Business intelligence (BI) software specialist Business Objects today launched new information management products to help firms tackle the growing problem of unreliable corporate data.

Speaking at the vendor's European user conference in Cannes, Business Objects' chief executive John Schwarz unveiled a new enterprise information management (EIM) portfolio of products and services. He said that its enhanced data management and cleansing capabilities would reassure BI users that the data presented to them in corporate reports is accurate.

Experts welcomed the move, arguing that poor information management at many firms was undermining the effectiveness of BI investments by causing inconsistencies and inaccuracies that erode trust in data used to make decisions.

The new portfolio includes a data-quality management suite recently gained through the acquisition of FirstLogic; Business Objects' existing Data Integrator XI suite for integrating data into reports from multiple sources; a new suite called BusinessObjects Data Federator XI, which enables firms to gain a virtual view of their data sources and carry out real-time data queries; and a new Metadata Manager module, giving administrators and users more ability to trace the sources of data.

Alys Woodward of analyst Ovum said that as more and more firms deploy BI reporting tools across their organisations, pressure is increasing on IT directors to ensure data is accurate and consistent throughout, so executives can rely of the information generated in reports.

Donald McCormick, vice-president of product marketing at Business Objects, agreed that wider use of BI is making people less confident in the accuracy of the reports they receive. "Data trust wasn't a issue five years ago as firms tended to only report on data in one or two departments," he said. "[But] as BI goes enterprise-wide it is absolutely critical to integrate it with information management technologies so users can see the data and where it came from."

Regulations requiring firms to prove how they collect financial data is also likely to drive interest in software that combines reporting functionality with the ability to track data back to its source.

Business Objects dismissed suggestions that its new strategy will bring it into conflict with its existing information management software partners, not least major ally IBM, which earlier this year announced its own initiative to enhance its information managment and data quality portfolio.

Schwarz said Business Objects' new EIM portfolio would feature common standards and open APIs, and that software partners would continue to offer more industry-specific and region-specific functionality around the new functionality.