The Future

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Although the business intelligence boom of the 1990s has slowed, the business intelligence market continues to grow. Business Objects continues to innovate in several areas. When WebI was first introduced, there was an enormous difference in functionality between the thin client and the BusinessObjects full client. This is in part due to limitations of the Internet and the disparity between the platforms, something that has challenged many BI companies. BusinessObjects and WebI version 6, code-named Tosca, promises to close the functionality gap between the two platforms. The latest version of WebI provides new functionality that previously was available only in the full client:

• Wizards that guide you through report and query creation

• Ability to create formulas and variables

• Multiblock reports to mix tables and charts on one page

• Multiple report tabs in one document

• More powerful graphics and matrix reporting

In addition to bringing more parity between the platforms, WebI 6.0 provides a zero-footprint client via Dynamic HTML query panel, addressing security, and performance concerns, particularly in extranet deployments. Spreadsheet users will love the ability to save a report directly to Excel, with all the original formatting and ability to edit a chart.

Many analysts see collaboration as part of the future of BI. At the 2002 user conference, Business Objects announced and demonstrated a beta version of Sundance, the code name for collaborative business intelligence, expected to be released later in 2003. The goal with Sundance is to align the information practices with the underlying business processes and company initiatives. Upon reviewing a report, users can select from a number of predetermined actions. If monitoring a goal, users can annotate the report or initiate discussion threads for progress against the goal, establish a frequency for future alerts, and define thresholds for exceptions. Product release and launch has not been finalized at the time of this writing but is expected during the first half of 2003.

Besides the company's own innovations, you can expect the Internet and industry standards to continue to drive and enable further innovations. With WebI 6.0, Business Objects leverages third-party application servers. With BusinessObjects 6.0, users can select XML as another data provider. Just a few years ago, these standards did not even exist. In this respect, just as multiple forces led to the invention of business intelligence, so will multiple forces-the BI industry, emerging standards, technology, business events-cause it to continually evolve.

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