Office Business Applications (OBAs) are composite applications built using the services, tools, and servers that comprise the Microsoft® 2007 Office system. These applications integrate with line of business (LOB) systems such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and Microsoft Dynamics. The primary goal behind OBAs is to build on existing investments in LOB systems by bridging the gap that exists when employees don't have direct access to business data residing in the LOB system.
As a result of this gap, many employees must work with outdated business data. This leads to potentially misinformed business decisions and causes unnecessary requests to workers who do have access to the LOB systems. There are costs in terms of time and, often, money with this situation.
OBAs have other advantages as well, such as bringing business data into the context of the everyday work environment—typically via familiar Microsoft Office applications. Building on familiar tools helps mitigate training costs for LOB systems that are, to put it kindly, sometimes cumbersome and difficult to navigate.
