Business Objects Announces Support for Microsoft OLE DB for OLAP

Business Wire, Sept 9, 1997

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1997--Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools, today announced support of Microsoft's OLE DB for online analytical processing (OLAP). OLE DB is part of Microsoft's universal data access strategy and provides a single, object-oriented access method for a wide range of data stores.

Business Objects will natively support access to Microsoft's OLE DB for OLAP from its flagship product, BusinessObjects, the market's leading integrated query, reporting, and OLAP tool. With the OLE DB for OLAP APIs, BusinessObjects will be able to access data from any multidimensional data provider that supports these interfaces. End users will be able to access a wide variety of multidimensional data and then combine it with data from a number of other sources including relational data and local data stored in a personal spreadsheet or database.

For example, users will be able to compare forecasts stored in an OLAP server with actuals stored in a operational Microsoft SQL Server database, historical data stored in a data warehouse or datamart, and spreadsheet data, such as Microsoft Excel.

Business Objects products enable non-technical users to access and analyze data stored in corporate data warehouses, data marts, and packaged applications. Business Objects offers both a full-client suite of DSS tools including BusinessObjects, BusinessMiner, and BusinessQuery, as well as its new thin-client solution, WebIntelligence. BusinessObjects is certified for the Microsoft Office 95 logo, and was a charter member of the Microsoft Alliance for Data Warehousing. BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence are Microsoft BackOffice certified.

"Business Objects continues to be an early adopter of Microsoft products and strategies," said Joe Brown, product manager for data warehousing at Microsoft Corp. "We look forward to our continued relationship and our mutual goal of providing customers with a powerful, end-to-end OLAP solution."

"One of the biggest benefits of BusinessObjects is its ability to combine data from multiple data sources," said Gayle Pietras, manager, worldwide partner alliances at Business Objects. "The ability to combine different data sources is particularly valuable in enterprise-wide deployments of decision support systems, where people have many types of data as well as various levels of users."

Availability

Business Objects has been participating in the beta program for Microsoft OLE DB for OLAP and plans to support Microsoft's final product shortly after its general availability.

About Business Objects

Business Objects 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 data warehouses, data marts, and packaged business applications. Business Objects provides a complete suite of decision support tools including query, reporting, online analytical processing, data mining, and DSS administration for both client/server and internet environments. Business Objects has sold more than 575,000 licenses to over 5,000 organizations in more than 60 countries worldwide.

Business Objects may be reached by phone at 408/953-6000 or on the worldwide web at http://www.businessobjects.com . The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbol BOBJY. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: BusinessObjects, BusinessQuery, BusinessMiner, and WebIntelligence are trademarks 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.

CONTACT: BUSINESS OBJECTS

Danielle Dawson, 408/953-6108

or

Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft

Kelly Reed-Clare, 425/637-9097