Business Objects Integrates Microsoft Visual Basic For Applications in BusinessObjects 5.0

Business Wire, Nov 17, 1998

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1998--

COMDEX Fall 98

Provides Customers with Industry Standard Development

Environment for Easy Customization and Extension of

BusinessObjects Functionality

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJY), the world's leading provider of integrated enterprise decision support tools, today announced that it will integrate Microsoft(R) Visual Basic(R) for Applications (VBA) into BusinessObjects(TM) 5.0.

BusinessObjects 5.0 is the first decision support system (DSS) to provide analytical reporting by integrating enterprise reporting, query and reporting (Q&R) and online analytical processing (OLAP).

"By embedding VBA in its new release, Business Objects is taking a major step toward offering its customers seamless integration with both Microsoft and other VBA-enabled applications," said Neil Charney, lead product manager for VBA and Microsoft Office Developer, Microsoft Corp. "VBA will also help BusinessObjects 5.0 customers easily tailor their decision support applications to gain new business intelligence value from their existing data."

"The integration of VBA will make BusinessObjects even more valuable for many companies," said Jeff Schlitt, technical manager of Braun Technology Group's data warehousing practice. "We help global corporations and technology-driven middle market players be more competitive through better approaches to business intelligence. With the reach of BusinessObjects 5.0 extended to include VBA, our clients will now benefit from customized solutions that encompass applications native to their Microsoft environments."

"VBA is a key component of our product strategy," said Alexandre Dayon, group vice president of products at Business Objects. "By integrating VBA, the premier technology for customizing software applications, developers at our partner and customer sites will be able to quickly embed even more intelligence in their reports and easily extend the functionality of BusinessObjects in a way that meets their individual needs."

Software customization and extensibility

With VBA, a standard feature in BusinessObjects 5.0, customers can more easily customize or extend the core product functionality by integrating Business Objects technology with homegrown or packaged applications.

-- Customization. BusinessObjects 5.0 provides a state of the art customization environment. With VBA, customers will be able to customize their DSS applications and integrate them with other Microsoft Office applications-or any other third party VBA host application-while using existing development skills. For example, a developer could incorporate mapping technology to allow a user to graphically select dimensions for a report. VBA replaces the existing ReportScript scripting language available in previous version of BusinessObjects. BusinessObjects 5.0 will include a conversion utility to convert existing ReportScript scripts into VBA.

-- Extensibility. Because BusinessObjects 5.0 embeds VBA, customers and partners can extend the core Business Objects functionality by providing add-ins to the software. Thus customers will benefit not only from features provided directly by Business Objects, but also from third-party software that leverages their BI infrastructure and investment.

Availability

BusinessObjects 5.0 is expected to enter beta in the fourth quarter of 1998.

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 955,000 licenses to over 7,000 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.

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence are trademarks of Business Objects SA. Microsoft, Visual Basic, and the Visual Basic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 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.