Business Intelligence for Spreadsheets and Saleforce.com

SAP’s take cloud-based Business Intelligence puts the focus on spreadsheets and Salesforce.com, as the enterprise software giant tries to appeal to small businesses and departmental managers trying to do their own analytics.

BusinessObjects BI OnDemand is the cloud version of the BusinessObjects product line that dates back to 1990. SAP bought the analytics software company in 2007. But the cloud version of the BI software is more than just a hosted version of the enterprise software package, says Holly Simmons, senior director of product marketing for SAP’s OnDemand group. “The product is actually quite different because it’s targeted to a different audience. Over time, the products will be even more different than they are today,” she says. The OnDemand product was spun off of the enterprise edition of a few years ago but is being tailored for the needs of business users who need to be able to pick up the product with little or no IT support and with less analytic expertise.

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