Business Objects, the world`s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of its roadmap for integrating Business Objects and Crystal Decisions products.
A product integration roadmap white paper, available now at www.businessobjects.com, details the process used to develop the roadmap, and outlines the strategies and plans for integrating the company`s products.
Customer input forms the foundation of the product roadmap. Over the past six months, a team of experts from the combined company met with customers from every major geography and industry, to obtain guidance and feedback in the development of future product plans. Business Objects also met with leading industry analysts to leverage their insights and gather feedback from a balanced, vendor-neutral source.
Finally, a joint task force of Business Objects and Crystal Decisions employees worked together to synthesise this feedback and create the final product roadmap. The task force, which consisted of executives, engineers, product managers, marketing managers, and other contributors, spent over 20 person-years refining and validating the roadmap.
"Business Objects has always been deeply committed to the success of our customers," said Piet Loubser, Business Development Manager, Business Objects. "This is why we made customer input the starting point for the development of the product roadmap, and is why we are taking the unusual step of making our long-term product integration roadmap available to the public. We want to provide our customers with visibility into our product plans, and maximum flexibility in how they move forward with our combined product line. To our knowledge, no competitor in the BI market provides this level of detail on their product plans."
Roadmap principles
Based on input from customers, analysts and the combined company task force, the product roadmap is built on four key principles:
* Minimise the total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO is a critical metric for the long-term success of any IT investment. Business Objects customers saw a clear opportunity to lower their TCO, especially by integrating the infrastructure of the product line. This will provide one place in which to manage all users, metadata, integration points to other systems, customisations, security and more. In addition, customers can dramatically lower their TCO by reducing the need for redundant skill sets, administration, hardware and end-user training.
* Provide a clear upgrade path. Customers stressed the importance of smooth upgrades and migration as Business Objects enhances and integrates the products.
* Build on existing strengths. Customers want to build on the success they have already achieved with their respective products and for Business Objects to continue to improve and enhance current product functionality.
* Balance integration with innovation. Customers want to see continued innovation as Business Objects moves forward with integration.
Three-phase approach to integration
The product roadmap will bring together the company`s two product lines in three phases:
* Phase one: product integration pack. Will provide portal integration, common Web service APIs, and enable Business Objects metadata, or "universes" as an optional data source for Crystal Reports. The company expects to deliver this integration pack in the second quarter of this year.
* Phase two: platform-level integration. Phase two will provide significant platform-level integration, supporting core products from both product lines running on a common infrastructure with common administration. The company expects to deliver platform-level integration by the end of 2004.
* Phase three: complete integration. Phase three will provide the final phase of integration, delivering a superset of all current product functionality on an enhanced, integrated platform. The company expects to deliver complete integration in 2005.
The product integration roadmap plan is the current plan for integrating the company`s product lines. However, these plans may be refined, updated, or revised from time to time, based on customer input and market conditions. All product roadmap and product integration plans are subject to change without notice.
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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.
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