Business Intelligence Software Vendors - Business Objects

Business Objects

Business Objects is the first vendor in the market to break the billion dollar revenue milestone and its execution in 2006 has made it the overall market leader on this Magic Quadrant. Under the leadership of John Schwarz, who joined the company from Symantec in 2005, Business Objects has expanded its product line to complement its core BI platform (adding budgeting, planning, consolidation applications and data integration/quality products). It has also initiated a focus on the midsize market, launched a software-as-a-service business (for example, crystalreports.com and the acquisition of Nsite Software) and has undertaken a strategy to expand its professional services offerings (adding more services at performance-management level).

The license revenue from its core BI platform products actually declined in the first three quarters of FY06, while its customers held off major new deployments during the migration to its BusinessObjects XI Release. During that time, the company's growth was driven primarily from acquired products. Business Objects improved its BI platform with the XI Release and its integration of Crystal Reports, and has been able to gain some competitive edge with its data integration products and associated data lineage and impact analysis capabilities. We expect to see the BI platform license return to growth in 2007, as customers shift to XI Release 2 and expand their deployments.

While Business Objects has one of the better partner programs, some of its larger service provider partners have been put off by the more competitive posture it has taken and the changes to its service provider licensing models. To maintain its leadership position, Business Objects must demonstrate that it can continue to execute on its strategy of acquisitions to drive growth, regain growth in its core BI platform business, maintain the right balance of partnerships and provide adequate support levels on its existing products as it expands into new product areas and markets.

Source: http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/oracle/145507.html