Business Objects Targets RetailersBusiness Objects Targets Retailers

Business Objects SA is wasting no time capitalizing on recent acquisitions.

At its Insight user conference in Orlando, Fla., last week, the business-intelligence software vendor unveiled planning and budgeting applications for the retail industry based on technology from its $100 million August buyout of SRC Software Inc. Business Objects Planning for Retail provides financial-forecasting, budgeting, payroll-planning, and plan-reporting applications that will let retail sales, finance, and operational managers share decision-making information. Financial managers, for example, would be able to incorporate operational supply-chain data into their budgets.

This week the company will unveil Crystal Xcelsius, interactive visual analytical software acquired earlier this month in a $40 million buyout of Infommersion Inc.

Crystal Xcelsius makes it easy for nontechnical information workers to access and graphically display data in Excel spreadsheets without the need for developers to build reports, product marketing director James Thomas said. In the future, Business Objects will likely use the interactive software as a front end for other products, Thomas said.

Company executives at the conference also reiterated their promise to ship this quarter Business Objects XI release 2, which fully unifies the company's flagship Business Objects software with its Crystal Reports product line.