Give credit to B.O. When they acquired Crystal Decisions, the overlap of the technologies presented some challenges. There were questions about the ability to get beyond the additive effects of this merger. Any merger needs to show cost efficiencies and/or revenue enhancement beyond the additive effects. Business Objects had the leading OLAP tool in the market. Crystal Decisions had the leading reporting tool. Each company had made huge strides, both real and from a marketing perspective, in the previous years into the other’s primary domain. So much so that they had virtually identical marketing messages and a high redundancy of products.

The company weeded through the product set, sales forces and sales messages. The customer backlash and reluctance to make new purchases from the company never materialized in force. I was more impressed at the time by the upsell possibilities of the Brio purchase by Hyperion, which happened about the same time.

At this point, I'd have to say B.O. has stayed the course and created the better value proposition, despite the obstacles, and they continue to be a strong force in the market. Along with a small handful of other companies, like Informatica, they are establishing that there is such a thing as a "business intelligence company."