BANK OF Ireland has selected SAP subsidiary Business Objects as its business intelligence standard. The bank selected the Business Objects XI Release 3.0 platform because it provided one solution that would quickly access information from across its enterprise and deliver relevant, trusted information to authorised employees, according to the German software group.

For example, with Business Objects, the bank will be able automatically to distribute performance reports to managers in branches and trading desks on a daily or weekly basis.

Cyril Kilbridge, head of SAP centre of excellence at Bank of Ireland, said the bank set out to select an enterprise business intelligence tool and opted for SAP and Business Objects because it was a fit with the bank’s key enterprise strategy platform, which warehouses a lot of its finance, credit and risk data.

Mr Kilbridge said the acquisition of Business Objects in October last year by SAP in a €4.8 billion deal was timely. “The bank was using other tools, all of which were being utilised to help make decisions for a particular part of the bank; now for the first time the Business Object tool will be used on a group-wide basis and will become the group standard for delivery of business intelligence into the bank.

“So, it simplifies things going forward, gives us consistency of information and ‘one version of the truth’.”

Jason Ward, country manager for Business Objects, said the deal was strategic in a number of ways. “I think this is one of the biggest business intelligence deals that SAP and Business Objects or any of the business intelligence vendors have done in Ireland.

“And it is the first global deal signed under the new SAP Business Objects corporate entity. So it is a significant milestone.”

Business Objects has a 20 per cent global share of the business intelligence market which, analyst Gartner estimates, will grow beyond $7 billion by 2011.

The company delivers software to enable businesses to make effective decisions based on intelligent, accurate and timely information.