Organizations of all sizes today find themselves increasingly awash in data, yet hungering for
information to help them meet their business objectives. These corporations, from Main
Street and Wall Street alike, have spent large amounts of time and money over the past 10
or so years implementing systems to help collect data on and streamline their operations.
From monolithic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle
Financials, and so on) through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems (Siebel,
Rightnow.com, Salesforce.com, and so on) to Custom Data Warehousing projects, these
firms are now looking for ways to extract value from the collective body of data to help them
run their businesses more productively and competitively. These firms are looking for a
strategic information delivery or business intelligence solution to help them become more
productive and ultimately compete more effectively. The products covered in this book are
geared toward meeting that challenge.
The information delivery products and solutions presented in this book are often categorized
under the Business Intelligence (BI) banner. BI is the industry of value-added information
delivery based on structured data sources—essentially providing meaningful, business-driven
value and information to business end users by connecting them to data with appropriate
tools and products. Figure I.1 highlights the conceptual divide of information delivery solutions
into the structured and unstructured world. Although evidence suggests an eventual
blurring of the boundaries between these discrete industries over time, the Business Objects
products covered in this book most aptly fit under the BI banner.