Business Objects and Informix Team to Deliver Advanced Data Warehouse Solution; Industry Leaders Agree to Integrate BusinessObjects and MetaCube to Provide Customers Advanced Analysis on Information in Relational Data Warehouses

Business Wire, July 10, 1996

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 1996--Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, and Informix Software, Inc., the leader in innovative database technology, today announced a development agreement to integrate BusinessObjects and INFORMIX-MetaCube, a sophisticated OLAP engine. Combined, the two technologies offer an OLAP solution that provides customers with the ability to perform advanced analysis of information stored in relational data warehouses.

BusinessObjects is the industry's leading integrated query, reporting, and OLAP solution, provides non-technical, mainstream business users with an easy-to-use means of accessing and analyzing information stored in a data warehouse. Informix's MetaCube is a sophisticated OLAP server that presents Informix relational data in a multidimensional format. By integrating the two technologies, customers can now perform multidimensional data analysis on the client and on the server, providing end-to-end OLAP functionality and optimizing data warehouse speed, performance, and ease-of-use. Other integration benefits include: -0-

- Query and Reporting: MetaCube customers will now be able to take advantage of the industry-leading BusinessObjects tool for query and reporting.

- Multiple Data Source Integration: Using BusinessObjects, customers can now take full advantage of the data stored in Informix while accessing it through MetaCube's high performance multidimensional interface. This data can be combined with data from other sources, such as relational databases and personal desktop data.

- Automatic Document Distribution: BusinessObjects enables the automatic generation of documents from MetaCube, allowing users to schedule reports for enterprisewide distribution.

- Mobile Computing: Users can pull multidimensional MetaCube data into BusinessObjects and perform analysis and reporting from their laptops while disconnected from the network. -0-

"The integration of these complementary technologies enables our customers to take full advantage of their data warehouse investment," said Tim Harmon, vice president of marketing at Business Objects Americas. "BusinessObjects provides an easy-to-use, integrated OLAP tool in which to view the data that MetaCube stores in a multidimensional format, delivering a complete OLAP solution for customers."

"This alliance of industry-leading technologies offers the market an advanced data warehouse solution," said Kirill Shenykman, general manager, data warehouse business unit at Informix. "By combining the powerful integrated query, reporting, and OLAP capabilities of BusinessObjects and the high-performance MetaCube engine, customers will have a complete end-to-end OLAP solution that capitalizes on their existing relational technology investments."

Availability

The interface between BusinessObjects and Metacube is scheduled for calendar 4Q96. Pricing will be announced at that time.

About Informix

Informix Software, based in Menlo Park, Calif., provides innovative database technology that enables the world's leading corporations to manage and grow their business. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from workgroups to very large OLTP and data warehouse applications. Informix's database servers, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of many leading-edge information technology solution areas.

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 led the overall decision support tools market in 1995 with software license revenues of $48.7M. Business Objects generated over $60M in revenue in 1995, concluding its fifth consecutive year of more than 100% 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, SAP, 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. Informix is a registered trademark and MetaCube is a trademark of Informix Software, Inc.