Friday, May 09, 2008

SAP encounters rough patch with Business Objects

There are indications that SAP is not having an easy time with its new ownership of Business Objects. According to a note late last month on DM Review, Business Objects emailed its customers to apologize for "issues related to poor service including delayed deliveries of the company’s technology."
The email originally sent to customers and forwarded to DM Review was signed by Pascal Clement, VP of Enterprise Information Management at SAP/Business Objects. It stated in part, “As we look back at the past several weeks, it is painfully obvious that our internal system issues have brought challenges and unwanted distractions to your ongoing operation of Business Objects software solutions. To be specific, many customers have not been able to receive our technologies in a timely manner. You have our most sincere apology for these issues and also our total dedication toward immediate resolution.”
Responding to DM Review's report, Franz Aman, VP of Business Intelligence Platform Marketing at SAP/Business Objects, then issued a statement:
“Recently a small number of SAP/Business Objects data quality customers have had difficulty receiving technology support in a timely manner. We acknowledge the situation and sincerely apologize for this temporary inconvenience. Issues with migration are currently being resolved and we have put additional resources and staff to address the issues immediately. Customer support managers have all been apprised of these measures and we did not hesitate to contact our customers directly as well.”
It's hard to tell whether these problems are related to the SAP acquisition of Business Objects last year, or whether they would have happened anyway. Nevertheless, they take some of the wind out of SAP's sails, which was recently boasting that Business Objects was taking deals away from Oracle for business intelligence solutions.

Related posts
SAP winning BI customers from Oracle
SAP to buy Business Objects
Oracle hustles Hyperion
IBM buying Cognos
Two more business intelligence vendors are hooking up
Vendor consolidation hits business intelligence sector

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