Business Objects looks to strengthen Web application

Computerworld - MIAMI BEACH -- Business Objects Inc. is planning to give its Web-based analytical software a big boost in features that will bring the application near the level of the company's more robust client/server offering.
At the San Jose-based business intelligence software maker's 2002 International User Conference here this week, executives offered some details on the upcoming release of the next-generation thin-client WebIntellligence product, dubbed Tosca. Among its new features will be beefed-up reporting and analysis capabilities and a portal that users can more easily customize, depending on their individual needs.
Several users who had seen demonstrations of the Tosca prototype expressed interest in the product, along with certain features they want to see included in it.
David Rewerts, IT System Analyst at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa, said it will have about 95% of all the capabilities of the flagship BusinessObjects client/server product, except such functions as the ability to query multiple data sources simultaneously.
It will also run faster and more reliably than the current WebIntelligence application. Currently, Principal uses WebIntelligence 2.6.3 and other Business Objects applications for operations throughout the company. Rewerts said he would like to see Business Objects release its own native software development kit for Tosca that will support both XML and Microsoft Corp.'s .Net specifications.
Such products are available today through third parties, he said.
Don Stoller, director of IT at Richmond, Va.-based medical product supplier Owens & Minor Inc., said his company has already signed up to beta-test Tosca. Owens & Minor currently runs the Business Objects full client for internal business intelligence users and the WebIntelligence product to let its customers and suppliers run analytical reports over the Internet. Among the features he says he wants from Tosca: the ability to do multitab reporting, which will allow a user to have multiple views of the same query, and the ability to create variables, which lets users incorporate what-ifs or qualifiers in their queries.
Business Objects said the multitab reporting will, indeed, be part of Tosca. The product is slated for beta next week, said a spokeswoman, and will be generally available by the middle of next year.