Business Objects Ships New Version of BusinessQuery for Excel; BusinessQuery 4.0 Brings More Powerful Queries and Faster Performance.

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1997--Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, today announced that it has begun shipping BusinessQuery 4.0, a new version of BusinessQuery for Excel, its Microsoft Excel add-in product that gives Excel users access to information stored in corporate databases, data marts, and data warehouses.

BusinessQuery is the first product to provide the Excel user with easy access to corporate data by insulating the user from relational database concepts and the structured query language (SQL). BusinessQuery provides the Excel users with data access through a business representation of data via the BusinessObjects patented query technique and semantic layer. BusinessQuery is tightly integrated with Excel, is implemented as an Excel add-in, and is accessed through a supplemental menu and toolbar.

"A key strength of Business Objects is our ability to deliver decision support to the complete range of business users -- from the non-technical business manager to the `Excel junkie' and everyone in between," said Dave Kellogg, vice president of corporate marketing at Business Objects. "With BusinessQuery, we've obviously struck a chord with the Excel user community, having sold more than 80,000 copies in two years. With BusinessQuery 4.0, we've listened to our existing customers' requests and have made the product both faster and more powerful."

"With the new release of BusinessQuery, Business Objects is continuing to expand the breadth of functionality that they offer to their users," said Robert Moran, director of decision support research at Aberdeen Group. "Business Objects offers their users a wide range of capabilities -- whether it's accessing corporate data from within Excel using BusinessQuery, or doing integrated query, reporting, and OLAP using BusinessObjects."

More Powerful Queries

BusinessQuery 4.0 includes all of the power of the BusinessObjects 4.0 patented query technique. Thus, the BusinessQuery 4.0 query generator now offers several key new features including:

-- Set queries. The BusinessQuery 4.0 user can formulate queries that use set theoretic operations, such as union and intersection. For example, the user can now answer questions such as "show me all users who bought a luxury car in the past year or spent more than $50,000 in the past two years."

-- Aggregate awareness. BusinessQuery 4.0 includes the ability to process queries against highly summarized aggregate tables rather than atomic-level data. This relational online analytical processing (ROLAP) feature results in 100- to 1,000-fold improvements in query processing performance.

-- Multistar schema support. Today's data warehouses and data marts often make use of more than one centralized "fact" table. BusinessQuery 4.0 includes the ability to generate multiple SQL statements, a requirement for generating correct results when operating against these "multistar" schemas.

-- Shortcut joins. The BusinessQuery 4.0 query generator can bypass unneeded intermediary tables when generating SQL statements. This results in the generation of simpler SQL statements that can be processed faster and more efficiently by the underlying DBMS.

Faster Performance

In addition to the query processing performance enhancements, BusinessQuery 4.0 improves performance through the use of:

-- 32-bit architecture. BusinessQuery 4.0 uses a new, 32-bit architecture which streamlines performance and exploits the new memory management of 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 95 and Windows NT.

-- OLE automation. BusinessQuery 4.0 makes use of OLE automation to interface between Excel and the BusinessObjects query generator. This results in the more efficient transfer of data between BusinessQuery and Microsoft Excel.

Other New Features

In response to user feedback, BusinessQuery 4.0 now contains a host of other new features, including:

-- Shared queries. Users can now post queries and results to the BusinessObjects repository for use by their colleagues. This is an important feature for organizations where people tend to work in a collaborative manner and use the queries and results produced by others.

-- Enhanced SmartSpace(TM). The SmartSpace feature, which ensures the integrity of data in the spreadsheet, has been made easier to use through user prompts and predefined settings.

-- Enhanced QueryDirector(TM). The QueryDirector can now locate, edit, and run multiple queries, and specify the order in which they are executed. This is very useful when the results from one query are used as a condition for another, for example when carrying out simulation or what-if analysis.

-- Query on range. Query conditions have been enhanced to allow users to define a condition based on the value of an Excel cell or Excel range by clicking directly on that Excel cell or range. This new point-and-click interface makes it even easier to create queries linked to values already in a spreadsheet.

Helene Curtis Uses BusinessQuery in Retail and Corporate Sales

Helene Curtis, a leader in the personal care products market (including such brands as Finesse and Salon Selectives shampoos, Degree antiperspirant, and Suave hair and skin care products), currently has 200 users in the retail and corporate sales departments using BusinessQuery for Excel. Users access product information, including pricing, manufacturing, and shipping schedules; and customer purchasing patterns -- for example, who orders the most shampoo in the Midwest or who returned the most stick deodorant last month.

"Our sales people really like the familiarity of working with Excel, and BusinessQuery allows them to easily get at corporate data," said Judson Roberts, senior systems technician at Helene Curtis. "The new release of BusinessQuery for Excel will bring several new exciting features to our users: a great performance gain, a 32-bit architecture, and tremendous enhancements to Business Objects' famous query technique."

Pricing and Availability

BusinessQuery 4.0 is shipping in production status. BusinessQuery 4.0 is $150 when purchased with BusinessObjects, and $350 when purchased standalone.

BusinessQuery 4.0 is available on Windows 95 and Windows NT and requires Microsoft Excel 7. Support for Excel 97 will be available in 2H97. French, German, and Spanish versions will be available in early 2Q97.

About Business Objects

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY) is the world's leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools. Business Objects products provide non-technical business users with access to information stored in corporate data warehouses, data marts, and packaged business applications. The company pioneered the modern decision support market in 1990 by introducing the "semantic layer," a patented technology that maps complex databases to a business representation understandable by non-technical end users.

The company's award-winning products include BusinessObjects, the first integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tool; BusinessQuery, the first Microsoft Excel add-in to provide a business representation of data; and BusinessMiner, the first data mining tool positioned for the mainstream business user. Oracle users recently voted BusinessObjects the best DSS/OLAP tool in the Oracle Technical Journal's annual best product awards.

Business Objects has sold more than 475,000 licenses to over 4,000 organizations in more than 60 countries. The company maintains business partnerships with more than 450 organizations around the world. The company's web site is http://www.businessobjects.com. -0-

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a 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 1-800/414-2114 and selecting option "one". The announcement may also be downloaded from the Web; access "http://www.businesswire.com/cnn" and search on "Business Objects".

CONTACT: Business Objects

Tracy Eiler, 408/953-6031

Danielle Dawson, 408/953-6108