Business Objects EIM Solution Receives Widespread Praise From Customers Around the World; New Products, Services, and Partnerships Will Provide Customers With Data They Can Trust.

CANNES, France -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 -- BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced widespread customer support for the company's products, services, and partnerships for enterprise information management (EIM). EIM provides customers with a strategy to ensure that their information is accurate and current. Now Business Objects offers comprehensive EIM solutions that give customers a foundation of trustworthy data for their BI and performance management initiatives.

Many Business Objects customers have previewed the new EIM solutions over the past two months and applaud the offerings. Customers expressing support of the new strategy and solutions include: Bulldog Communications, Business Link for London, Groupama, Nemours, Omnium Worldwide, Overstock.com, Stampin' Up!, The Tile Shop, and the University of Quebec at Montreal. Here are some of their comments:

Bulldog Communications

"It is vital to our company that we have access to a single view of accurate and timely information across every area of the organization," said Nicholas Huddart, Business Intelligence Systems Manager at Bulldog Communications. "As a fast growing provider of high speed broadband and phone services for homes and businesses, we generate huge volumes of data related to sales, customers, calls and billing. We use Data Integrator XI, part of Business Objects EIM product suite, to extract that data out of multiple operational systems and move it into a data warehouse, so that users can report on one reliable source of consistent and up-to-date information. For example, previously staff would turn up to meetings with conflicting figures, but now that's all a thing of the past. Moving forward, we see benefits from expanding our use of EIM solutions so that we can offer an even more competitive service and greater innovation. With the addition of EIM Business Objects provides us with one integrated platform that meets our business intelligence and information management needs."

Business Link for London

"We have been a Firstlogic customer for a long time and when I heard Business Objects was acquiring Firstlogic, I was very enthusiastic about the possibilities," said Mike Pratt, Data Integrity Manager at Business Link for London. "Together it is a formidable association. Now Business Objects EIM offerings bring together all the key technologies to make sure my company has trustworthy data. For the first time, I can see the entire cycle -- from data management to data quality, right through BI. A complete EIM strategy will enable me to have consistency running throughout all my business processes -- all in an integrated way. I have not heard of any company embarking upon an EIM strategy anywhere else."

Groupama

"The evolution of financial communication standards and new regulations imposed by International Finance Reporting Standards (IFRS) require significant improvements in data quality," said Sylvain Duchene, Responsible MOA Finance Department at the accounting division of Groupama. "We are using Business Objects products, in particular Data Integrator, for three major data quality initiatives. Enterprise Information Management (EIM) is the guarantee of reliable information from start to finish in our decision-making chain. With EIM, we will be ready to develop more regular financial communication, be more responsive to changing business conditions, and compare the performance of one period's results to the other."

Nemours

"While lots of companies talk about the need for data quality, Business Objects is actually delivering a complete EIM solution that is tightly integrated with the rest of our Business Objects deployment," said Ed Todd, data warehouse manager at Nemours. "This is technology I can load in the morning and it will immediately start to improve the completeness, accuracy, and quality of our data. Also, it will give our warehouse team much needed visibility into our data and metadata."

Omnium Worldwide

"Omnium helps our customers to better manage their accounts receivable process and deals with sensitive financial information, so ensuring trustworthy, consistent data is critical," said Ed Peabody, director of application development at Omnium Worldwide. "We first chose Data Integrator because it was tightly integrated with Firstlogic, as well as our existing Crystal Reports deployment. The joint solution allows us to bring together huge files of raw billing data from insurance customers, then cleanse the data, and create accurate reports on outstanding debtors so customers more quickly collect payment from their clients. With EIM, we'll be able to gain better visibility into our overall operations and develop more effective customer offerings. We view Business Objects as a strategic partner and are excited about continuing to develop our EIM strategy together."

Overstock.com

"We have staff that look at Business Objects reports and dashboards everyday, and that data must be spot on," said Jack Garzella, vice-president of data warehousing, reporting and analytics at Overstock.com. "For example, marketing managers run e-mail campaigns and they look at the performance of each campaign daily -- if it's not doing well, they make adjustments. We're a young, quickly growing company and our data quality must be superior. We have a lot of different data sources both internally and from our partners, so it's critical for us to have an integrated EIM strategy. With the help of Business Objects EIM solutions, we know that the data throughout our BI deployment is exact, timely, and consistent."

Stampin' Up!

"As a rapidly growing business with almost 40,000 independent sales consultants, we need to bring together data from various sources so we can better understand sales trends," said Steve Gockley, systems and business analyst at Stampin' Up!. "We standardized on Business Objects because of its impressive solution set and long-term vision, now demonstrated once again with EIM. As we expand our sales force globally and diversify our product line, we need access to accurate, integrated data so we can analyze customer buying trends by products line and region. EIM from Business Objects will help us pinpoint business trends, develop innovative new products, and identify growth opportunities that are essential to a company like ours."

The Tile Shop

"The key to ensuring you have the right amount of inventory at any time is having visibility into your corporate data," said Keith Cooney, IT Manager at The Tile Shop. "With any business, having too much inventory is a burden on your bottom line, but having too little means customers aren't receiving their goods, which impacts customer satisfaction. With sales doubling, the purchasing department needs to clearly understand customer demand so they can ensure we have the right materials in stock. Providing easily accessible and accurate information to more people is critical, and is one of the top benefits we see in the Business Objects EIM strategy."

University of Quebec at Montreal

"The new EIM approach proposed by Business Objects is very innovative and will ensure faster and higher-quality data, and ultimately more satisfied end users," said Djaffar Ben Meddour, senior analyst, Institutional Research at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. "We are also looking forward to how EIM will help offer time-savings to our IT department. The new EIM products will make the job of BI developers easier by improving both data quality and documentation -- in a shorter development time. Since we track the progress of our 40,000 students from application to graduation, data quality is critical to ensuring we're working with accurate information. We also use the whole stack of Business Objects products including Data Integrator, Web Intelligence, and Dashboard Manager to provide users with a single, integrated view of our students and analyze trends in our student population. EIM will ensure that we have trustworthy information to drive our BI and performance management programs."

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company, with more than 35,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500. Business Objects helps organizations of all sizes create a trusted foundation for decision making, gain better insight into their business, and optimize performance. The company's innovative business intelligence suite, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most advanced and complete solution for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and enterprise information management. BusinessObjects XI includes the award-winning Crystal line of reporting and data visualization software. Business Objects has also built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 -- BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

The Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Xcelsius are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.