Companies Worldwide Turn to Business Objects for Data Integration

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 10, 2003 -- With companies increasingly looking for a data integration tool that is tightly integrated with their business intelligence platform, Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, has shown significant momentum with BusinessObjectsT Data Integrator. Business Objects has now signed more than 200 new BusinessObjects Data Integrator customers since introducing the product in August of last year, including 60 in the most recent quarter alone.

A key component of BusinessObjects Enterprise 6, the industry-leading business intelligence suite from Business Objects, Data Integrator enables companies to easily integrate data from multiple enterprise applications, in order to effectively track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. By tightly integrating BusinessObjects Data Integrator within its BI suite, Business Objects has seen momentum for its data integration products across a wide variety of vertical markets. Recent new customers include AstraZeneca, City National Bank, Cutter & Buck, Iomega, Maxtor, National Australia Bank, Nextel Communications, Norwood Promotional Products, Otis Elevator, Peugeot, Poste Italiane, RedEnvelope, Siemens Medical Solutions, State of Vermont, Unilever, U.S. Army, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Navy among others.

"Our research shows that many organizations view data integration tools as an essential element of a complete business intelligence platform," said Wayne Eckerson, director of research for The Data Warehousing Institute. "These organizations want data integration technology that is fully integrated with their overall business intelligence solution."

"Business Objects is committed to providing our customers with an industry leading data integration solution to simplify and streamline the process of integrating data across their disparate operational data sources," said Chris Caren, vice president of corporate product marketing at Business Objects. "As witnessed by the number of new customer deals last quarter, which outpaced our market rivals, companies view BusinessObjects Data Integrator as one of the leading solutions in this market. Our customers want to standardize on one business intelligence vendor, and having a data integration solution that is integrated with their overall BI platform is very important."

Companies worldwide are turning to BusinessObjects Data Integrator to help accelerate their business intelligence deployment times and lower total cost of ownership, while ensuring that timely and accurate information is delivered to users of BI tools and analytic applications. Highlighted companies that have deployed data integration products from Business Objects include:

AstraZeneca - a major international research-based pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) selected Data Integrator to simplify and accelerate data access for its business intelligence system that is powered by Business Objects. Through its enterprise agreement with Business Objects, AstraZeneca can extend its usage to all 58,000 employees. As this takes place, BusinessObjects Data Integrator is being used to help deliver timely and accurate information throughout the enterprise.

Cutter & Buck - a leading designer of upscale sportswear and outerwear, Cutter & Buck (Nasdaq: CBUK) selected BusinessObjects Data Integrator to vastly simplify and streamline the process of integrating data with their legacy systems infrastructure. With Data Integrator, Cutter & Buck expects to reduce the amount of hand-coding required to import data from operational systems that power inventory management, sales support, and other critical functions into its data warehouse.

Maxtor - a world leader in hard disk drives and consumer storage products, Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO) chose BusinessObjects Data Integrator and BusinessObjects Sales Analysis Rapid Mart to get real-time information from its SAP data warehouse and i2 supply chain management system. This allows Maxtor to support a flexible manufacturing architecture, just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing and distribution, which requires tightly coordinated business activities between Maxtor and its parts suppliers, factories, warehouses, and customers throughout the world.

Norwood Promotional Products - the nation's largest supplier of promotional products, Norwood selected BusinessObjects Data Integrator to extract information from the firm's six legacy ERP systems to give employees and managers one consistent view of all their corporate information. Norwood managers estimate that over the next quarter Data Integrator will become the firm's principal engine for information access and delivery.

BusinessObjects Data Integrator allows developers to visually construct connections between operational data sources and a data warehouse, creating a powerful data foundation for strategic business intelligence and enterprise performance management. In addition, BusinessObjects Rapid MartsT accelerate this process by providing native connectivity to enterprise applications from SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft/J.D. Edwards, and Siebel Systems. With the launch of BusinessObjects Data Integrator 6.1, Business Objects delivered substantial productivity enhancements through a new user interface and built-in data preview and profiling, a new parallel performance architecture, and impact analysis across the entire business intelligence environment.

For more information on data integration solutions from Business Objects, please visit:www.businessobjects.com/products/data_integration/.

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.


Smaller textLarger textPrint this page, properly formatted for paper