Business Objects Announces Preview Release of Crystal Reports for Eclipse; Company to Expand Support for Java Developer Community with New Version of Embedded Reporting Solution and Eclipse Foundation Membership

Business Wire, Nov 8, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced a preview release of Crystal Reports(R) for Eclipse. This new version of Crystal Reports will provide a 100 percent Java-based report design and deployment environment for application developers.

Every software application that stores data must have a way to present that information back to the user. For more than a decade, Crystal Reports has been the defacto standard for embedded reporting. Starting with Microsoft Visual Basic over 10 years ago, Crystal Reports has provided embedded reporting directly within integrated development environments (IDEs) to allow application developers to efficiently create reports directly within their applications. Today, Crystal Reports is integrated within a majority of the leading IDEs including Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, IBM Rational Application Developer, BEA Workshop, and Borland JBuilder.

Business Objects provides extensive support of open source software infrastructure including support for the Linux platform, Apache Tomcat application server, and the MySQL database. Organizations and application developers are choosing Java and open source infrastructure to build applications to lower costs and improve the flexibility and portability of their applications. By adding the Eclipse IDE to the list of supported development environments for Crystal Reports, Business Objects strengthens its offerings for the open source community and gives Eclipse users a powerful, flexible reporting solution.

With the preview release of Crystal Reports for Eclipse, application developers can create new reports or use existing Crystal Reports documents, and integrate them directly into applications. This new version of Crystal Reports will take full advantage of the Eclipse user interface, including dockable panes and context sensitive menus to customize the reports without ever leaving the Eclipse development environment. In addition, Business Objects is providing a development and test license of the embedded reporting engine that lets developers build report viewing directly within client-server and web applications.

For Java developers looking to deploy their Eclipse solutions today, IBM Rational Application Developer 6.0 provides advanced Crystal Reports functionality including improved drag and drop support, enhanced web based application development, and simplified management of reports. Developers can also choose to deploy the application using the full management, scalability, interactivity, and security of the Business Objects BI platform, with either Crystal Reports Server or BusinessObjects(TM) XI.

"Much of the success of Crystal Reports over the years has come from the creativity and innovation of application developers who embed our reporting technology in literally countless applications that businesses and consumers use every day," said Lance Walter, vice president of product marketing at Business Objects. "Business Objects understand the unique needs of the developer community, and Crystal Reports for Eclipse continues our tradition of enabling developers to build applications with a rich look and feel, while significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to hand code sophisticated reports. We encourage all Eclipse developers to download the free preview and see for themselves why Crystal Reports is the defacto standard for embedded reporting."

Business Objects Joins Eclipse Foundation

Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) is an open source community whose projects are focused on providing an extensible development platform for building software applications. The Eclipse IDE is currently the fastest growing development environment for Java developers and is also the foundation for other commercial IDEs and applications. Business Objects has now joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-In Provider. Business Objects is committed to being actively involved in the future development of the Eclipse community.

"Our goal at the Eclipse Foundation has been to foster an open-source community that serves the needs of commercial vendors and serve as a platform for innovation," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. "The endorsement of Eclipse by Business Objects will further extend the tools and technologies that Eclipse developers and vendor partners can use for application development. The long history of developers embedding Crystal Reports in their applications makes the solution a natural fit for the Eclipse IDE and will help to expand the success of the Eclipse community."

Crystal Reports for Eclipse Availability

We expect that the Crystal Reports for Eclipse preview and the test version of the embedded reporting engine license will be delivered in Q4 of 2005. Eclipse developers can register today for the free download from Business Objects at http://www.businessobjects.com/eclipse.> Business Objects is committed to conducting a significant technical preview cycle for Crystal Reports for Eclipse. General Availability is expected in the second half of 2006.