Intelligent Enterprise

Business intelligence vendors Business Objects and Information Builders have committed to supporting Google's enterprise search appliance.

Information Builders says its software now supports the recently released upgrade of the Google Search Appliance. Business Objects, on the other hand, plans to release integration technology this quarter to open up its BI repository to Google.

Both vendors are part of a trend to connect BI products to search engines in order to make the content available to more people in an organization. Upper executives or business analysts have traditionally used BI tools, but vendors argue that the information stored in repositories could also be helpful to lower-level workers, such as sales managers looking for buying patterns among customers.

"Enterprise search fills an important gap in the quest to deliver BI to the masses," Gerald Cohen, chief executive of New York-based Information Builders, said this week in a statement.

Besides integrating its BI repository with Google, Business Objects said at the AIIM Conference and Expo in Philadelphia it would open up its Crystal Reports software to Google's desktop search application, providing one-click access to reports in desktop hard drives, as well as those embedded in business applications.

"By combining the strengths of Business Objects and Google technology, individuals will have a powerful solution to quickly discover the precise information they are looking for, regardless of where it resides," John Schwarz, chief executive of Business Objects, said in a statement.

Business Objects also said it had joined the Google Enterprise Professional partner program.