Business Objects Helps State of Vermont Improve Service to Children.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2003

Business Intelligence Intranet Will Help Ensure Collection of

Child Support Payments and Enable More Accurate Reporting

to the Federal Government

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the State of Vermont Office of Child Support (OCS) is implementing Business Objects solutions in an effort to better serve the State's children. With Business Objects, Vermont OCS will be able to access and analyze critical child support case data, resulting in a targeted increase of approximately $500,000 in child support payments, which will directly benefit many of the State's neediest children. The new system will also help ensure the data used for Federal reporting is accurate and reliable, a requirement for funding from the Federal Government. The State of Vermont OCS uses three integrated products from Business Objects: BusinessObjects(TM) Application Foundation, the company's analytic application framework for developing powerful, integrated, enterprise analytic applications, as well as WebIntelligence(R) and BusinessObjects.

Vermont OCS, the designated child support agency for the State of Vermont, assists parties in establishing parentage and child support amounts as well as collecting the payments. The organization, which administered approximately 27,000 cases and collected over $50 million dollars in child support in fiscal year 2001, has approximately 125 employees operating out of a central administrative office and five regional offices.

The goal of the Business Objects implementation is to create a flexible and user-friendly business intelligence intranet that enables management and case managers to easily create specific reports to answer child support business questions. The Business Objects solutions will enable non-technical case managers to access and analyze child support data over the organization's intranet. For example, they will have faster access to current information on payment obligations and whether children have actually received payments. Users will also have access to over 20 years of data collected in the federally certified ACCESS computer system, which has been loaded into Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000.

"Business Objects has the ease-of-use and reporting features that enable non-technical users to quickly get the information they need, and we've had great success with Business Objects solutions for our other clients," said Denise Sughrue, project manager for Buchanan & Edwards, the Virginia-based consulting firm that recommended and is implementing the Business Objects solution for Vermont OCS. "For Vermont OCS, our project will enable individual case managers to serve their children better while executives will have access to high-level data and metrics to ensure reports to the Federal Government are accurate and that the organization is adhering to the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria."

The Baldrige principles of Quality Management focus on seven criteria of a successful organization: 1-Business Results, 2-Customer Focus, 3-Process Management, 4-Strategic Planning, 5-Human Resources Focus, 6-Leadership, and 7-Information and Analysis. According to Baldrige, an organization obtains excellence by engaging in the development and continuous improvement of these criteria. The Business Objects solution will provide the critical foundation of "information and analysis" needed to make optimal decisions regarding the other six criteria.

A Model System

"Beyond our primary goal of helping the children of Vermont, we hope to create a model for other state child support agencies," said Jeff Cohen, director of the Vermont Office of Child Support. "The key is defining the critical management measures and dimensions required for information access and analysis in a flexible, end-user friendly system that gives management, case managers and all staff the ability to look at data in a variety of ways and easily create the specific reports they need."

"State and Federal agencies are collecting huge amounts of data, and the Federal Government is determined to improve access to and utilization of this data," said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president of worldwide marketing at Business Objects. "The Vermont Office of Child Support is an excellent example of the way tax dollars and technologies such as Business Objects can transform the way government works to truly improve the lives of individual citizens."

About Vermont Office of Child Support

The Vermont Office of Child Support assists in establishing parentage and child support amounts as well as in collecting and enforcing child support payments. The State-administered program has approximately 27,000 cases and in fiscal year 2001 collected over $50 million dollars in child support. Approximately 125 employees work out of a central office in Waterbury and five regional offices located in the Southeast, Southwest, Central, Northeast, and Northwest sections of the State.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. 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 management dashboards and scorecards, enterprise performance management applications, customer intelligence applications, enterprise reporting, 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.

Business Objects provides the industry's most integrated business intelligence suite, called BusinessObjects Enterprise 6. This suite includes the industry's best web query, reporting, and analysis; the most advanced and complete suite of analytic applications; and the best connectivity to packaged applications.

Business Objects has more than 17,500 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Euroclear 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.

BusinessObjects is a trademark and WebIntelligence is a registered 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.