Business Objects Wins OEM Deal With NuEdge Systems for Analytic Applications

Business Wire, August 27, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2001

New Agreement to Provide NuEdge Customers With Ability to Increase

ROI of Marketing Initiatives Through

BusinessObjects(TM) Application Foundation

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced it has signed an OEM agreement with NuEdge Systems, one of the largest providers of marketing automation-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. NuEdge Systems will use BusinessObjects(TM) Application Foundation to develop NuEdge Customer Miner, an advanced analytic application, as part of its marketing and campaign management suite. The agreement will give NuEdge Systems' retail, financial services, and catalog customers unprecedented ability to identify, segment, and target customers with offers and promotions they are most likely to respond to.

As part of the agreement, NuEdge Systems will sell NuEdge Customer Miner as the analytic component to NuEdge Campaign Manager, the company's flagship software for creating, implementing, and evaluating individualized marketing campaigns. Together, Business Objects and NuEdge Systems will provide customers with a complete application offering unlimited segmentation, deep analytical processes, and state-of-the-art campaign analysis, which will all deliver optimal return on marketing initiatives.

After evaluating several competing BI offerings, NuEdge Systems found BusinessObjects Application Foundation to be the only analytic application framework with an open, scalable, non-proprietary solution that was also easy to use for non-technical business users. BusinessObjects Application Foundation will give NuEdge Systems' customers access to one of the industry's most advanced analytic solutions, including powerful engines such as set-based and time series analysis.

"Our customers are increasingly recognizing the value of deep, detailed data analysis in driving their initiatives to increase ROI and lifetime value. We are excited to extend our offering for next-generation analytic applications to meet their needs," said Donald W. Layden, Jr., chief operating officer of NuEdge Systems. "Our agreement with Business Objects to combine the industry's most advanced analytic and marketing automation applications will position us to successfully address the convergence of marketing analysis and execution, well ahead of the competition."

"Business Objects Analytics bridge the gap between traditional BI tools and advanced data mining. For the first time business users can have the power of analytics combined with the ease of use of BI tools," said Charles Nicholls, group vice president of the analytic applications division for Business Objects. "Application Foundation will enable NuEdge Systems' customers to quickly identify and track customer-related trends and convert that information into actionable data, quickly and efficiently to increase profitability."

NuEdge Systems is also a charter member of the Business Objects Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Partner Initiative. The initiative is designed to allow application providers, consulting companies, and software vendors that work with Business Objects to provide mutual clients with complete customer analysis capabilities for the enterprise. For more information, please visit: www.nuedgesystems.com.

About BusinessObjects Application Foundation

BusinessObjects Application Foundation is an analytic application framework for developing integrated enterprise analytic applications. Using Application Foundation, customers can pursue a "build and buy" analytic applications strategy, buying certain applications off the shelf, building others, and having them work all together. Pre-packaged analytic applications offer the advantages of faster time to deployment, faster return on investment, and packaged best-practice analytics. Custom analytic applications offer the ability to provide sustainable competitive advantage and to solve business problems highly specific to a particular company or industry. For more information, please visit: www.businessobjects.com/applications.> About NuEdge Systems

NuEdge Systems is a leading provider of fully integrated customer relationship management solutions for marketing automation. The company provides software, value-added consulting services and production management systems to customer-oriented businesses of all kinds that need to rapidly launch, measure, and refine customized marketing initiatives to maintain market leadership. The solution, NuEdge Suite, lets these businesses build individualized relationships with customers to drive satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately increase the bottom line.

Its NuEdge Campaign Manager is used by major companies to increase customer share of wallet with individualized marketing campaigns based on past transactions, while the NuEdge Customer Miner helps business analysts parse customer information in thousands of ways to facilitate business-critical decisions, such as product, service and channel development and pricing strategies. Clients include AmSouth Bank, Compaq, Sears Canada and Whirlpool. The company, founded in 1989, has more than 130 employees and is based in Milwaukee, Wis. with an office in Denver, Colo. It can be reached at www.nuedgesystems.com.