Today Business Objects finally announced what we all expected: the birth of the next version of it's XI platform: BusinessObjects XI 3.0. Not R3 or version 12 - just XI 3.0.

It is hailed as the release for all customers that are still on old versions - it's even easier to migrate to from version 5.x and 6.x, it will introduce features in Desktop Intelligence and Web Intelligence that will convince even the most stubborn customers to migrate. Or so they hope. Quite some new features come into play as well - the already much discussed WebI Rich Client, the new management tool (a revamped CMC yet even more cumbersome to use) and a tighter integration with Data Integrator to name but a few.

Much more information can be found on the Business Objects website. The main information site is here http://www.businessobjects.com/product/catalog/xi/ and the press release can be found here http://www.businessobjects.com/news/press_release.asp?id=20080212_009999.