Event
Summary
Viador Inc. today announced it has completed the initial integration
of Business Objects client/server and web-based products into the Viador
E-Portal Suite. A technology alliance partnership agreement between Viador
and Business Objects will permit both companies to jointly market their
combined e-business portal solution, as part of the BusinessObjects InfoView
open portal initiative (OPI). Viador and Business Objects corporate customers
are expected to be able to enjoy personalized, integrated access to Business
Objects reports and queries from the Viador E-Portal Suite as a result
of this agreement.
"Organizations
that deploy an enterprise information portal rely on it to deliver personalized
and timely information to business users, both inside and outside traditional
corporate boundaries," noted Steve Dille, vice president of worldwide
marketing, Viador Inc. "Our E-Portal Framework, with its portlet architecture,
made it possible for us to quickly implement and deliver tightly integrated
support for Business Objects e-business intelligence solutions to our
joint customers."
"We
selected Viador as an OPI partner because we believe its E-Portal Framework
solution works seamlessly with InfoView to integrate business intelligence
content and consolidate corporate data," said Mark Tice, group vice president
of global alliances at Business Objects. "Working together, Business Objects
and Viador will enable joint customers to provide employees, partners,
and customers with timely e-business intelligence using a personalized,
secure, and scaleable portal framework."
Market
Impact
Business intelligence portals have become the vogue in the industry over
the last few years. The definition is amorphous, but is generally considered
to be a web-based methodology that allows users to query and produce reports
on enterprise-wide databases. The theory is that the databases will be
distributed in varying parts of the enterprise and the user will not have
to know exactly where the data is coming from.
The
term "business intelligence portal" was coined by Information Advantage
when it created a product called MyEureka. Since that time, Information
Advantage was acquired by Sterling Software, which has recently been acquired
by Computer Associates (for more information, see "Resistance
is Futile: Computer Associates Assimilates yet another Major Software
Firm" February 16, 2000).
Viador
was one of the first companies to embrace the enterprise information portal
concept, and has been successful in their efforts to date. The company
describes EIPs as a method to incorporate unstructured data, publish and
subscribe, search engines, application integration, and personalization.
Their customer base includes companies such as the Federal Aviation Administration,
IBM, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, and Xerox. Business Objects
is one of the leading BI vendors, with an installed base of more than
1,910,000 licenses in over 10,200 organizations.
The
teaming of these two successful organizations will challenge the efforts
of other portal-type vendors, such as MicroStrategy, Cognos, Informix,
and Brio. It should be noted that every vendor defines the term "portal"
differently, and many take offence at being branded a portal at all. The
definition provided above should be applied to the product concept espoused
by the vendor and the customer can make up his or her own mind as to whether
it is a "business intelligence portal" or not. Business Objects InfoView
is classified by the vendor as a business intelligence portal "which provides
an entry point into the business intelligence system." They do not claim
to provide the infrastructure that is needed and implied in an enterprise
(or corporate) portal.
User
Recommendations
Customers attempting to provide consolidated views of heterogeneous data
sources should consider the concept of a "business intelligence portal",
"enterprise information portal", or whatever the particular vendor is
choosing to call it. Business Objects has told TEC that they provide a
BIP, and distinguishes other vendors such as Viador, Microsoft, IBM, and
Plumtree as EIPs. They have expressed a willingness to work with as many
EIPs as possible to provide BI content. There is programming required
to enable the portal to find the various data required, but once that
is accomplished, it becomes very easy for business users to extract the
data they need for day-to-day decision making.
If
properly implemented, there is a good possibility of very strong returns
on investment due to the increased productivity of business users, and
the ability to rapidly evaluate changing business conditions. Due to the
complexity of the solution, and the sophisticated infrastructure required
to support it, a long list of vendors should be evaluated, and reference
sites should be closely questioned as to how much time and consulting
was required to implement the product.
Editor's
Note:
This article has been modified from its original form since the original
publication date.