Air France Industries Selects Business Objects for Business Intelligence Portal and Supply Chain Extranet.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2003

Aircraft Maintenance Giant Uses Business Objects to Deliver Key

Performance Indicator Data to Over 1,000 Employees, and Critical

Maintenance and Supply Chain Information to Customers

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ, Euronext Paris), the world's leading provider of business intelligence solutions, today announced that Air France Industries (AFI), the world's second largest multi-product aircraft maintenance operator, has selected Business Objects to offer its customers an innovative supply chain extranet. In addition, more than one thousand employees within the operational entities at AFI use Business Objects to track, understand, and manage key performance indicators that are critical to enterprise performance.

"The safety, security and financial issues at stake in aircraft maintenance are considerable," said Jacques Noviant, Director of IT Applications at Air France Industries. "With stock inventory worth 960 million euros, the need to optimize our logistics process is a constant priority. At the same time, our extranet, called "@Win," enables our customers to keep track of components that we are repairing or servicing."

In less than 10 months, Air France Industries has deployed this new business intelligence system to the satisfaction of both in-house and external users. AFI implemented Business Objects, using the RAD (Rapid Application Development) methodology, which creates a strong link between end-users and IT teams from the start of the project.

Connected directly to Astre, the specialized ERP for aircraft maintenance, the Business Objects business intelligence environment provides more than 130 dashboards to a thousand Air France Industries employees worldwide. The purchasing department has access to analytics of ordered volumes, the contracts and pricing with suppliers, and the quality of their services with an automatic rating system. Tracked over time, this data provides an objective basis for future negotiations with suppliers.

The value of the inventory for each facility is also tracked with Business Objects. AFI also uses Business Objects to do component flow analysis, to refine inventory control (geographical proximity of certain facilities, inactive inventory detection, etc.). Engineering, at the core of AFI's know-how and added-value, uses Business Objects for detailed statistical studies on component reliability and the tracking of maintenance policy. Finally, at the production logistics level, Business Objects improves the management of component flow and enables shop workload evaluation based on ongoing repair status.

In addition, AFI's airline customers use Business Objects to obtain easy round-the-clock access to the @Win Extranet, enabling them to monitor orders (overhauls and repairs), component availability and AFI's service level agreements. AFI's customers have an immediate overview of work in process, seven days a week. They can check the quality of AFI's service in real time. In-house, the enhanced visibility of all ongoing work enables each AFI employee to directly impact the quality of the supply chain, on the basis of totally consistent, standardized management rules.

"In our business, it is vital to react fast to stay competitive," said Noviant. "The Business Objects environments gives us the big picture and enables us to analyze and anticipate situations better."

About Air France Industries

With 1.66 billion euros of turnover including 33% from third-party customers, Air France Industries (AFI) is the commercial organization via which Air France offers aircraft maintenance services to other airlines. The world's second-ranking multi-product maintenance operator, AFI has the capacity to offer a complete range of maintenance services including components, engines, nacelles, airframes, maintenance, engineering and logistics, to meet customer requirements on a planetary scale: this is the added-value offered by Air France Industries, backed by all the experience of an airline company. AFI does business with some one hundred customer airlines worldwide and is responsible for servicing and maintaining the 252 long- and medium-haul aircraft in the Air France fleet.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. It helps organizations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings.

The company's products include data integration tools, the industry's leading integrated business intelligence platform, and a suite of enterprise analytic applications. Business Objects is the first to offer a complete BI solution that is composed of best-of-breed components, giving organizations the means to deploy end-to-end BI to the enterprise, from data extraction to analytic applications.

Business Objects has more than 17,000 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Euroclear code 12074). It is included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.