Since the news broke in early October, the lion's share off commentary on SAP's Business Objects buy has focused heavily on the added business intelligence (BI) offering SAP gains with the deal.
Read Optimal SAP Blog post: SAP's Bid for Business Objects
Now that SAP's acquisition of Business Objects has cleared antitrust review, BI has again taken center stage. SAP, however, would prefer the market understand the Business Objects deal in terms of it bringing to SAP an enhanced offering of 'business user applications' rather than how it may signal a potential overlapping of Business Object's and SAP's BI capabilities.
According to Vishal Sikka, SAP's chief technology officer, the perception that SAP acquired Business Objects for its capability in business intelligence (BI) is off target: "It misses the point," said Sikka. "This [acquisition] is not about BI, but about business user applications. [SAP has] been in the BI business for the last 10 years and will continue to invest in BI technology including its analytics engine, called BI Accelerator.
Read New York Times article: Business Objects to Help SAP in New Class of Applications