A site about business intelligence that's—mostly—intelligent.

IN A NUTSHELL

Business intelligence is interesting stuff. It helps people do their jobs more efficiently, saves companies money and resources, and facilitates creative solutions. And the Business Objects site does a decent job of communicating that. Mostly.

BRAVO

It's clear that someone at Business Objects really tried to think about how users would access and use information on the site. The perfect example is the "Starting Points" section on the home page. It asks users to self-select by size/role: enterprise, small & midsize, partners, and developers. When users choose a role, the site provides tailored information for them. Yes, we know it's not unique, and though we would like to see it highlighted a little better visually, something about the idea of a "starting point" seems, well, smart.

There are also plenty of other smart features to be found throughout the site. One of our favorites is Search the Knowledge Base. It aggregates resources in one place and allows users to search for and download them in a variety of formats: forums, FAQs, documents, etc.

Finally, the standout feature of the site is the Diamond technical community. Not only does it feature community basics such as subcommunities on specific applications/platforms, technical resources, blogs, e-books, and sample code, there is also a helpful Getting Started page and clear guidelines for submissions and contributions. And, unlike the main Business Objects site, Diamond community pages feature a clean, easy-to-read layout.

TRY AGAIN

Overall the site is visually attractive, with clear navigation and good UI. But we can't emphasize it enough: Light blue type is difficult to read on both black and white backgrounds. It doesn't matter how good you think it looks, or how it conforms to your brand identity; if users can't read it, they won't come back to your site.

Also, one navigational quirk stuck out like a sore thumb: A page labeled "Overview" can be found below each site section. Clicking on "Overview," however, and clicking on the section name serve up the exact same page.

Overall, the language is too stilted and jargony. I call this kind of content "chicken feed copy" because it feels like someone had a good idea and the marketing department picked it apart (like a flock of chickens) in order to include boilerplate features and benefits messaging. Stop picking and give the site a personality.

Which is a nice segue to the newsletters. Business Objects has two: Spotlight on CIO and Spotlight on CFO. Both newsletters have strong contributions from—and may be created wholesale by—Gartner Research. It always strikes us as odd that companies want to establish personality and independent thought leadership and then rely on analyst firms to provide that viewpoint.