Business Objects Lands CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Contract for Analytic Applications; End-to-End Solution to Create Executive Dashboard and Customer Extranet

Business Wire, Jan 21, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 2003

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, a not-for-profit healthcare company with almost 3.2 million members in the Mid-Atlantic region, selected analytic applications from Business Objects to provide hospitals and healthcare professionals with the latest information on claims and payment history. This transaction occurred in Q3 2002.

The contract includes BusinessObjects(TM) Application Foundation, an analytic application framework to build an application that will enable associates and eventually providers to access claims and patient information via a dashboard that will be available on the company extranet. In addition, CareFirst purchased BusinessObjects Data Integrator, which provides an end-to-end business intelligence solution.

CareFirst also purchased BusinessObjects Contact Center Analytics, which allows managers and executives to access information and analysis on all customer contact channels, from telephone call centers to web and email based services. This provides a single, unified view of corporate information in a web-based business dashboard, including the capability to monitor everything from the skill level of the employees working in the contact center to complaints and customer satisfaction surveys.

An "early warning" system can be deployed to alert executives to critical business changes. This could help reduce the amount of time to answer customer questions, and allow monitoring of the cost of cases that require contacting the customer more than once.

"By choosing analytic applications from Business Objects, CareFirst improves customer service by increasing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their contact center," said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president, worldwide marketing, at Business Objects. "We welcome CareFirst as the latest customer to choose our data integration product to save both time and money in rapidly transforming their patient and insurance data into a corporate asset."

About CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health care company which, along with its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products, direct health care and administrative services to nearly 3.2 million individuals and groups in Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Delaware.

CareFirst, Inc. is managed and controlled by a Board of Directors. The company, chartered in Maryland, operates through three wholly owned affiliates: CareFirst of Maryland, Inc., and Group Hospitalization and Medical Services, Inc., doing business in the Washington, D.C. area under the name CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; and BCBSD, Inc., doing business as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. It helps organizations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings.

The company's products include data integration tools, the industry's leading integrated business intelligence platform, and a suite of enterprise analytic applications. Business Objects is the first to offer a complete BI solution that is composed of best-of-breed components, giving organizations the means to deploy end-to-end BI to the enterprise, from data extraction to analytic applications.

Business Objects has more than 16,500 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.

Note to Editors: BusinessObjects is a trademark or registered trademark of Business Objects S.A. 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.

Business Objects product inquiries should contact 800/527-0580.