MIAMI BEACH, Fla.--Business Objects SA is developing software that can capture business-intelligence best practices, monitor performance metrics, and disseminate information throughout a company using workflow and collaboration capabilities. Attendees at the vendor's user conference here got a preview of the new product, which goes into beta testing at 20 companies next week. It's expected to be generally available in the first half of next year.

"We think Sundance is going to be critical for large-scale business-intelligence deployments," says Business Objects CEO Bernard Liautaud, referring to the software's working name. "It puts business intelligence in a new category and makes it much more prevalent throughout a company."

The new software can, for example, hold formulas for measuring sales performance using metrics set by a sales VP. The system automatically provides sales managers with regular performance updates and a means to analyze those results to, say, discover the root cause of a sales problem. The performance reports and analysis results can be forwarded to others for action. The software would be integrated with Business Object's reporting, analysis, and portal apps.

Business Objects says Sundance--with its collaboration, annotation, and discussion-threads capabilities--will transform business intelligence from an individual activity into a group effort. "The point is, they are trying to make information much more freely available through the corporation to communities of users," says Mark Smith, a Full Circle Strategies analyst.

Business Objects also disclosed some details about the next release of its core query-and-reporting products, due by next summer. The update would include significant reporting enhancements, new Web capabilities based on Java and HTML, deeper integration with Microsoft Excel, a more easily customized portal, and improved Broadcast Agent software. The company also demonstrated new workforce-analysis software that will be added to its line of analytical apps in a few weeks.