Business Objects Announces Product Integration Roadmap; Customer Input Drives Integration Plan for Industry's Strongest and Most Complete BI Offering.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2004

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of its roadmap for integrating Business Objects and Crystal Decisions products. A product integration roadmap white paper, available now at www.businessobjects.com, details the process used to develop the roadmap, and outlines the strategies and plans for integrating the company's products.

Customer input forms the foundation of the product roadmap. Over the past six months, a team of experts from the combined company met with customers from every major geography and industry, to obtain guidance and feedback in the development of future product plans. Business Objects also met with leading industry analysts to leverage their insights and gather feedback from a balanced, vendor-neutral source. Finally, a joint task force of Business Objects and Crystal Decisions employees worked together to synthesize this feedback and create the final product roadmap. The task force, which consisted of executives, engineers, product managers, marketing managers, and other contributors, spent over 20 person-years refining and validating the roadmap.

"Business Objects has always been deeply committed to the success of our customers," said Bernard Liautaud, chairman and chief executive officer at Business Objects. "This is why we made customer input the starting point for the development of the product roadmap, and is why we are taking the unusual step of making our long-term product integration roadmap available to the public. We want to provide our customers with visibility into our product plans, and maximum flexibility in how they move forward with our combined product line. To our knowledge, no competitor in the BI market provides this level of detail on their product plans."

Roadmap principles

Based on input from customers, analysts, and the combined company task force, the product roadmap is built on four key principles:

-- Minimize the total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO is a critical

metric for the long-term success of any IT investment.

Business Objects customers saw a clear opportunity to lower

their TCO, especially by integrating the infrastructure of the

product line. This will provide one place in which to manage

all users, metadata, integration points to other systems,

customizations, security, and more. In addition, customers can

dramatically lower their TCO by reducing the need for

redundant skill sets, administration, hardware, and end-user

training.

-- Provide a clear upgrade path. Customers stressed the

importance of smooth upgrades and migration as Business

Objects enhances and integrates the products.

-- Build on existing strengths. Customers want to build on the

success they already have achieved with their respective

products, and for Business Objects to continue to improve and

enhance current product functionality.

-- Balance integration with innovation. Customers want to see

continued innovation as Business Objects moves forward with

integration.

Three-phase approach to integration

The product roadmap will bring together the company's two product lines in three phases:

-- Phase one: product integration pack. Will provide portal

integration, common web service API's, and enable Business

Objects metadata, or "universes" as an optional data source

for Crystal Reports. The company expects to deliver this

integration pack in the second quarter of this year.

-- Phase two: platform-level integration. Phase two will provide

significant platform-level integration, supporting core

products from both product lines running on a common

infrastructure with common administration. The company expects

to deliver platform-level integration by the end of 2004.

-- Phase three: complete integration. Phase three will provide

the final phase of integration, delivering a superset of all

current product functionality on an enhanced, integrated

platform. The company expects to deliver complete integration

in 2005.

The product integration roadmap plan is the current plan for integrating the company's product lines. However, these plans may be refined, updated, or revised from time to time, based on customer input and market conditions. All product roadmap and product integration plans are subject to change without notice.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. Business Objects enables organizations to track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. The company's solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Popular uses of BI include enterprise reporting, management dashboards and scorecards, customer intelligence applications, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimize the supply chain, increase productivity, and improve financial performance.

In December 2003, Business Objects completed the acquisition of Crystal Decisions, the leader in enterprise reporting. The combined product line includes software for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, analytic applications, and data integration. In addition, Business Objects offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has more than 24,000 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB). 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

BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation 

Reform Act of 1995 for Business Objects:

Various matters set forth in this press release, such as statements describing the features and timing of the anticipated product roadmap and specifically the three phase approach to integration are forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the price/performance requirements of customers, the ability to deliver the various product features in the anticipated timeframe, the impact and pricing of competing technologies, the company's ability to successfully integrate Crystal Decisions and Business Objects technologies in the anticipated timeframe, and other risks detailed from time to time in Business Objects' SEC filings and reports. Business Objects undertakes no duty to update the forward-looking statements herein.