today at Business Objects Insight 2006, in San Francisco.

* Business intelligence search - One of the first innovations from the Business Objects Labs team to be added to the company's flagship platform BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite, Business Objects has delivered a business intelligence search solution that seamlessly integrates BI and search technologies. These solutions, integrated with technology from enterprise search and text analytics partners, enable people to easily find critical business information across structured and unstructured data. In addition, the Labs team is now working on new "data discovery" technologies which provided sophisticated guided exploration for people who want to browse information to find answers to business questions. (Read 6 November press release: "Business Objects redefines business intelligence search").

* Instant messenger business intelligence - This innovation leverages IM technology to make business intelligence more real-time, ubiquitous and collaborative. By enabling collaboration on BI information, organisations can significantly increase the value of their BI systems. For instance, a sales team could have an IM discussion over a dashboard that shows sales performance below objectives, thereby speeding the process for establishing the next steps for addressing the situation.

* Graphics mashups and "mashboards" - Business Objects Labs is applying the "mashup" concept to greatly extend and enhance the ways in which BI can be applied. For instance, a retailer could overlay inventory data onto third party mapping software, such as Google Maps. The user can then drill down on various stores on the maps, to understand inventory or demand levels at a particular location.

* Ambient business intelligence - Business Objects Labs is also focused on making BI actionable and available anywhere, on any device. The team has developed a prototype for mobile BI, which allows users to interact and respond to data in real-time from a mobile device. The team is also creating a series of "widgets", which are stripped down versions of the BI infrastructure that can be accessed from wherever an information worker operates - the desktop, a spreadsheet, presentation, or e-mail.

"While the Labs team is focused on creativity and innovation, it is also based on business value and market demand," said Herve Couturier, senior vice-president, products at Business Objects. "We are taking an open, customer-centric approach to the work we do in Labs. We actively seek and include customer and partner participation in the Lab team's development process, and this in the end will yield more targeted, market-ready solutions. Our customers and partners will join us as change agents - by combining our market leading BI platform with a wide array of emerging technologies, we will deliver solutions that will continue to redefine business intelligence."

Technologies available on Business Objects Labs range from early prototypes of new product concepts to toolkits, individual components, and other interesting ideas from the Labs team or Business Objects customers, partners and developers. Depending on customer feedback and market opportunity, some of the technologies on Labs may result in new products or become part of existing ones, while others will continue to be hosted on the Labs Web site mainly as a resource to the broader community.