Business Objects has unveiled BusinessObjects 6.5, the latest version of its business intelligence application suite.

The company claimed that the release features enhanced web query and analysis functionality, increased performance and scalability, and better integration with Crystal Version 10 products.

Bernard Liautaud, chairman and chief executive at Business Objects, said in a statement: "We have leveraged the strengths of web services technology to extend the reach of business intelligence to a greater number of applications and users.

"In addition, we have delivered on our commitment to complete front-end integration of BusinessObjects and Crystal products in the second quarter of 2004."

The latest release is designed to allow business analysts to combine data from a broad set of sources into single reports.

Business Objects claimed that the product is able to support more than twice the number of users on the same hardware, with half the response time.

The company has completed front-end integration of Crystal and Business Objects products so that companies can use both product lines together.

The release gives designers of Crystal Reports access to the Business Objects semantic layer, which aims to provide a single foundation for query and reporting that combines information pulled from various databases.

Developers are also able to access Business Objects and Crystal via a service-oriented architecture, using an XML-based API.

Contextual report linking is designed to allow users to move directly from a Crystal Report to WebIntelligence to perform advanced query and analysis.

Business Objects also said that its WebIntelligence 6.5 product allows users to customise reports and perform analysis without the need to use a complex "authoring studio".

This enables customers to reduce their reliance on developers to build reports and cut their IT expenses, the company claimed.