Business Objects and IBM Make the Grade On Enterprise Data Warehousing for Education.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2000

School District Serving 86 Schools in Greater Atlanta Area Raises

Educational Standards with e-Business Intelligence from Business

Objects and IBM

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced that Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) in Georgia has selected the company's full-client e-BI tool to pursue efforts aimed at improving student performance and school accountability. BusinessObjects(TM) will serve as the front end to the school district's enterprise data warehouse.

As the nation focuses on educational accountability, many school administrators are discovering that their current computer application and filing systems are not a viable resource for producing timely, historic, conclusive information. Gwinnett County administrators decided their primary objective of continuous student improvement necessitated an e-BI infrastructure to complement its enterprise data warehouse-which stores data from more than 86 schools. Gwinnett County administrators chose BusinessObjects because it is intended to meet enterprise-level requirements such as:

--  Providing complete access to Gwinnett County Public School's IBM
    education data warehouse

--  Accessing and analyzing large volumes of data based on variables
    such as attendance, class enrollment, and student achievement

--  Rapidly producing customized reports within an intuitive,
    non-technical environment

"We expect this initiative with Business Objects and IBM to be an integral part of our strategy to improve academic achievement in our public schools," said Jim Woolen, Gwinnett County Public Schools chief information officer. "Business Objects is intuitive, easy to use, and requires minimal training and technical support. It also fits well with our long-term goal of creating a parent extranet, where instead of using email to communicate grades and educational progress, parents and students can access and analyze this kind of information via an extranet. We're enthusiastic about working with Business Objects to provide a smarter, more effective means of education for our students."

Gwinnett County Public Schools supported its accountability strategy by implementing an enterprise data warehouse to collect and integrate performance-based data. Using BusinessObjects as the front-end tool, educators and administrators can shed light on factors affecting student performance. Based on their findings, they can guide the teaching and learning process. For example, administrators can produce a report on student achievement in a particular math class district-wide. If the report reveals that students are scoring low on word problems, the district can further analyze related factors to find the cause. Should results indicate that low reading comprehension is hindering student achievement on word problems, the remediation required would be reading tutorials rather than math.

"IBM's commitment to Gwinnett County Public Schools is to support the improvement of education in the district," said Jane Lockett, principal, IBM education consulting and services. "IBM business intelligence services and tools from Business Objects will help support continuous educational growth throughout the Gwinnett County Public Schools system."

"We strongly support Gwinnett County Public Schools and their commitment to reaping the benefits of e-business intelligence within their educational system," said Alex Moissis, vice president of marketing at Business Objects Americas. "We are excited to strengthen our relationship with IBM by working together to provide Gwinnett County Public Schools, and other educational institutions, with powerful e-business intelligence tools that will help them focus their resources where they are needed most."

Business Objects and IBM

At its international user conference last year, Business Objects awarded IBM its Top Global Partner award. For companies looking to identify, acquire, develop, and retain profitable customers, IBM offers BusinessObjects packaged with IBM Visual Warehouse. This joint solution allows businesses to access, analyze, and share vital customer information.

Business Objects also supports key IBM data management initiatives. Earlier this month, Business Objects announced its support of IBM DB2(R) Universal Database Version 7. Business Objects also supports IBM Enterprise Information Portal, the company's foundation for a single point of access to both structured and unstructured enterprise information sources.

About Gwinnett County

Gwinnett County School District is one of the fastest growing school districts in the nation, with more than 86 schools and 107,000 students. It is a $920 million organization with 12,500 employees. Gwinnett County was a winner in the 1999 Georgia Schools of Excellence (SOE) program. The SOE honors successful public schools throughout the state. Gwinnett County Public Schools was also selected for the 1998-99 Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which recognizes schools based on excellence in academic leadership, teaching and teacher development, and school curriculum, among other criteria. The SOE and Blue Ribbon Schools programs are sponsored by the US Department of Education.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM is dedicated to helping customers, business partners, and developers across a wide range of industries leverage the power of the internet for e-business. More information about IBM is available at www.ibm.com.

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 1,910,000 licenses to over 10,200 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, and 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.

Note to Editors: 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.