Oracle has launched a new set of business intelligence (BI) tools for its grid-enabled database technology.

The BI 10g product has been separated out of Oracle's existing application server software.

And company president Charles Phillips told delegates at Oracle's OpenWorld user conference that further unbundling of functions is likely to help target new markets.

'Our definition of an application server is much broader than that of our competitors,' he said.

'It has been our strategy to get as big a footprint as possible in our customer base, and it has proved effective at keeping our competitors out. Now we are unbundling the tools to expand that footprint, reach new markets we haven't reached before and keep growth going.'

Oracle BI 10g contains a query, reporting and analysis tool called Discoverer for relational and online analytical processing (OLAP) data, and a Warehouse Builder component for creating datawarehouses.

With a Spreadsheet Add-In tool, users can query, display and navigate Oracle OLAP data directly from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Other tools enable Java-based custom BI application development for integration with non-Oracle systems.

Phillips said IT has to reflect a move towards an 'information age' where technology is used to manage data and produce meaningful information according to each organisation's needs, as opposed to delivering competitive advantage.

'Applications have not followed the enterprise into the information age,' he said. 'And we all know too well the high price of bad data in the real-time enterprise.'

Other announcements on the first day of OpenWorld included plans to expand the company's customer data hub portfolio into areas controlling product and citizen data, as well as for consolidation of financial data and accounting processes. It will ship in next year's first quarter.

'Our customer data hub has been a huge hit,' said Phillips. 'The hub acts as a control that talks in real time to all your feeder systems and continuously synchronises with them.'

He said the product hub is already in testing with some customers, while the rest will follow over coming months.

Oracle also released a broadened customer services software portfolio with the release of Oracle Service 11i.10 applications.

The software is designed to provide a single data model for managing all customer-related data and connecting information across sales, marketing, supply chain, human resources and financial processes for agents to improve the speed and quality of customer service.