Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced the general availability of version 2.0 of BusinessObjects InfoView Wireless Edition, the first interactive, wireless business intelligence (BI) portal.
Business Objects pioneered interactive, wireless business intelligence with the launch of BusinessObjects InfoView wireless edition in March 2000. The product was recognized for being the first wireless BI product to go beyond simple event broadcasting in allowing end users to perform interactive analysis over a wireless device. For example, instead of simply being alerted that 20 percent of his sales forecast had just dropped out of the quarter, a sales manager using BusinessObjects InfoView could interactively run reports to get important information as to which deal dropped and what he or she should do about it.
"While initial wireless internet applications enabled people to perform free or low-value customer consumer-oriented tasks such as checking stock quotes or weather forecasts, wireless BI unleashes the power of wireless networks by giving people pervasive access to the critical business information they need to be effective," said Crispin Read, senior director of product marketing at Business Objects. "And Business Objects continues to push the market by extending BI deployment options to cover a wide range of popular and emerging devices."
With wireless capabilities, BusinessObjects InfoView provides a true mobile BI environment offering easy and secure access to corporate information from anywhere, anytime, whether users are at their desk, in a hotel, or on the road. This information can be personalized on the fly to ensure that only the relevant data is displayed and users don't waste time scrolling through irrelevant information. For example, when requesting quarterly sales revenue data, a western region sales manager would only see the figures for her territory and would be spared from having to scroll through data pertaining to the eastern, central, and southern regions.
BusinessObjects InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 provides extended support of wireless phones, better utilization of personal data assistants (PDAs), and overall optimized performance.
Support for more phone formats enables more users to benefit from wireless BI
With InfoView Wireless Edition, any user with a cell phone equipped with a wireless application protocol (WAP) browser, also called a microbrowser, can use their phone to access the InfoView server and their BI documents. InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 offers multiple WAP-browser support. InfoView automatically identifies the type of browser being used and sends the information in the appropriate format. This means that customers in any part of the world will be able to deploy InfoView Wireless Edition to their mobile workforce.
Support for PDAs gives users more choices for wireless report viewing
InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 works with connected PDAs. Any users with a PDA equipped with a modem and a WAP browser can access their corporate BI reports via InfoView Wireless Edition. PDA users will have full access to all InfoView Wireless Edition features and now have a choice of viewing BI reports on a phone or on the larger PDA screen. This makes wireless BI even easier for more mobile users.
Optimized navigation and performance mean quicker mobile access to reports
InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 has improved response times to make information access quicker and easier for mobile users. For example, a user browsing among several different pages will be able to take advantage of a cache that stores their pages, thus reducing the time to return to previously viewed information. And a user can now go back to the list of documents at any time, also giving them faster access to their business information.
"The extension of the BI value proposition via wireless technology is quickly moving from a curiosity to a reality," said Bob Moran, Research vice president and managing director of Decision Support Research at the Aberdeen Group. "With its wireless solution, Business Objects is delivering a solid service differentiator. While early adopters will investigate the BI-extending benefits of InfoView Wireless Edition, other customers and prospects can feel more secure about selecting a BI vendor that is wireless-enabled today for possible future use."
"At Banca 121, we have just selected Business Objects as the business intelligence component of our customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. We chose Business Objects for many reasons, one of which was the availability of a wireless portal. With wireless BI technology, we will be able to provide account information to the people in our financial services network throughout the country. BusinessObjects InfoView Wireless Edition will help us more quickly and easily get financial information into the hands of the people who need it the most," said Marcello Milano, ICT Manager at Banca 121.
Banca 121 is the first Italian bank to have adopted and realized an integrated multichannel strategy based on traditional branches, "financial shops," independent financial sales, and virtual banking (internet, telephone and TV). The bank has more than 270 sales points throughout Italy and 2,600 resources engaged in the placement of banking and financial products and services to retail. Its strategy is characterized by strong financial specialization, a search for innovative technological solutions, and the personalization of the service in a one-to-one approach.
Supported Phones and PDAs
BusinessObjects InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 can run on any WAP phone and PDA equipped with a microbrowser that supports WML 1.1 or HDML3.0. InfoView Wireless Edition now supports phones from several manufacturers, including Alcatel, Ericsson, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, and Sony. PDAs supported include several versions of Palm, Windows CE-powered PDAs such as those from Compaq and HP, and RIM Blackberry devices.
Platforms and Availability
BusinessObjects InfoView Wireless Edition 2.0 runs on Windows NT or 2000 and is generally available today.
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