Sanoma Magazines Belgium Counts on Analytic Applications
From Business Objects
San Jose, Calif. - June 12, 2002 -- Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Sanoma Magazines Belgium, the leading editor of general-interest magazines in Belgium, relies on BusinessObjects™ Analytics, an integrated suite of enterprise analytic applications. Sanoma Magazines Belgium uses BusinessObjects Analytics to maintain its edge in the highly competitive publishing market through enhanced customer relationships and more productive sales and marketing operations.
Sanoma Magazines Belgium, (formerly Mediaxis), which publishes 20 magazines and produces several television shows airing in the Belgian market, uses BusinessObjects™ Product Analytics, BusinessObjects™ Sales Analytics, and BusinessObjects™ Customer Analytics.
Using Product Analytics, managers at Sanoma increase profitability and market share by providing insight into all the key factors that Sanoma managers need to consider each day. For example, with Business Objects, the company tracks the performance of each of its 20 magazines, understands the impact of pricing decisions, and assesses the impact of promotions designed to encourage the purchase of specific publications. Through insights from Product Analytics, it can take action to help its business, such as changing the product mix, pricing, or marketing campaigns.
With Sales Analytics, the Sanoma Magazines sales force has the latest information at its fingertips before visiting clients. For example, Sales Analytics gives Sanoma account representatives the ability to track unsold magazines, inactive customers, and discounting. It then highlights their status, giving better visibility of their key business metrics, and enabling the sales force to take immediate action. In addition, Sales Analytics gives the Sanoma Management team the latest information on sales performance, to view how it is doing compared to its plan, and pinpoint where it needs to improve in order to meet its objectives.
With Customer Analytics, Sonoma Magazines gains insight into its customer base. For example, the company can see immediate changes in its competitive environment and gain a detailed behaviorial picture of customers who are critical to its revenue. This can guide Sanoma Magazines into acting to support or change its behavior, in acquiring high-value prospects with the greatest chance of success, and in building customer lifetime value.
“We chose analytics from Business Objects because their solution offers dozens of prebuilt analytics that help us make fast decisions that have a positive impact on our business,” said Olivier Payens, project manager at Sanoma Magazines Belgium. “In addition, Business Objects was an active participant in launching our business intelligence initiatives, and that helped drive our successful deployment.”
“Successful companies know that to stay competitive today they need more than just a hard working sales and marketing team to reach their market share and profitability goals,” said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president, worldwide marketing, at Business Objects. “BusinessObjects Analytics provides Sanoma Magazines Belgium with powerful tools to help them monitor, interpret, and act on changing customer behavior, as well as monitor key metrics that affect the sales pipeline, close rate, and revenue performance.”
Sanoma Magazines Belgium is also in the process of deploying an extranet to its wholesale customers. The extranet, based on Business Objects solutions, will give those customers an opportunity to have internet access to the latest sales figures. This will help wholesalers evaluate the difference between the money they make from subscriptions sales, versus purchases at neighborhood markets.
About Sanoma Magazines Belgium
Sanoma Magazines Belgium is part of Sanoma Magazines B.V., the group of companies comprising the Magazines publication activities of SanomaWSOY. Sanoma Magazines is the fifth-largest Magazine publisher in Europe and publishes over 240 Magazines in 9 countries: Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden. In five of these countries Sanoma Magazines is the market leader: Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Sanoma Magazines Belgium is the publisher of the Dutch language women and tv Magazines Feeling, Feeling Wonen, Flair, HUMO, Libelle, Marie Claire Vlaams, Menzo, Story and TeVe-Blad, and of the French language women and tv Magazines Femmes d' Aujourd'hui, Flair L'hebdo, Gael, Gael Maison, Marie Claire Belgique, Télé Moustique, and Télé-Pocket.
SanomaWSOY's pro forma net sales totalled EUR 1.730 billion in 2001 and it employs about 18,000 people. In addition to Sanoma Magazines, which is the Group's largest sector, SanomaWSOY includes four other sectors: Finland's leading newspaper publisher, Sanoma; the TV and new media group, SWelcom, Finland's leading book publisher, WSOY; and Rautakirja, which operates in the retail, distribution, and entertainment fields in Finland and the Baltic countries.
About Business Objects
Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 35,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects™ XI, offers the BI industry's most complete and trusted platform for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports®, the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.
Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.
