Business Objects SA will next week launch the latest version of its enterprise reporting software, a tool that enables users to publish, push and broadcast pre-built or ad hoc reports on corporate data. The company says its Broadcast Server product offers three main advantages over its current product Enterprise Reporting Server; scalability, personal information broadcasting and low total cost of ownership. The new server is designed for distributed computing environments, which means the applications can scale across a number of servers to provide load balancing. It also features failover and self-healing mechanisms should the hardware or software go down while users are accessing the system. As well as triggering time-based, scheduled reports, the server also uses intelligent agents to automatically trigger reports and natural language messages based on unusual business events or conditions. It can be programmed to send a message, for example, to all managers if sales of a certain product fall below a given level. It can also be set up to distribute a single report to many users across the enterprise and only allow each user to see the information in the report that pertains to him, her or the group. Reports can be pushed to desktops, network computers, fax machines, pagers, the corporate intranet or extranet, and using technology acquired through a partnership with Curasoft Inc, the server can even be programmed to alert users over the telephone. Users can also use their handsets to activate and send a response. Broadcast Server is due to go into beta testing in October. Business Objects was not able to say when the software would be available for full roll-out. Pricing will be announced at availability.
