PALO ALTO, CA -- Stringent new government regulations and fierce competition are driving U.S. corporations to implement business intelligence systems at an unprecedented rate, according to a new book released today by Accenture and Montgomery Research Inc. The findings in "Competitive Financial Operations: The CFO Project, Vol. 2" stress the importance of systems like those offered by Crystal Decisions to help executives live up to the transparency requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and to meet the challenges of today's competitive marketplace. Crystal Decisions' white paper explores how business intelligence can help CFOs empower the company's entire value chain. Business intelligence provides a cost-effective approach by solving a very simple need: It not only provides access to data, but also provides the tools to make that data meaningful and the infrastructure necessary to deliver it to stakeholders inside and outside the enterprise. The white paper further explains how a business intelligence infrastructure maximizes the value of systems already in place and removes critical bottlenecks that prevent reports from reaching key decision makers in a timely fashion. "As a leading provider of business intelligence software and services, our products are designed to give senior management an accurate view of the performance of every business unit across the enterprise," said Miles Mahoney, Vice President of Worldwide Systems Integrators at Crystal Decisions. "This white paper underscores the ability of business intelligence to provide ready access to the most important financial and operational information while it still has the greatest value-the result is better decision-making across the enterprise, and a more flexible, responsive and competitive organization." "The challenges facing executives today are daunting: economic uncertainties, tough global competition, and a rising sea of regulation. To address them, we created The CFO Project to explore the opportunities, starting with the explosive potential of the business performance management arena," said Nick Smith, Publisher, Competitive Financial Operations at Montgomery Research Inc. "We could not have succeeded without the dedicated support of our friends at Accenture and Crystal Decisions, an industry leader that has helped to make The CFO Project a valued resource for senior executives worldwide."