Business Objects Readies Retail Industry PushBusiness Objects Readies Retail Industry Push

Business Objects will undertake joint selling and co-marketing activities toward the retail industry as a result of an expanded relationship with Teradata, a database maker with long experience among retail merchants.

The business intelligence software firm met benchmarks related to Teradata's Retail Decisions application, which taps the Teradata database to segment retail consumers based on the revenue they generate and then demographically profile those customers. Business Objects 6.5 and Crystal Version 10 passed the benchmark. Business Objects acquired the BI technology of Crystal Decisions when it bought the software firm last year.

Business Objects will market its reporting and ad hoc analysis capabilities to retailers as a way for them to learn which of their products, store locations and suppliers are contributing most to sales.

Teradata, a unit of NCR Corp., has worked jointly with Business Objects for several years, with the latter vendor operating a Teradata customer advisory group, among other initiatives. The companies share several mutual customers, particularly in the retail and telecommunications industries.