SAP's £3.4bn acquisition ofBusiness Objectslast week could be
good news for users, providing there is no erosion of thebusiness intelligencesoftware's
general-purpose capabilities, analysts have said.
Although the software will boost
SAP's enterprise reporting tools family, questions remain about
how well a firm as large as Business Objects will integrate into
SAP's structure, and whether Business Objects products will remain
independent.
SAP and Business Objects intend to offer software that uses
real-time data analysis to enable companies to improve
decision-making.
Prior to the acquisition, Business Objects, along with
Cognos and
SAS, were the main providers of independent data analysis tools
not linked to either Oracle or SAP's enterprise software. The
benefit of these products is that they can pull in data from many
different applications to produce reports and dashboards that can
help end-users make informed business decisions.
SAP and rival Oracle have been keen to expand their product
ranges to support these tools. In March, Oracle spent £1.6bn on
enterprise performance management specialist Hyperion, which
provides financial and performance management tools for SAP
systems. SAP's acquisition of Business Objects is regarded by
analysts as a response to this.
Companies using Business Objects software include
Virgin, which uses it for store-based web-reporting, and Tesco,
which runs the software alongside Teradata as part of a centralised
management information system to create a single set of key
business performance indicators across the company.
Philip Howard, director of research technology at
Bloor Research, said the fact that SAP has stated that Business
Objects will continue to operate as a separate entity could be good
news for users because the product will not be locked into SAP's
system.
"Other acquisitions that SAP has made have tended to end up
being engulfed," he said.
Businesses that do not run SAP may be concerned that SAP will
try to tie the Business Objects tools into its
ERP suite and middleware products, said Howard. "The big danger
is that SAP starts to ask Business Objects to develop products
specifically for the SAP market, to the detriment of its
general-purpose capabilities," he said.
Duncan Jones, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said, "The
acquisition could be good news for SAP users because they will be
able to purchase an integrated business intelligence package that
is supported by Oracle."
For non-SAP users, Jones said, "There is no reason for Business
Objects users to switch to SAP. The value of Business Objects is
that the software works for everyone, not just SAP users."
Helena Schwenk, senior analyst at Ovum, said the challenge for
SAP was to integrate a company of Business Objects' size.
She added that the purchase was a response to Oracle's takeover
of Hyperion. Although SAP was unlikely to back away from its
partnership with Hyperion, Schwenk said, "We expect SAP to use
Business Objects to provide an alternative for its customers."
Schwenk said the Business Objects acquisition would bring
breadth of business intelligence and performance management
capabilities to SAP.
SAP's own business intelligence tool, Netweaver BI, has been
designed for the needs of power users, said Schwenk. Business
Objects could expand this by providing dashboards and end-user
reporting.