Business Objects SA today took the wraps off a business-intelligence application that can analyze large amounts of data to detect changes in customer behavior. The company also announced that the product, named Ithena, is beginning beta trials and will be sold and supported by a new, wholly owned subsidiary of the same name.

Ithena is designed to work with databases and data warehouses in the multi-terabyte range to segment customers into categories such as high-profit customers and reassign them to different categories when their behavior changes. Telephone companies, for example, could use the software to identify once-profitable customers who may be in danger of switching to a competitor. Ithena Inc. president Charles Nicholls says the software can complete such analytical tasks overnight, compared with manual methods that can take six to 12 weeks.

Ithena is built on the same core technology as Business Objects' namesake decision-support software. It is expected to be available by midyear with a starting price of $375,000. Nicholls says the separate subsidiary was created because the Ithena software will be sold to business users rather than IT managers, who account for most of Business Objects' sales, and it will require more consulting services and support.