Business Objects To Support Department Of Defense BI UpgradeBusiness Objects To Support Department Of Defense BI Upgrade

Business Objects signed a licensing agreement with IT consulting firm American Management Systems to boost the business intelligence capabilities of a U.S. Department of Defense procurement system.

The project involves an ongoing deployment of the Department of Defense's Standard Procurement System (SPS), which is used by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and 13 other U.S. defense agencies to acquire more than $48 billion in goods each year. American Management Systems has been part of the SPS program since its inception.

The Department of Defense plans to migrate 23,000 SPS users from its existing business intelligence application to Web-based query and analysis technology based on Business Objects' WebIntelligence product. The department plans to expand use of SPS to 40,000 users and expects SPS to yield $395 million in annual savings when it's fully deployed.

SPS is designed to improve the readiness, supplier management and financial management of the department's procurement process. Business Objects will enable analysis of data from financial, logistics, procurement and other legacy systems.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.