Business Objects Announces Interface Between BusinessObjects 4.0 and Oracle Express; Combined Solution Unites Industry-Leading Vendors of Client/Server OLAP Solutions.

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 1996--Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) today announced the interface between BusinessObjects 4.0, the world's leading integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tool and Oracle Express, a leading multidimensional OLAP server.

The BusinessObjects interface will deliver an integrated query, reporting, and desktop multidimensional analysis interface for Oracle Express. Oracle Express Server provides customers with a robust data modeling and calculation engine optimized for data analysis and decision support, while offering multidimensional database scalability.

The interface between BusinessObjects and Express offers the following unique benefits:

-- Report writing and desktop analysis - BusinessObjects is the first client/server decision support tool designed to provide integrated reporting and desktop analysis that interfaces to Oracle Express in one product. Customers will now be able to take advantage of the popular BusinessObjects tool for query, reporting, and analysis on Oracle Express-based applications such as marketing and sales analysis, profitability analysis, and management reporting.

-- Automatic report/microcube distribution - BusinessObjects features a server component called Document Agent that can automatically generate and distribute reports and microcubes generated from Express. This offers customers the ability to schedule reports for enterprise-wide distribution.

-- Combining multiple data sources - customers will now be able to combine, report on, and analyze data from multiple data sources - Express multidimensional data, information from relational databases such as Oracle, and personal/desktop data using BusinessObjects.

-- Mobile computing -- the interface will allow customers to pull multidimensional Express data into BusinessObjects microcubes, which provide OLAP on the desktop. Users can then perform analysis and reporting while disconnected from Express and from the network.

"The solution between Business Objects and Oracle extends a long and successful relationship between our two companies," said Bernard Liautaud, president and CEO of Business Objects. "For more than five years we have provided support for and integration between BusinessObjects and Oracle's leading RDBMS.

"Continuing in that tradition, we are offering mutual customers an interface to Oracle's Express multidimensional OLAP server. Business Objects is focused on providing best-of-breed decision support tools, and partnering with database vendors. Our focus allows us to direct all our energy and resources into providing customers with the very best decision support tool possible."

"Instead of building our own OLAP server," Liautaud continued, "we choose to partner with the leading vendors of database technology. So wherever the data resides, whether it's in multidimensional Oracle Express, relational, or personal data stores, our customers will be able to access information, perform analysis, and build and distribute reports."

"By interfacing BusinessObjects with our Express Server, we are reaffirming our commitment to providing customers with an open solution for all their data analysis needs," said Jeffrey Stamen, senior vice president of the OLAP Product Division at Oracle.

"We are broadening our already wide selection of technology components that customers can use to access the rich data in the Express Server, and enabling them to scale up their analytical requirements. BusinessObjects now provides the benefit on the user's desktop of integration between query, reporting, and analytical capabilities of Oracle Express Server."

Availability

The interface between BusinessObjects and Express is scheduled for availability in Q197.

About Business Objects

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) is the world's leading supplier of integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tools. The company's flagship product, BusinessObjects, provides mainstream business users with access to information stored in corporate databases, data warehouses, and packaged applications.

The company pioneered the market for business-intelligent decision support tools in 1990 by introducing the first product to use a "semantic layer" to map complex database schemas to a business representation understandable by non-technical end users.

Business Objects led the overall decision support tools market in 1995 with software license revenues of $48.7M. Business Objects generated over $60M in revenue in 1995, concluding its fifth consecutive year of more than 100% revenue growth. BusinessObjects is in use at over 3,200 organizations in over 60 countries, and has sold more than 350,000 licenses around the world.

Business Objects partners with more than 350 leading third-party vendors including Arbor Software, Carleton, Hewlett-Packard, Informatica, Informix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Prism, Pyramid, Red Brick, SAP, Silicon Graphics, Sun, Sybase, Tandem, and Texas Instruments. Strategic resellers include Bull, Digital, Fujitsu, NCR, Price Waterhouse, Sequent, SHL, Siemens Nixdorf, Toshiba, and Unisys. More information on Business Objects can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.businessobjects.com. -0-

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.

CONTACT: Business Objects

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Lisa Herbst, 408/739-0252 (Investor Relations)