Business Objects Announces BusinessObjects Developer Suite 5.5.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2001

Releases New Version of Open, Standards-Based Development

Toolkit for Customizing, Extending, and

Integrating the Business Objects BI Platform

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced an updated version of BusinessObjects(TM) Developer Suite, its development toolkit for customizing, integrating, and extending the Business Objects BI platform. Developer Suite combines the leading business intelligence solutions from Business Objects with the latest industry-standard development technology, enabling companies to modify their Business Objects solutions to better integrate BI functionality within their corporate applications.

BusinessObjects Developer Suite includes the standard development environments of JavaServer Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages (ASP), and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), as well as an extensive object model, the Business Objects standard API, and wide assortment of sample programs and documentation.

Developer Suite provides an open, standards-based interface, powerful software developer kits, and a rapid deployment interface, giving developers a complete toolkit to meet enterprise-wide user needs. With Developer Suite, customers can tightly integrate BI functionality with internal applications and customize the look and feel of their BI tools. Partners can use Developer Suite to build custom solutions that utilize the power of the BI platform.

"BEA and Business Objects have a shared commitment to the Java development community and Java standards," said Rauline Ochs, senior vice president of worldwide partner initiatives at BEA. "We are pleased that Business Objects has enhanced its development toolkit to make it even easier for Java developers to modify or integrate Business Objects within corporate applications built on the BEA WebLogic application infrastructure."

"With new Java features added to Developer Suite, customers and partners will be able to rapidly develop custom WebIntelligence interfaces with a fraction of the code required to do the job today," said Jeff Schlitt, Senior Manager, Braun Consulting. "The enhanced development kit significantly advances our combined efforts to help companies rapidly deploy business intelligence solutions that integrate with existing applications and provide the highest level of customization, functionality, and time savings. With the updated Developer Suite Business Objects confirms its commitment to innovation, and to enabling organizations to quickly and easily extend their BI platforms and build customized solutions that meets their specific needs."

Developer Suite 5.5 exposes a J2EE-compatible API, which can be used to build new Web applications and integrate with existing applications, and includes an enhanced Java interface, new features for faster customization, and a new reporting software development kit (SDK), giving developers a complete toolset for customizing, integrating, and extending their BI platform.

Enhanced Java API for application building and integration

Developer Suite 5.5 has an enhanced Java API that leverages new features in the Java-standard, including a multi-tiered API. This multi-tiered API enables developers to work at different levels, either at a low level for tight application integration, or at the component level, for rapid application customization. By using the powerful new components in Developer Suite, developers can more quickly integrate BI functionality into a corporate portal or a J2EE environment.

New features for faster customization of the BI solution

Developer Suite 5.5 contains new features to speed the customization and integration of the BI solution. The first are called frameworks, which are pre-built customized portal interfaces for BusinessObjects InfoView. These frameworks are customized using extensible markup language (XML), XML style sheet language (XSL), and cascading style sheets (CSS), which means that developers can quickly and easily change the look and feel or modify the workflow of InfoView. Based on customer feedback on most commonly used functionality, Developer Suite also includes several new reusable code modules for popular tasks such as session management and single sign on integration.

New Reporting SDK for complete business integration

Developer Suite 5.5 now includes an extension to the object model called the Reporting SDK, which provides direct access to the WebIntelligence reporting engine. Developers can create reporting interfaces tailored to the business needs of their users, and can create the customized interface of their choice using the technology of their choice, for example, HTML or DHTML.

"As the BI market leader, we have seen customer deployments grow from department projects to enterprise-wide deployments. Not surprisingly, as more users are added, the BI system must become more flexible to meet a wide variety of end user needs and corporate technology standards," said Crispin Read, vice president of product marketing at Business Objects. "Developer Suite gives partners and customers access to the building blocks of the leading BI tools from Business Objects and provides more flexible options for deploying business intelligence solutions that will both meet a diverse set of needs but will be based on one core set of BI technology."

Platforms and Availability

BusinessObjects Developer Suite 5.5 is generally available on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and UNIX.

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. Business intelligence helps organizations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings.

The company's products include BusinessObjects 2000, the industry's leading integrated business intelligence toolset and platform, and BusinessObjects Analytics, an integrated suite of enterprise analytic applications.

Business Objects pioneered the modern BI industry in 1990 by inventing a patented "semantic layer" that insulates users from the complexity of databases. In 1995, the company was first to focus on enterprise-scale BI deployments and today supports customers with more than 20,000 users. The company moved aggressively to the Internet in 1997 by pioneering the market for BI extranets, a market that it continues to lead today. In 2000, the company delivered the industry's first interactive wireless BI solution. Today, Business Objects continues to innovate, creating and delivering a unique vision for enterprise analytic applications.

Business Objects has more than 14,000 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols Nasdaq:BOBJ and Euronext Paris: code Euroclear France 12074, and 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.

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

A full-text copy of this announcement may be downloaded from the Web; access http://www.businesswire.com/cnn and search on "Business Objects." Business Objects product inquiries should contact 800/527-0580.