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SAP Acquisition of Business Objects Final
by George Peck
As you may have heard, the latest consolidation in the Business Intelligence software industry is a done deal. SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects was finalized in mid-January. This, combined with IBM’s acquisition of Cognos, signals the last probable major BI consolidation, as there don’t appear to be any significant BI small fry left that haven’t already been swallowed by a big fish. What will concentrating major BI power in the Oracle-Microsoft-IBM-SAP quadrangle mean to customers? Well, time will tell. But, I think one can probably expect the most immediate result to be higher pricing. Despite the free-market crowd’s touting of consolidation/merger as the way to ensure better competition, one can’t help but conclude that fewer players mean more concentrated, if not less, competition overall. Upward pricing is almost always the first result. In terms of product innovation and customer service changes on the horizon, again, time will tell. While Business Objects service and support have generally been seen as eroding over the last several years, SAP's immediate direction of leaving Business Objects as a separate operating entity may not immediately affect this area. However, large consolidations are often predicated on “eliminating excess and duplicative resources” (read: firing lots of people), so one might also expect eventual consolidations of support teams, with resulting “adjustments” of service levels. The most notable immediate impact: former BusinessObjects.com e-mail addresses now appearing as SAP.com. Longer term effects: we’ll see over the coming months.

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Crystal Xcelsius - What It Is, Who Uses It, and Why?

Crystal Xcelsius - What Is It?
Crystal Xcelsius Standard is what you use to create dashboards from your Excel spreadsheet. Simple, straightforward steps allow you to quickly turn rows and columns into dials, charts, and lines. Add a slider - now you can show "What if?" scenarios. "OK", you say, "I want to drill-down on that dashboard for details." Crystal Xcelsius Professional has drill-down capabilities. "Great!" you shout, "I want to use LIVE data sources for my dashboards." No problem, Crystal Xcelsius Workgroup has the ability to access data via Query as a Web Service (QAAWS) data sources. While this is a different access method than traditional ODBC or OLE DB connections, you can base your dashboards on real-time data.
Three very brief examples were given here, chosen from a list of features for each version. Please give us a call for more details.

Crystal Xcelsius - Who Uses It and Why.
Who uses Xcelsius? Decision-makers: analysts, managers, CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CIOs, YOU - if you use Microsoft Office, Excel, or show a spreadsheet in PowerPoint. Anyone who wants their information visualized, in a quick at-a-glance format. Technically savvy BI professionals know that it's key to use the latest tools to deliver information faster, better.
Why Xcelsius? Colorful, Credible, Compelling Content. Images are easier to understand than rows and columns. "What if?" scenarios, shown right before your eyes, leave longer-lasting impressions. Attractive graphs, charts, dials, the ability to show possible trends, with your organization's real-time data - are an unbeatable and convincing combination. Xcelsius presentations will be awarded "Best In Show" for delivering the facts, demonstrating possible trends.

Next time we'll take a look at Webi.

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