IBM To Embed Reporting In Development Platforms

In an effort to provide software development customers with business intelligence capability, IBM will add Crystal reporting functionality to its WebSphere Studio and Rational Software tools.

On Tuesday, IBM said it signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Business Objects, which acquired Crystal last year. As part of the deal, IBM's WebSphere Studio and Rational Software will be integrated with Crystal Version 10. The reporting functionality will be embedded in future releases of both platforms.

Crystal's integration with WebSphere will add reporting and analysis directly within the development environment, the companies said. Its addition to Rational will enable access to reports that provide software development metrics on things such as project status and quality.

The OEM deal isn't the two companies' first shared effort. They've already made several sales and marketing pacts, and BI tools from Business Objects are currently embedded in Tivoli data warehouse and other IBM applications.

"The announcement further extends an already strong relationship between Business Objects and IBM," Mike Devlin, general manager of IBM Rational Software, said in a prepared statement.