Business Objects Expands Analytical OfferingsBusiness Objects Expands Analytical Offerings

Products and customer-service centers are critical touch points for a business and its customers. Business Objects SA is expanding its suite of analytical software by unveiling applications for analyzing product sales and call-center performance.

Analytical applications provide pre-packaged data-analysis capabilities in functional areas such as finance, production, and customer-relationship management. And they can extend the benefits of a data warehouse to a wide range of users, Hurwitz Group analyst Jacque Coolidge says.

The product-analysis piece of Business Objects' Product and Service Intelligence, available at the end of the month, helps managers optimize product portfolios, measuring the profitability and market share of specific products, for example. The tool also can help evaluate the effectiveness of product promotions and sales across multiple channels.

The customer-service tool, available in November, analyzes company communications with its customers, including telemarketing calls, CRM systems, information services, and customer-service phone operations. The software helps companies evaluate call-center efficiency and performance, plan call-center capacity, and improve customer-service levels.

The analytical applications market will grow at a compound annual rate of 18.5%, to $6.2 billion by 2005, according to International Data Corp. Business-intelligence software vendors, such as Informatica Corp. and MicroStrategy Inc., are rapidly bolstering their analytical application product portfolios. Enterprise application vendors such as Siebel Systems Inc. have also jumped into the market. And last week, query and reporting software supplier Brio Software Inc. said it's developing a line of analytical applications for debut early next year. Business Objects joined the race in July when it unveiled its Application Foundation data-analysis platform and a suite of customer and marketing-campaign analytical software. Product and Service Intelligence runs on Application Foundation.

Business Objects' applications are priced at $95,000 on Windows operating systems and $142,000 on Unix.