Business Objects Announces New Initiative for Customer Relationship Management.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2001

Business Objects and Leading Applications Companies Extend

Reach of Business Intelligence for Delivering Customer

Value in the Enterprise

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today unveiled a new global alliance program, the Business Objects Open Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Partner Initiative. This initiative was created to allow application providers, consulting companies, and software vendors to work with Business Objects to provide their mutual clients with complete customer analysis capabilities for the enterprise. The first companies to join the Open CRM Partner Initiative are Acxiom Corporation; eGain Communications Corp; Fair, Isaac and Company; MatchLogic; and NuEdge Systems.

To survive and compete in today's economy, companies must have a keen understanding of their customers, and an ability to act on this knowledge to create more lasting and profitable customer relationships. This is especially important as corporations expand to include new markets, products, and geographical regions to their business, and are faced with an ever-growing network of customer-related data.

By collaborating with companies that provide CRM applications, services, and end-to-end solutions, Business Objects and its partners can help joint customers address the increasingly complex demands of developing an effective customer intelligence strategy. Each company in the Business Objects Open CRM Partner Initiative offers unique solutions that address specific needs in the marketplace -- by coming together, the member companies can offer solutions that are tailored to support a client's individual customer intelligence goals.

For many years companies have turned to Business Objects for solutions that help them access, analyze, and share customer data. For example, JPMorganChase, the leader in global financial services and retail banking, uses WebIntelligence(R) from Business Objects to identify their most profitable customers, the products they are buying, and opportunities to increase sales and loyalty among this group. eBay, the world's leading personal trading community, is using BusinessObjects Set Analyzer(TM), the set-based business analysis solution from Business Objects, to segment customers in order to make improvements that will benefit their auction community.

Extending their reach into the CRM market, Business Objects today announced its first analytic application for the customer intelligence market and a framework for organizations to build custom applications. (Editor's note: See related press releases "Business Objects Launches BusinessObjects(TM) Customer Intelligence" and "Business Objects Launches BusinessObjects Application Foundation, both dated July 10, 2001.)

In creating the Open CRM Partner Initiative, Business Objects will work with partners who have demonstrated a similar commitment in delivering products and services that help their clients capitalize on data on their most important asset -- their customers.

"Clearly, customer relationship management is a topic of much attention, and there is a dizzying array of choices and solutions to sift through when putting together a CRM strategy," said Mark Tice, group vice president of global alliances for Business Objects. "In creating the Open CRM Partner Initiative, we are bringing together the leaders in customer analytics and operational software, services, and support, and will present to the market a clear and comprehensive solution to meet their CRM needs."

The following companies have joined the Business Objects Open CRM Partner Initiative:

Acxiom

For customers building a leading-edge CRM solution, Business Objects and Acxiom together offer customers a competitive advantage with the combination of Business Objects powerful analytic applications and Acxiom's AbiliTec-Enabled Solutions.

Acxiom Corporation, a global leader in Customer Data Integration (CDI) and customer recognition infrastructure, enables businesses to develop and deepen customer relationships by creating a single, accurate view of their customers across the enterprise. Acxiom achieves this by providing CDI software, database management services, and premier customer data content through its AbiliTec(TM), Solvitur(R) and InfoBase(R) products and a broad range of information technology outsourcing services. Acxiom also recently introduced Opticx(SM), which measures the quality of a company's data and shows the company how to increase the return on investment for its products and services.

eGain Communications Corp

"We are delighted to be partnering with Business Objects on its best-of-breed approach to offer its new analytic applications through application providers, consulting companies, and software vendors; this will provide our customers with the next-generation eService solutions from eGain; combined with an effective customer intelligence strategy," said Max Fiszer, vice president of marketing for eGain Communications.

eGain is a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management (EIM) software for global 2000 enterprises. Selected by 24 of the 50 largest global companies to evolve their voice call centers into multi-channel eService networks, eGain solutions measurably improve operational efficiency and customer retention -- thus delivering a significant return on investment (ROI). eGain's best-in-class application suite includes email management, web collaboration and self-service, and a scalable enterprise-wide knowledge management solution. eGain together with Business Objects will bring additional analytic capabilities to the eGain platform, and provide added business intelligence to accrue higher levels of profitability, and derive superior customer loyalty.

Fair, Isaac and Company

Fair, Isaac and Business Objects have partnered to provide clients with an enhanced version of Fair, Isaac MarketSmart Decision System(TM) -- a full-service, multi-channel marketing solution that helps companies determine where, when and how to interact with their prospects and customers to build stronger relationships. Fair, Isaac licenses WebIntelligence software as a key component of its MarketSmart Decision System.

"From the beginning, Fair, Isaac has been committed to providing clients with the best technology available to help them manage, personalize, and profit from their customer relationships," said Dag Von Ruden, vice president, worldwide channel development, at Fair, Isaac. "By combining the industry leading analysis and reporting software from Business Objects with our strategic and operational capabilities, Fair, Isaac's MarketSmart is able to provide businesses with the industry's first full-service, integrated, and real-time eCRM solution."

Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc. is a global provider of customer analytics and decision technology. Widely recognized for its pioneering work in credit scoring, Fair, Isaac revolutionized the way lending decisions are made. Today the company helps clients in multiple industries increase the value of customer relationships.

MatchLogic

"We are very excited to expand our partnership with Business Objects by participating in its Open CRM Partner Initiative," said Tim Prunk, president of MatchLogic. "Business Objects applications are widely used and respected worldwide and greatly enhance our online and offline marketing solutions. We look forward to collaborating with Business Objects to offer leading relationship marketing solutions for joint customers via Business Objects analytics technologies."

MatchLogic, the leading provider of global interactive marketing services, offers solutions to help marketers increase their return on investment by building and enhancing their relationship with each customer. The MatchLogic eVista solution is integrated with Business Objects applications, allowing marketers to easily create relevant, highly targeted online and offline campaigns. MatchLogic eVista leverages Business Objects applications for customer analysis, audience segmentation and reporting. eVista users can seamlessly utilize Business Objects applications within the eVista solution and Business Objects customers can quickly derive value from eVista as it harnesses applications with which they're already familiar.

NuEdge Systems

"Companies are increasingly finding that gathering and acting on individual customer information is a significant contributor to success," said Don Layden, chief operative officer of NuEdge Systems. "Our partnership with Business Objects, which has set the standard for business intelligence solutions, significantly enhances our ability to help companies achieve even higher levels of marketing success based on the most complete view of each customer."

NuEdge Systems (www.nuedgesystems.com) provides ROI-driven solutions and deep vertical market expertise to help retailers, cataloguers and financial services companies leverage customers' preferences to design and execute individualized marketing initiatives. Its participation in Business Objects Open CRM Partner Initiative delivers unprecedented ability to integrate deep customer information with the industry's most powerful marketing automation solution to increase marketing response rates, strengthen customer lifetime value and improve profitability.

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 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 mobile BI solution. Today, Business Objects continues to innovate, creating and delivering a unique vision for enterprise analytic applications.

Business Objects has more than 13,000 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Sicovam 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.

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects and BusinessObjects Set Analyzer are trademarks of Business Objects SA. WebIntelligence is a registered 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.