U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Expands Business Objects Deployment with Enterprise Performance Management Dashboard.

Business Editors/Environment Writers/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2003

EPA Deploys Business Objects Dashboard to Quickly Analyze Key

Financial and Environmental Indicators to Improve Decision Making

In an effort to more easily track, understand, and manage the large amounts of information available from the organization's multiple data sources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is deploying an enterprise performance management dashboard using Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. The Business Objects dashboard, which will provide fast access to both financial and environmental data, is designed to streamline the Agency's existing reporting capabilities and provide executives with a graphical interface for analyzing key performance indicators.

"We needed a scalable solution that would allow the Agency to easily integrate and analyze financial, administrative, program, and performance information," commented Linda Combs, chief financial officer of the EPA. "Having seen the benefits Business Objects solutions have provided in other areas of the EPA, we were very interested in deploying a management dashboard based on their business intelligence software."

Over the past several years, the EPA has been constructing a Financial Data Warehouse (FDW) to provide real time data on the Agency's financial, payroll, contracts, and grants status. The EPA now plans to leverage the FDW, using Business Objects, to develop an executive dashboard that will transform this time-sensitive data into valuable decision-making information for managers across the Agency at their desktops. The dashboard will provide managers with quick access to a variety of data sources, including monitoring key financial and environmental metrics.

Work is also under way to develop an Executive Scorecard for the Agency's Office of Environmental Information. This will provide greater clarity of vision and strategy for the organization and ensure that resources are positioned to create the maximum value for environmental and human health protection.

"The Business Objects solution will allow us to easily understand and manage the Agency's performance," continued Combs. "Using the Business Objects dashboard, our managers will have immediate access to the data that is most important to them. This financial and environmental data will be displayed in a highly visual manner, including graphs and alerts, enabling users to better analyze the current situation and make the appropriate management decisions."

In the past, senior managers were heavily dependant on subject matter experts to develop budget, finance, performance, and program reports using a variety of spreadsheets and graphic tools. These reports were labor intensive to prepare and disseminate. Using the Business Objects solution, the EPA will provide managers with faster, more reliable access to information, as well as allow staff to focus their attention on the analytical side of their work rather than report development.

"Much like the private sector, government agencies are struggling with the large amounts of critical data stored in their data warehouses," said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president of worldwide marketing at Business Objects. "Leading government agencies, such as the EPA, are turning to Business Objects to enable them to better access and analyze their data to improve decision making. By deploying a management dashboard solution, organizations can more easily visualize their data and reach stated goals by leveraging information with analytics."

For additional information on government solutions available from Business Objects, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/solutions/byindustry/govt.htm.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business Objects enables organizations to track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. The company's solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Popular uses of BI include management dashboards and scorecards, enterprise performance management applications, customer intelligence applications, enterprise reporting, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimize the supply chain, increase productivity and improve financial performance.

Business Objects provides the industry's most integrated business intelligence suite, called BusinessObjects(TM) Enterprise 6. This suite includes the industry's best web query, reporting, and analysis; the most advanced and complete suite of analytic applications; and the best connectivity to packaged applications.

Business Objects has more than 17,500 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Euroclear code 12074). It is 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.

BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and/or other countries. All company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.