In a recent press release, SAP detailed how it is reorganizing its operations to integrate Business Objects, for which they paid almost $7b.

With 7,000 employees, the new entity will become “a leading organization targeting the business user market”. SAP highlights the synergies of the entities to justify an acquisition viewed as very costly by many analysts, especially given the latest numbers from the formerly French vendor.

Main argument presented by SAP: the Business Objects acquisition reinforces SAP’s growth strategy, by positioning it as a worldwide market leader. Read: BI tools, that help manage corporate performance, are very popular in large organizations, SAP’s captive base. This acquisition will allow SAP to expand its client base or to offer more products to its installed base.

Then, SAP announce that Business Objects will leverage both SAP or non-SAP environments, but the examples given mostly show off SAP’s platforms (SAP Business Suite applications, SAP NetWeaver). One can deduct that the SAP/BO combination is before all going to optimize the use of BO’s products on the SAP platform… and one can also wonder which benefit there will be for BO users, who don’t use SAP…

Will they need to migrate to SAP and trash years of investment in another ERP? Or will they be forgotten by the vendor, as often happens in similar cases? There is a third option – they might migrate their BI environment, to a non-SAP tool (I would strongly suggest a look at open source solutions such as JasperSoft, or SpagoBI).

Beyond these announcements, serious questions begin to emerge in BO’s users minds. Confirmation or coincidence? Bernard Liautaud, the high profile CEO of Business Objects, has just announced that he was leaving the company he had founded.

Bertrand