Business Objects Announces New Solutions for Enterprise Information Management

Business Objects provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, announced new products, services, and partnerships for enterprise information management (EIM). EIM provides customers with a strategy to ensure that their information is accurate and current. Now Business Objects offers comprehensive EIM solutions that give customers a foundation of trustworthy data for their BI and performance management initiatives.

"The first step in building a high performance organization is to make sure that you can trust your data," said John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. "A complete EIM approach will ensure that every decision maker - from the boardroom to the shop floor - is using correct, consistent data. Business Objects has developed a full set of EIM solutions that are integrated with BusinessObjects™ XI, the industry's most advanced and complete BI solution. Our EIM offerings will help improve customers’ performance, enable standardization on a single business intelligence implementation, and ensure relevant and timely information is delivered to business users. Our integrated enterprise information management solution sets Business Objects apart from other business intelligence providers, and we expect it to play an important role in our future growth plans."

Harry and David

"The Business Objects EIM strategy aligns really well with our information management strategy," said Ellen Smith, senior manager of data warehouse systems at Harry and David. "As one of the leading direct marketing and e-commerce companies, we understand how important it is to clean our data as far upstream as possible. That is why we began using data quality solutions from Firstlogic along with BusinessObjects Data Integrator, which help move data from our various source systems into our corporate data warehouse. By making data quality part of the data integration process, we can provide actionable information quickly, which helps the company with its marketing and customer service initiatives."

WHSmith News

"WHSmith News, the UK's largest magazine and newspaper wholesaler, is the industry leading provider of market and operational information for publishers, distributors and retailers. This could not have been achieved without our EIM solutions from Business Objects which provide trustworthy data for our BI deployments," said Richard Webb, IS Director, WHSmith News. "We operate a highly complex and fast moving business, handling more than 50 million newspapers and magazines every week for distribution to 22,000 retailers. EIM enables us to consolidate data from multiple systems including SAP, mechanised warehouse systems and external EPOS data to provide the entire supply chain with fast access to a single and accurate view of information. This trusted insight has enabled WHSmith News to streamline processes, as a result we have reduced the cost of product shrinkage by 75 percent."

New EIM Products, Services, Partnerships

According to Gartner, EIM is a comprehensive program, not a technology[1]. Today Business Objects unveils a multifaceted strategy, which includes new products, services, and partners.

"Reports and dashboards are only as good as the data that populates them," said Philip Russom, senior manager of research at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). "Complete, clean, and auditable data for reporting and analysis requires software tools for data integration, data quality, and data lineage - not to mention reporting and analysis tools - all tied together through a common metadata layer. You can buy these tools from multiple vendors, then work through a risky and time-consuming system integration project. Or you can get them all from Business Objects, pre-integrated according to a sound EIM strategy."

New EIM Products Deliver BI Customers Can Trust

Business Objects offers industry-leading data integration, metadata management, and data quality products - all the product components of a well-defined EIM strategy.

Virtual and Physical Data Integration

Today the company announces the general availability of a new product for enterprise information integration (EII), BusinessObjects Data Federator XI. This new product provides customers with a virtual, real-time view of their disparate data sources. Because Data Federator unites and cleanses data virtually, BI users can more quickly and easily perform queries against operational sources.

In combination with BusinessObjects Data Integrator XI, Business Objects is the only vendor to provide both physical and virtual data integration options for customers. Data Integrator XI, a leading extract, transform, and loads (ETL) solution, moves data physically from disparate sources and unites them in data warehouses and data marts.

End-to-End Metadata Visibility

Today Business Objects introduces BusinessObjects Metadata Manager XI, a new product that collects and unifies BI, ETL, relational databases, and third-party metadata. Metadata Manager gives administrators complete visibility into all metadata so they can view, analyze, and explore metadata relationships and business rules. The new product also allows IT managers to better understand the impact of source data changes across the entire BI environment. Metadata Manager provides enhanced data lineage capabilities that help organizations deliver trusted information for compliance reporting and internal controls.

Market-Leading Data Quality

On April 1st Business Objects completed its acquisition of Firstlogic, Inc., a market leader in data quality software and services. Data quality is critical for a comprehensive EIM strategy. Business Objects will continue to deliver data quality products for name parsing, address enhancement, and consolidation as part of the data integration platform. Additionally, Business Objects now provides standalone data quality and data assessment solutions to profile, cleanse, and monitor data.

New Global Services Deliver EIM Solutions

Business Objects today announces a family of strategic EIM service offerings ranging from data quality and integration through enterprise data warehousing. These offerings are designed to help customers evaluate their current information management challenges, develop a customized EIM strategy, and create best practices to ensure customer success. For example, the EIM Vision Workshop provides a comprehensive overview and critique of customers’ EIM environment and delivers a roadmap that addresses their unique business goals. Global services can also help customers with a Data Quality Assessment offering, which determines the state of customer data and their requirements for EIM.

Global Partners Show Broad Market Support

Business Objects will extend EIM solutions globally by leveraging the company's broad network of technology and service partners. Many services partners are creating EIM practices to offer customers assistance with their data integration, metadata management, and data quality deployments. Business Objects EIM solutions provide significant opportunities for partners to deliver implementation and consulting engagements.

Certain key partners around the world have endorsed the Business Objects EIM offerings including Accenture, Kalido, Netezza, Purisma, and Teradata.

"Our customers are demanding better ways to more effectively manage their enterprise strategy," said Joni Kahn, Executive Vice President at BearingPoint. "BearingPoint provides them with business intelligence solutions that both help them understand and analyze their data as well as respond to changes in the business environment. The EIM initiative from Business Objects fits in with our approach as it presents a solid strategy to providing organizations with a secure, trusted foundation for accurate business decisions."

EIM Product Availability

BusinessObjects Data Federator XI, BusinessObjects Metadata Manager XI, BusinessObjects Data Integrator XI, and Business Objects Data Quality solutions are generally available.

1 Gartner Presentation, Enterprise Information Management: Getting Value From Information Assets, by David Newman, March 2006