Business Objects Gets eXtremeBusiness Objects Gets eXtreme

There are two pitched battles going in the business intelligence community which generally reflect what is happening in the broader IT community. On the presentation layer, browser-based portals and programs are competing with desktop clients, while on the process layer, open, integrated servers/services are pitted against primarily proprietary servers. Against this backdrop, the fast-growing and increasingly profitable BI vendors are filling out and integrating their product lines according to how they see the markets evolving over the next few years -- and eXtreme Insight is no exception.

Portals Everywhere

In their presentation material on eXtreme Insight, Business Objects appears to have cast their vote distinctly in favor of a browser-based approach to BI. Scorecards, Strategic Maps, Metric Tree Diagrams and a variety of Dashboards are the key eXtreme Insight deliverables emphasized in both seminars and demo disks. Of course these are delivered through an integrated platform that emphasizes Business Objects strength's in metadata, process management and data integration services.

But clearly the emphasis was on the ability for eXtreme Insight to deliver BI Portals running in either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla/Firefox browsers and doing advanced report, OLAP cube and graphics preparation plus formatting in the browsers. Even more compelling, just about every graphic and report had drilldown capabilities --some of which are derived from pre-built scorecard templates and some of which must be coded and built by the XI-owning IT shop. Mileage varies with what is purchased.

In addition, eXtreme Insight provided access to both Web Intelligence query and analysis plus Crystal Decisions' prepackaged reports, either through the drill-down mechanism or through Reporting services screens that show users what assets are available to them for use. This was just one example of how Business Objects has integrated Crystal into its platform. Another telling example was the use of the Crystal over the Business Object's Metadata server in providing dynamic query and report-creation information.

That dynamic report-creation allows portal users to go beyond the structured scorecards and drilldowns and, with the proper authentication, do full query and analysis using the Business Object Web Intelligence tools. On first glance, these appear to be roughly comparable with the growing popularity of browser-based report design tools from vendors like Cognos and MicroStrategy.

However, what appears to be unique to Business Object's solution is its new Encyclopedia, which can be attached to any report or graphic analysis. This Encyclopedia contains links to a Glossary of Terms, Business Questions, Guided Analysis and Action Advisories that IT and the BI team set up for those reports that may present interpretation problems to their users. This is much like the help file coaches or wizards supplied in desktop software.

Another useful info panel that has been expanded in eXtreme Insight is the Document Summary, which provides valuable information on data sources used, when they're run, when they're last changed and other report/analysis-specific information that can be vital in the new world of Sarbanes Oxley verification and compliance, as well as interactive design and formatting.

Missing in the XI Portals

A key missing feature in the XI portal presentation layer is a robust search function on the order of what Plumtree or BEA provide in their portal products. This search function allows the user to query across a broad category of reports, analysis, communications, and other resources. However, eXtreme Insight does supply alerts, comments and basic threaded discussions for its assets.

As well, I had expected XI to provide links to 3rd party advanced statistical, data mining, optimizing and real-time reporting tools (features missing in the Business Objects analysis toolset) comparable to the easy-to-use interfaces it supplies to third-party OLAP tools such as Microsoft Analytical Services, Hyperion Essbase, SAP DB OLAP and IBM DB2 OLAP Services. However, with the Business Objects APIs it is possible to create such connections. But like those proofs left to the reader in Science and Math texts, the exercise is of indeterminate time and effort.

The other thing missing in eXtreme Insight is the universal application of the direct connect and embed features called Live Office that are accorded to Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, and 2003 documents (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel -- but not Access, Project, Visio nor Publisher). This Crystal-based technology might have been made available to, say, Notes, AutoCAD, Workplace, Word Perfect or other non-Microsoft Windows desktop applications. This is important because content management is a key feature of portal and content management systems from potential competitors like Plumtree and Documentum. It appears now that Business Objects is hedging its bets on the browser-based portal interface and is certainly making a notable and apparently exclusive investment in Microsoft's Office client.

In sum, Business Objects is generally following the BI industry lead and going strongly to a Portal- and Scorecard-based interface, while maintaining its Crystal standalone and many target outputs (PDF, Excel, HTML, etc). Also the company has done a very good job of integrating the Business Objects Intelligence line with Crystal Reports under the Crystal Enterprise umbrella. The security, scheduling, administration and performance features of the Crystal Enterprise framework certainly enhance Web Intelligence and Business Object 6.x programs. For example, instead of interactivity being sacrificed as some Web Intelligence users might fear, they are enhanced in the new environ while getting the new discussion/collaboration, Encyclopedia and a common admin interface. The report definitions for Web Intelligence and Business Objects Query and Analysis are not the same as Crystal Reports -- nor is there a straight-forward exchange between the two. But metadata, security and authentication, scheduling, and administration for both reporting frameworks has been brought under one control.

On the key question of presentation to any platform, Business Objects appears to be delivering on the side of open and cross-platform. For example, we were able to confirm support for Business Object InfoView for both PDA and a number of mobile phones. As well, company representatives assured us of support for Mozilla as well Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows, plus Safari on Apple, but no certified Linux client yet. However, as noted, eXtreme Insight also features close integration and embedding into Microsoft Office and so is somewhat fence-straddling on the presentation layer commitment. Given the vagaries of the IT market, this is probably a smart hedge.

Process Decisions

On the process side, Business Objects is making more very interesting commitments. The first versions of the eXtreme Insight server will be Windows-based, but versions for AIX, Linux on Suse and Red Hat plus Solaris are anticipated by the end of the first half of 2005. Crystal Report Designer (standard, professional and developer editions) remains a Windows-only product while deployment of reports is to MS Office, .NET and Java.

But on the broader BI design front, eXtreme Insight has replaced the metadata repositories of Business Objects, including Data Integrator (the ETL component of Business Objects), with the Crystal repository which has more functionality and better performance. As well, the APIs retain a Service Oriented Architecture that simplifies interfacing to new platforms and more readily incorporates new services. The new collaboration/discussion features, plus the ready incorporation of the Business Objects Intelligence programs into the Crystal Enterprise plug and play infrastructure -- including more stringent security and authentication frameworks -- are testaments to the effectiveness of that choice.

However, we remain surprised that two major design programs, Crystal Reports Designer and Data Integration Designer, remain Windows-only. Given the robustness of the Java-based Eclipse, JBuilder, and NetBeans development environments, conversion to Java would seem natural while heading off some of the newly emerging Java-based report writers.

Finally, it appears that Business Objects may have passed on a strength of its metadata repository -- its ability to contain and attach common but also unique methods/services to any object. True, the order of the day is to rationalize and integrate the existing Business Objects and Crystal Reports product lines. And on that score eXtreme Insight has pleasantly surprised most analysts and commentators -- arriving 1/2-year or more ahead of schedule. However, within the BI domain, the ability to know about and integrate such BI objects as SAS or SPSS statistical datasets, Microsoft or IBM data-mining resource files, Microstrategy or Cognos NoticeCast real-time messages, ILOG or Maximal optimization containers, will be a critical characteristic of the winning BI Integration framework. So far, Business Objects is ahead of the curve; but let me assure you there are other BI, CRM, ERP, CMS and portal vendors also hearing the convergence and integration drumbeat. They may very well be first to market with those capabilities.

Meanwhile, Business Object and Crystal users have some immediate benefits to consider. Business Object 6.x users are going to get better admin, security, and scheduling options at the cost of more difficult security settings. Crystal users are going to get the ability to make browser-based, interactive reports and OLAP analysis available to clients in very attractive dashboard and scorecard layouts. Both sets of users can take advantage of better collaboration and Encyclopedia-based help and coaching features. Best of all, there will be only one server and admin console for supporting Crystal and Business Object users. And customers like what they are seeing as they vote with their dollars -- Business Objects had 11 percent growth in revenues in 2004's last quarter, even before eXtreme Insight was announced and delivered.

Jacques Surveyer is a consultant and trainer; see his latter work at thephotofinishes.com.