SAP and Business Objects has taken steps to steer firms towards advanced business intelligence (BI) tools in place of spreadsheets for data analysis.

In January SAP announced plans to add BI capabilities acquired from Norwegian company iLytix Systems to its Business One enterprise resource planning (ERP) range aimed at medium-sized companies.

The forthcoming XL Reporter tool from SAP is intended to help staff create reports and perform analysis without the help of analytics experts. It works with Microsoft Excel and Outlook, allowing SAP data to be exported directly to desktops.

XL Reporter will be available in the early part of 2004 as a no-charge addition to the standard Business One upgrade.

Separately, Business Objects has been emphasising the advantages full BI systems can provide while still remaining easy to use. "(IT buyers) want a solution that cuts across all these databases and applications," said the company's chief executive, Bernard Liautaud.

The firm has detailed its new XI release, offering tighter links with Office applications and completing its integration with acquired Crystal Decisions technology.

The moves could reduce reliance on spreadsheets, currently favoured by over 90 percent of users for financial reporting, according to a study by the FT Research Centre.

Other data giants are heading in new directions. Oracle has released Database Lite 10g, an upgrade to its database for mobile devices that simultaneously synchronises data and applications when connecting with the server.