BusinessObjects XI Release 2 moves to the head of the class in universities worldwide

Business Objects, the world`s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that universities and colleges around the world are selecting BusinessObjects XI Release 2, the industry`s most advanced and complete BI platform. Universities must effectively manage the explosion of financial, personnel, student, and operational data - and harness that information to improve student services and enhance organisational efficiency. BusinessObjects XI Release 2 allows universities to improve insight into their student body and operations, while ensuring their data is accurate and timely.

Higher education institutions face the same challenges as the private sector, including compliance and regulation, increased fiscal responsibility, and maximising existing IT systems. In response, top academic institutions are standardising Business Objects solutions. Some of those universities include Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Columbia University, University of Illinois, London School of Economics, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Universit'e du Qu'ebec `a Montr'eal , Queensland University, Stanford University, University of Texas at San Antonio, and Vanderbilt University. Here is what higher education customers are saying about BusinessObjects XI Release 2:

"After a thorough evaluation of business intelligence solutions we found that BusinessObjects XI Release 2 offered the best vision, features, and user interface compared," said Jim McKenzie, assistant VP of technology and CIO, University of South Florida Health. "To meet our organisational goals, we needed to perform as well as any corporate shop. Our IT organisation needs to be nimble and adapt to a fast-changing environment - and provide solutions that can do the same. Business Objects also provides us with leading-edge enterprise information management (EIM) solutions to ensure trustworthy data. Deploying BusinessObjects XI Release 2, in combination with Business Objects EIM solutions, will allow us to have good, valid, and easily accessible data to make sound business decisions quickly."

"As a smaller organisation, it is important for us to standardise on one business intelligence platform and Business Objects provides us with a scalable solution that can grow with our evolving BI strategy," said Dawn Willan, assistant CIO at The College of New Jersey. "Some of our staff are very technical and have been onboard with our plan to make BI an integral part of the student administration system. We are excited about deploying Business Objects because we expect it will decentralise some of our reporting and allow our academic and administrative staff to be more productive. With a consistent version of the data, our staff will be able to make better-informed decisions and better serve our students."

"One of the most valuable things about business intelligence from Business Objects is its very simple, intuitive user interface," said Dana Hartley, director of academic advising at Georgia Institute of Technology.  "We needed a front-end that is easy to use so non-technical users, like our faculty and academic advisors, can generate reports individually and get the information they need.  Business Objects will enable Georgia Institute of Technology to more efficiently make use of student and employment data. Another reason we selected Business Objects is because we use multiple computing environments across campus. Business Objects supports mixed computing environments so we can have easy access to BI solutions throughout the campus."

"For several years our physicians and staff have counted on Business Objects to improve our access and analysis of medical and operational data.  This has resulted in better quality patient care and solid operating results," said Michael Rosencrance, VP of information services at the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation. "We continue to choose Business Objects as our BI standard and are excited about delivering BusinessObjects XI Release 2 to our employees. Expanding our BI deployment will continue to help our medical staff get a high-level view of the entire organisation. With the new simplified features in BusinessObjects XI Release 2, we hope to provide our physicians even more insight about their practice and help them determine their best path to improvement."

Business Objects is the leading provider of business intelligence solutions to colleges and universities. Hundreds of higher education organisations worldwide use business intelligence, enterprise information management, and enterprise performance management solutions from Business Objects. Business Objects provides a simplified, powerful way to manage student, alumni, academic, grant, and financial data.