Business Objects SA, has signed a deal with Ardent Software Inc that will allow the French decision support tools company’s consultants to resell Ardent’s data extraction, transfer and loading tool (ETL) across Europe. Business Objects’ Rapid Data Warehouse consultancy service, comprising a range of packaged data marts, will broaden its offering with the Ardent ETL product, DataStage.
While Business Objects customers benefit from a wider business intelligence offering, Ardent gains a bridgehead in the French company’s installed base, which at 8,600 is substantially larger than its own 960 customers. Ardent makes 80% of its revenue from partnerships with firms such as Informix, Sybase and Compaq according to Roop Singh the Westboro, Massachusetts company’s director for EMEA marketing.
The broadening of Business Objects’ consultancy fits into a trend which has seen the company’s services revenue steadily increasing. In the second quarter although license revenue shot up by 41.2% to $35.5m, the services gain was more marked, leaping 52.9% to $22m (CI No 3,708). This brings services revenue to 38.2% of ther total figure.
