GE Medical Systems Improves Customer Relationships Using e-Business Intelligence Solutions from Business Objects.

Business/Technology Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 2000

"Customer Dashboards" Based on Business Objects Allow GE Medical

Systems to Fulfill Quality Initiatives with Customers

With more and more hospitals depending on advanced medical technology such as x-ray equipment, ultrasound machines, and MRI technology, keeping that equipment working flawlessly with as much "uptime" as possible has become extremely critical. Using BusinessObjects(tm), the integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tool from Business Objects, GE Medical Systems has developed an innovative system that allows their customers to evaluate equipment performance and other measurements.

GE Medical Systems, a $5 billion global manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment and services, has developed this application as part of General Electric Company's Six Sigma Quality program, to demonstrate the tangible quality and service improvements they are delivering to their customers.

Referred to as "Customer Dashboards," this application uses BusinessObjects to measure key business performance indicators such as product performance, customer satisfaction, and cost allocations in order to show how they affect a customer's business. Over one-thousand professionals throughout the GE Medical Systems sales force, as well as their customers, use products from Business Objects to track these metrics as they work toward fulfilling organizational goals such as increasing revenues, improving patient care, and reducing operational costs.

The Customer Dashboards have been so successful in improving customer service that the company is in the midst of rolling out a web-based version of the Dashboards for its Customer Teams, using WebIntelligence* , the query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tool for the internet from Business Objects.

Prior to implementing a data warehouse and using BusinessObjects, similar metrics were pulled off the GE Medical mainframe and shipped to the customer each quarter. "Those reports were one-dimensional, however, and did not allow for any customization," recalls Andy Berland, Global Enterprise Data Services Manager for GE Medical Systems. "Now, using e-business intelligence systems from Business Objects, you can look at information by product or by categories such as uptime-the information can be sliced and diced any way the customer desires."

Each quarter, members of GE Medical's Customer Care Teams sit down with 60-100 strategic customers-primarily administrators at major hospital groups-to review key issues and concerns. The centerpiece of the discussion is the Customer Dashboard, a printout of the performance metrics that the hospital selected as most relevant to them, and how those measurements fared over the last quarter. Narrowed down from GE Medical's master list of 18 metrics, these statistics can cover everything from "uptime" by item of equipment, to preventative maintenance status of equipment, to mean time between failures.

These measurements are used by GE Medical's Customer Care Team members to help structure and fine-tune customer service discussions. Often, customer expectations about equipment need to be adjusted, as in the case of a radiology department that expected a tube for a CT machine to run 500,000 times when the technology only allows for 300,000 uses. GE Customer Care Team members can review product requirements and standards using the Dashboard and explain what is realistic.

An additional benefit to using the Customer Dashboards based on the BusinessObjects reporting mechanism is that GE Medical's Customer Care Teams get regular updates on the metrics as the data warehouse is refreshed. This allows them to develop better relationships with customers as they track metrics, and they can alert customers about any potential problems prior to their quarterly review sessions.

"Business Objects has played an instrumental role in enabling GE Medical to develop an e-busines intelligence (e-BI) solution that engages the customer at the level of performance metrics," said Andy Berland. "By using Dashboards to help explain products in more concrete detail, GE Medical's Customer Care Teams can get a better understanding of how their hospital customers use equipment and help them make necessary improvements. Business Objects e-BI solutions extend beyond basic information reporting, to provide the query and analysis and multi-dimensional drilling capabilities that makes the data so valuable and relevant to the customer."

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions. 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 1,442,000 licenses to 9,100 organizations in more than 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Paris Bourse: BOB. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

About GE Medical Systems

GE Medical Systems is a leading global manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment and services, including conventional and digital x-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), ultrasound, positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear medicine and healthcare information management. For more than 100 years healthcare providers have relied on GE Medical Systems to provide high-quality imaging technology, services and productivity solutions. GE Medical Systems is a $5 billion business, employing more than 19,000 people worldwide.

Note: 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.