SAP extends its SAP BusinessObjects Edge solutions to small to midsize businesses, giving them access to SAP BusinessObjects Polestar software, which allows employees to search and retrieve data from across the company. Other Edge solutions are designed to create efficiencies in these companies' budget and strategy processes. SAP has been introducing enterprise solutions at a steady clip throughout 2009.
SAP
has expanded the reach of its SAP BusinessObjects Edge solutions, now allowing
small to midsize businesses to utilize its SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI
(business intelligence) software. In turn, those smaller companies will now
have access to SAP BusinessObjects Polestar software, an application that
allows information search and retrieval from across an organization.
SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 3.1 supports
Oracle integration kits for the Oracle eBusiness Suite, as well as Microsoft
Windows Server 2008, Sharepoint Server 2008, an updated .NET
development kit, and applications from JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel.
The integration of SAP BusinessObjects
Polestar into the solutions suite allows employees to utilize a keyword search
to find information within their company's database. The results can be
displayed visually, via charts and graphs. When designing the solution, SAP
focused on making the user process an intuitive one that required no IT
expertise or prior experience with business intelligence software.
"The idea is to bring
Google-like
search to business intelligence capabilities, to make it easier for a broad set
of users without a lot of IT intervention," Jeff Stiles, senior vice
president of SME marketing for SAP, said in
an interview. "We packaged them modularly because that's how people buy
and deploy."
In addition, the SAP BusinessObjects
enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions have been released for small
to midsize companies, allowing them to make planning and budgeting a more
cost-effective and efficient process. Strategy Management will help these
customers connect goals, initiatives and metrics, thus improving performance
and aligning execution with strategy; Planning and Consolidation assists in
creating, executing and monitoring budgets aligned with financial plans and
resources.
SAP has been steadily rolling out new
products in the first few months of 2009, many of them related to supply-chain
management.
On March 18,
SAP
announced a new version of its SAP BusinessObjects Global Trade Services
Application, integrated along with its SAP BusinessObjects Risk Management
application, designed to automate regulatory compliance across the supply
chain.
Another of SAP's competitors in the
supply-chain space,
Oracle,
released
Oracle
Sourcing On Demand, a SAAS solution for strategic sourcing on March
9.
The company has also engaged with partners in order to deepen its products'
availability.
Thanks
to a pairing with Sybase, a provider of enterprise and mobile software, SAP
announced on March 11 that SAP Business
Suite 7 will fully run on the Apple iPhone, Microsoft Windows Mobile,
BlackBerry smartphones and other mobile devices.
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