Business Objects Launches Open Data Mining Initiative; Industry Leader First to Integrate a Wide Range of Data Mining Solutions; First to Deliver Data Mining Integration to Market.

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1996--Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, today announced a comprehensive Open Data Mining Initiative that will let customers use a wide range of advanced data mining techniques in conjunction with its flagship product, BusinessObjects 4.0.

The Open Data Mining Initiative consists of a series of technical and comarketing partnerships with seven leading providers of data mining solutions. Under the terms of the agreements, Business Objects and the data mining vendors will work together to provide software integration between BusinessObjects 4.0 and the partners' data mining solutions.

BusinessObjects customers will benefit by having the industry's broadest selection of integrated data mining solutions available to them. Data mining customers will benefit by having the industry's leading integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tool, BusinessObjects 4.0, available to use in conjunction with their chosen data mining solution.

While the nature of the integration is specific to the requirements of the individual data mining solutions, in many instances the products will be linked through "one-button integration." With one-button integration, customers can both launch and pass data to the partners' data mining solutions, all with the click of a single toolbar button.

The Data Mining Partners

The seven vendors announcing data mining partnerships with Business Objects today are: -0-

    -- ANGOSS Software, makers of KnowledgeSEEKER, a knowledge
       discovery and data mining product that provides analytical and
       predictive capabilities
    -- DataMind, makers of DataMind, a family of data mining software
       designed specifically for business professionals
    -- IBM, providers of the IBM Intelligent Miner, a knowledge
       discovery product for analyzing, extracting, and visualizing
       data in databases and data warehouses
    -- ISoft, makers of AC, a data mining product for creating
       decision trees
    -- Right Information Systems, makers of 4Tune, a modeling and
       forecasting product for business people without specific
       statistical skills
    -- Silicon Graphics, providers of MINESET, data mining and data
       visualization software
    -- SPSS, a provider of statistical analysis software used by
       professional data analysts for applications including survey
       research and marketing and sales analysis

"Many customers want to start exploring data mining as an extension of the overall decision support efforts they are using to manage their business more effectively," said Bernard Liautaud, president and CEO of Business Objects. "Business Objects data mining initiative facilitates that exploration by enabling customers to access advanced data mining products directly from BusinessObjects, their tool of choice for integrated query, reporting, and OLAP."

Availability

The link between BUSINEESOBJECTS and ANGOSS, DataMind, ISoft, RIS, and SPSS is available immediately to customers of Business Objects at no charge. Integration with IBM's Intelligent Miner and SGI's MineSet will be available this summer.

About Business Objects

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) is the world's leading supplier of integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tools. The company's flagship product, BusinessObjects, provides mainstream business users with access to information stored in corporate databases, data warehouses, and packaged applications. The company pioneered the market for business-intelligent decision support tools in 1990 by introducing the first product to use a "semantic layer" to map complex database schemas to a business representation understandable by non-technical end users.

Business Objects generated over $60M in revenue in 1995, concluding its fifth consecutive year of more than 100 percent revenue growth. BusinessObjects has been licensed in more than 50 countries to over 2,900 customer sites and 160,000 users worldwide. Business Objects partners with more than 350 leading third-party vendors including Arbor Software, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Informix, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Prism, Red Brick, Sun, and Sybase. Strategic resellers include Bull, Digital, Fujitsu, NCR, Price Waterhouse, Sequent, SHL, Siemens Nixdorf, Toshiba, and Unisys. More information on Business Objects can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.businessobjects.com. -0-

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

-- Inquiries for Business Objects product information should call: 800-527-0580 or contact the company through the Web at http://www.businessobjects.com.

-- See individual releases today on Business Objects data mining partnerships.

CONTACT: Business Objects

Tracy Eiler or Miriam Standish, 408/973-9300

[e-mail]

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or

Blanc & Otus

Danielle Dawson, 415/512-0500

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