The Professional Edition offers exactly the same functionality as the Standard Edition of Business Objects Crystal Decisions that was launched in February. The only difference is that it includes a server-constrained license of Business Objects’ Data Integrator XI ETL product.

We found that 90% of SMBs we’ve sold into have more than one data source, so it made sense to package in data integration capabilities, said Todd Rowe, vice president of worldwide mid-market business at San Jose, California-based Business Objects. We’re the first and only BI vendor to have mid-market product that integrates both data integration and BI in a single product offering.

Business Objects classifies mid-market firms as companies with less than a $1bn of revenue and 1,000 or fewer employees. It iis a segment of the market where it claims to be experiencing strong growth, although the company does not publicly break out revenue figures.

We’ve laid our SMB strategy on three core principles simplified, integrated, and accessible pricing. Nor did we want to strip out functionality from our enterprise-class products and offer dumbed down versions, said Rowe. He said that Business Objects SMB offerings come with aggressive discounting of up to 60% on pricing. We have great technology, but that’s useless to SMBs if it’s at a price-point beyond what they can afford, he said.

Rowe said the company had garnered over 50 customers for the Standard Edition of Business Objects Crystal Decisions since the first three months of its launch, which he said is twice the company’s original revenue estimates. He said uptake has been strong in tier 2 markets like Italy, the Nordics, and Latin America, as well as tier 1 markets like Germany, Franc,e and North America.

Over 23% of sales are to up-sells to customers of Crystal Reports Server, Rowe said, but 60% are new customers, which is important because our goal is to surpass Microsoft as the share leader in the mid-market for BI.

According to figures from IDC, Microsoft holds 11% of the SMB BI market while Business Objects lags by 1%.

The only way to catch up and surpass Microsoft is through new customer acquisition, said Rowe. [According to IDC], we grew our SMB business market from 6 to 10% from 2005 to 2007. In the same timeframe Microsoft only grew from 10% to 11%. We’re competing well and winning against Microsoft. Around 70% of our 2,300 SMB channel partners are also selling Microsoft technology, but chose us for BI.

Rowe believes that the scope of Business Objects SMB platform gives it a head start over Microsoft. We estimate that it will be at least 2009 before Microsoft’s [SQL Server BI] platform will have the same level of integrated functionality as our Professional version does. Right now, customers have to cobble together a dozen different products to achieve the same coverage.

He said partners are also proving to be a lucrative sales channel for SMBs. Around 63% of SMB deals are coming from partners, while 16% are coming in conjunction with partners and direct sales, he said. The manufacturing, financial services, retail banking, and insurance sectors are the biggest SMB buyers of Business Objects software according to Rowe. SMB isn’t a segment that we’ve been able to crack code to as yet, but with our Standard and Professional Editions, we’re now starting to, he said.

Business Objects Crystal Decisions Professional is available in 12 languages. Customers of Crystal Reports Server and Standard Edition need only pay the difference of their initial purchase to upgrade to the Professional Edition.

Business Objects plans to roll out a Premium Edition of Business Objects Crystal Decisions in October that will add metrics and scorecarding capabilities from its performance-management products.