BI for the Rest of Us: SAP Brings Together SaaS Business Intelligence Offerings Into One Complete, Integrated BI Toolset for the Casual User

WALLDORF, Germany, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Meeting a growing demand from companies of all sizes for software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence (BI) tools that are easy to use, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the SAP® BusinessObjects™ BI OnDemand solution. Targeted at casual BI users currently underserved by products on the market, the solution will deliver a complete BI toolset in one flexible offering. Its ease-of-use also will allow them to be up and running with no prior experience or training. With SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand, business users will be able to access and visually navigate data from any source using SAP® BusinessObjects™ Explorer software. Even casual users can then combine that data in just a few clicks, and follow a guided path that walks them through reporting and analysis. The solution will have scalable pricing models based on business need, allowing companies to easily and cost-effectively scale as required.

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With more than 260,000 subscribers, on-demand offerings from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio empower people with the tools and information required to drive their businesses forward. Responding to customer feedback, SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand brings together all SaaS BI solutions from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio into a complete, integrated BI toolset. Customers will be able to go to one vendor for all their on-premise and on-demand BI needs, rather than having to assemble a patchwork approach to their BI deployments.

The solution will also include capabilities that make it easier than ever for business users to tap into their data online, get better insight into their organization and securely share illustrative reports and dashboards with colleagues inside and outside the firewall. Significant features include:

• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software, which empowers people with powerful data exploration and visualization capabilities.
• Capabilities that guide people with no prior BI experience through the process of accessing, exploring, visualizing and sharing data -- all without needing to switch between applications.
• The ability to access all on-demand and on-premise data -- including SAP data and data from the Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) application. People will be able to easily upload data to create dashboards, reports or interactive visualizations.
• An on-demand solution for creating ad-hoc reports, conducting what-if analyses and securely sharing this information inside or outside the company. Business users will be able to provide customers, partners and employees across all lines of business with immediate, anytime access to the most current data.

"GENBAND has been using crystalreports.com for a few years, which allowed us to add reporting functionality to our Salesforce applications," said Angie Reese, CRM Business Applications manager, GENBAND.  "Everything I've seen in SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand is so easy to navigate. Tools like SAP BusinessObjects Explorer will be a great product to draw a much bigger audience of users. The components of this aren't as technical as seen with other BI applications. GENBAND is also a big Oracle shop for the back-end and a Salesforce shop on the front-end, so another key benefit of the solution is how easily and quickly it can integrate into our existing IT structure."

SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand will also include flexible pricing, allowing customers to try and use the product, and easily scale their deployment as necessary. Three editions are planned that range from a comprehensive version with limited storage to one with more advanced capabilities and the ability to handle larger data volumes. This pricing and packaging model allows even casual users to seamlessly move from individual use to departmental-wide deployments. They will be able to build out their SaaS BI system from a complete set of easy-to-use front end tools to add backend capabilities, such as a hosted data warehouse and development environment and single sign-on security.

"Current market trends show strong demand for SaaS BI tools that are easy to use and acquire, and IDC research(1) expects the SaaS BI market to grow three times faster than the overall BI and analytics market over the next five years," said Dan Vesset, program vice president, Business Analytics, IDC. "As organizations look for intuitive, cloud-based solutions that can empower their end-users, applications that supplement traditional BI functionality of query, reporting and analysis with support for workflow, search and collaboration will become increasingly attractive to them -- especially applications that offer rapid, alternative deployment options."

SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand will be available as industry-specific and line of business-specific solutions through Oco, Inc., an SAP BusinessObjects OEM partner with a focus on large enterprise and upper-midmarket business segments. SAP is currently planning to make SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand available through its SAP® PartnerEdge™ program in the channel partner ecosystem later in 2010.

"As an SAP BusinessObjects partner, SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand gives Oco the unique opportunity to bring our cutting-edge analytics to companies in a new, innovative Web 2.0 solution," said Bill Copacino, CEO, Oco Inc. "By combining Oco's pre-built industry and line-of-business analytics with SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand, users gain rich content to create compelling dashboards and multi-dimensional reports with detailed, transaction-level data. Having clear insight into a rich store of business information will enable them to identify specific opportunities for improvement, analyze various response scenarios and take decisive action to realize value from their solution."

"Customers want to work with their data their way -- whether it's behind a firewall, on the Web, or on their local computer in spreadsheets," said Marge Breya, executive vice president and general manager, Intelligence Platform Group and SAP NetWeaver Solution Management, SAP. "Only SAP can deliver what customers need in this new reality. We understand that user choice is driving the growth of SaaS BI. That's why solutions like SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand let customers understand their business the way they want -- instantly and easily.  With access to data at their fingertips, customers can make more confident decisions, share their insights with others and react quickly to any changes in their business. SAP makes BI more pervasive by giving underserved casual users an affordable, easy-to-use on-demand BI solution. This is an important milestone in SAP's on-demand vision, and further proof that we continue to innovate in the cloud."

Follow SAP BusinessObjects on Twitter at @businessobjects, and be sure to check out the Needle In A Haystack blog.

(1) IDC market analysis "Worldwide Business Analytics Software as a Service 2009–2013 Forecast" by Brian McDonough, Robert P. Mahowald and Dan Vesset, published December 2009.

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 95,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP." For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.

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