Business Objects is running a promotion for their entry level web portal, Crystal Reports Server XI. Crystal Reports Server doesn’t allow you to create reports but allows you to make reports available on a network server to users who log in through a browser. The promo price is $2,495 for five named users. The normal retail version is still $7,500 for 5 concurrent users which doesn’t seem like much of a promotional value to me. I seem to remember 5 named users being a free offer at one point but apparently that is no longer true.

But the real news isn’t the promotion itself. It is that promotions like this usually happen just before a significant product release. In this case it is probably CR Server 2008, but nothing will be announced until after the promotion has expired. If anyone has any insight into what is coming next, drop me a line.

Update – 5/21/08:
I heard from one of my readers who is a BO partner and they confirmed that Crystal Reports Server 2008 is to be expected in July 2008.