Meridian Systems, one of the leading US providers of construction project management software, has announced that users of its Prolog solution can now use Crystal Reports, the enterprise reporting tool from Business Objects.
Meridian’s 7 April release says it has signed an OEM agreement with Business Objects to integrate Crystal Reports XI within the Prolog environment, extending users’ report formatting and design capabilities beyond the current capabilities of Prolog’s Report Manager (get more details here).
Three days later, Business Objects issued its own release announcing the launch of Crystal Reports On Demand (crystalreports.com), the first major business intelligence solution to be offered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis. Crystalreports.com is offered free as part of Crystal Reports XI, allowing users to share information simply and securely via the web, without all the hassles associated with conventional hard copy static reports (eg: no more hard-to-track or lost email attachments).
Knowing that Meridian also offers an on-demand version of Prolog: ProjectTalk, I had a quick look to see if the two elements have been combined (ie: ASP collaboration and ASP reporting), but there is – as yet – no mention of Crystal at all. Surely this will be a logical next step?
