Business Objects S.A.

Business Objects S.A. - Paul Hamerman at Forrester Research

sales down, customers vexed "There had been an erosion in trust" with customers, says Paul Hamerman, an analyst at Forrester Research ( FORR ) SAP alienated them by raising prices for technical support while aggressively selling data analysis software it acquired when it bought Business Objects in 2007, Hamerman says The sales tactics came as information technology departments were trying to cut back SAP was "trying to extract as much money as they could from customers," Hamerman says "If you try to do that too aggressively, you pay a price 

Business Objects S.A. - Between the Lines

NetSuite delivered a solid quarter, indicated it was gaining traction with its OneWorld ERP suite and took a few jabs at SAP's Business By Design. The larger question: Where's the tipping point for on demand ERP? That question was raised by JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens. 

Business Objects S.A. - Dan Sommer at Gartner Research

Business intelligence has downturn upturn By Tim Ferguson , Special to ZDNet Asia. . Business intelligence has enjoyed a boom despite the less than healthy state of the global economy. According to analyst house Gartner worldwide revenue for technology related to business intelligence, analytics applications and performance management grew by 22 per cent in 2008. The increase took overall spending to more than US$8.8 billion compared to around US$7.2 billion in 2007. Senior research analyst at Gartner, Dan Sommer, said this growth is partly down to consolidation in the industry as big vendors have focused on promoting the business intelligence technology they've acquired to their existing customers.  

Business Objects S.A. - James Governor at James Governor's Monkchips

At Sapphire last week the bloggers had a great session with Timo  Elliot , one of the influx of Business Objects talent at SAP. I was pleased that the green shoots of enterprise unstructured/social tooling progress I identified in depth last year had not been stamped out during the long night of the short knives that marks any software M&A. No siree BOBJ. 

Business Objects S.A. - Between the Lines

SAP has been working on better interfaces for months via partnerships with Adobe and its acquisition of Business Objects. Colgate Palmolive CIO Ed Toben noted that easier to use enterprise apps can lead to "a lot better use around the whole company." Note: When we're talking about enterprise applications we're not talking iPhone-ish user interfaces. 

Business Objects S.A. - Tim Payne at Gartner Research

The company didn't say where the cuts would be made, but noted that "all countries ..will contribute in some way". The first six months of 2008 had been successful for the company, Apotheker said, noting it had started with "strong organic growth" and "an excellent contribution from Business Objects", which SAP bought in October 2007. Tim Payne, a senior analyst at research firm Gartner, agreed that the purchase of the business-intelligence software specialist had proved very successful for the company. "SAP has had a lot of success in winning over people who were Business Objects customers," he told ZDNet.com.au sister site ZDNet UK. According to Payne, SAP has had success in finding income in other areas. "Their figures show that they are having success in getting people to pay up on their software licences," he said. 

Business Objects S.A. - Daniel Vesset at IDC

Together these two segments comprise the broad market for performance management tools and applications. "The IDC data presented in our 2008 business analytics report finds that SAP and Business Objects each lead a major segment of the performance management market," said Dan Vesset, vice president, Business Analytics Solutions, IDC. "The two companies have come together and are balancing the goals of remaining open for non-SAP customers while optimizing their solutions for the SAP platform. This openness and ability to satisfy all customers. -- along with the breadth of Business Objects and SAP's enterprise performance management solutions. 

Business Objects S.A. - Bruce Richardson at AMR Research

But the company will continue innovating aggressively through the enhancement packages, he said. SAP could also be looking to free up customer dollars for the rest of its portfolio, said Bruce Richardson, an analyst with AMR Research: "Maybe they're hoping by extending the maintenance period on the core stuff, people won't feel they've got to devote money for [a future] upgrade, and they'll say, 'Why don't we do more with Business Objects, or move to the CRM.'" .  

Business Objects S.A. - Daniel Vesset at IDC

Set that aside though and analyst IDC appears to indicate approval of the direction of Business Objects' new BI solution: "Our research into factors that lead to pervasive use of business intelligence suggests that providing self-service access to all available, relevant information, which can originate in different internal or external systems, is key to BI diffusion," comments Dan Vesset, programme vice president at IDC. "Organisations should include in their BI software evaluation processes solutions that provide end user access through multiple query, reporting and analysis tools, and at the same time support functionality for structured data and unstructured content integration from multiple sources," he adds. 

Business Objects S.A. - Patrick Walravens at JMP Securities

Yet, JMP Securities analyst Pat Walravens warns that "SAP may struggle to integrate Business Objects." .