Business Objects Joins Lawson Enterprise Analytic Global Alliance; Lawson Selects Business Objects for e-Business Intelligence Solutions.

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 2000

Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced Lawson Software selected Business Objects for membership into the Lawson Enterprise Analytic Alliance.

The Enterprise Analytic Alliance (EAA) is a framework to help Lawson clients network with certified and experienced Lawson partners for implementing Lawson's analytical applications. Lawson partners can then help customers implement Lawson's analytic applications, and/or extend the customer's current data warehousing products. EAA partners are chartered to help Lawson customers implement analytic solutions within project timeframes, to help increase return on their e-business intelligence investment.

Lawson selected Business Objects to be a member of the alliance based on the following reasons:

      -   BusinessObjects(tm) can pull data from multiple data sources
        including Lawson's online transaction processing (OLTP) tables
        and analytical applications.

      -   Business Objects provides pre-built rapid deployment templates
        (RDTs) that enable quick deployment of decision support for
        Lawson's customers.

      -   BusinessObjects supports both Hyperion Essbase(R) and
        Microsoft(R) SQL Server(tm) 7.0 OLAP services which are
        Lawson's OLAP Solutions Development Partners.

EAA membership provides visibility and promotion for Lawson partners who provide products and services within the analytical application market. Members offer expertise in areas of consulting, project management, installation, conversions, data warehousing, interfacing, rollout, technology implementation & integration, as well as services around Lawson's e-business engines: financial, human resources, distribution, and procurement.

Lawson Software is a leading provider of web-deployable, enterprise-wide, client/server business applications. BusinessObjects technology easily extracts data from lawson.insight e-business engines. BusinessObjects and Lawson applications leverage built-in expertise, protecting sensitive data across the enterprise, and maintaining information technology (IT) control.

BusinessObjects is the full-client e-BI tool that enables customers to access, analyze, and share company data. Business Objects expects to simultaneously support Lawson analytic applications with its thin-client e-BI tool, WebIntelligence(R), and BusinessObjects later this year. Business Objects recently demonstrated WebIntelligence with Lawson enterprise analytic applications at the Lawson Software Conference and User Exchange (CUE) 2000.

"We are pleased Business Objects is a member of the Enterprise Analytic Alliance. Business Objects is the only vendor with out-of-the-box integration," said Eric Lopez, vice president of global financial and analytic solutions at Lawson Software. "We have many joint customers already, and this provides further validation that Business Objects is aligned with Lawson to expand our e-business offerings."

"Business Objects was the first company to be independently certified as part of Lawson's GAIN partner program. We are excited to extend our relationship with our entry into the Enterprise Analytic Alliance," said Mark Tice, vice president of global alliances at Business Objects. "Our membership is symbolic of our commitment with Lawson to provide industry-leading e-business intelligence to customers in markets such as healthcare, retail, professional services, and e-business."

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions. The company coined the term e-business intelligence in 1998 to describe the intersection of business intelligence and the Internet. Using e-business intelligence, organizations can access, analyze, and share information in intranet, extranet, and e-business environments. In intranets, the company's products provide employees with information to make better business decisions, and are used in environments ranging from workgroups of 20 users to enterprise deployments exceeding 20,000. In the extranet environment, the company is pioneering the use of e-BI in applications that allow organizations to build stronger relationships by linking customers, partners, and suppliers via the Internet. In addition, the company's products can improve the performance of an e-business by providing reporting and analysis against the ever-expanding amount of transaction and profile data that is collected each day throughout the world wide web.

Founded in 1990, Business Objects pioneered the modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a "semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of database systems. Today, the company has sold more than 1,683,000 licenses to over 9,700 organizations in more than 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and PARIS BOURSE: code SICOVAM 12074. Business Objects can be reached at 408/953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

Note to Editors: Lawson and Lawson Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lawson Software. BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects SA. WebIntelligence is a registered trademark of Business Objects SA. 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 obtained by calling the Company's fax retrieval line at 800/414-2114 and selecting option "two." The announcement may also 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.