Business Objects, an SAP-owned vendor of applications for compliance, performance management and business intelligence, has made several new product announcements. The company has released new versions of its software for enterprise performance management (EPM), in addition to a spend-analytics application. The new product will allow companies to extend performance management beyond finance to business operations, the vendor said. Along with new functionality within the EPM portfolio, Business Objects is offering tighter integration with its business intelligence (BI) platform and SAP NetWeaver technology platform. The new versions also integrate with SAP software for governance, risk and compliance (GRC). SAP Spend Analytics provides visibility into purchasing detail, enabling customers to formulate better procurement strategies and controlled-purchasing patterns. Business Objects also announced that new and existing customers of the SAP Business One application can receive a basic version of Crystal Reports software. In the process, users can more easily connect to data from SAP Business One and access data regarding all critical business functions. Crystal Reports 2008 Visual Advantage lets users report and analyze information gathered from more than 35 data sources. With Xcelsius Engage 2008, small and mid-sized companies can create dashboards and data presentations from a variety of data sources, and end-users can share them live with their respective teams. In addition, Business Objects has made available Xcelsius Present, a data-visualization tool, which transforms Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into visuals and allows them to be shared via Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe PDF files.
EPM: http://www.sap.com
Crystal Reports: http://www.sap.com
Xcelsius Present: http://www.sap.com