Business Objects Positioned in the Leader Quadrant in Basel II Risk Management Magic Quadrant; Independent Analyst Firm Recognizes Business Objects Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute

Business Wire, Oct 6, 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced it has been positioned in the leader quadrant in the inaugural Gartner 2005 Basel II Risk Management Application Software Magic Quadrant(1) published this week. According to Gartner, vendors listed in the Leaders quadrant have a proven track record in Basel II vision and business investment, which indicates they are well-positioned for the future. Leaders do not necessarily offer the best products for every customer project, but they do provide solutions that offer relatively lower failure risk. Leaders in this market have paired advanced technology with broad offerings or have specific, rich functionality.

Business Objects recently announced the launch of BusinessObjects(TM) XI Release 2, the newest version of the industry's most advanced and complete business intelligence platform. BusinessObjects XI Release 2 gives organizations one BI platform for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration, and delivers BI to a broad set of users and industries.

In North America, more than half of the top 50 banks and top 30 insurance companies use Business Objects to consolidate, analyze, and report on risk information, enabling them to improve capital allocation and better manage risk. In Europe, Business Objects is used by 45 of the top 50 banks and 21 of the top 30 insurance companies.

"By utilizing Business Objects technology, we can provide our customers a scalable solution that delivers enterprise reporting across a comprehensive set of regulatory, risk, and performance measurement data," said Alain Tayenne, general manager, FRS, a leading global provider of enterprise risk and regulatory compliance solutions and a business unit of S1 Corporation. "Our companies' complementary capabilities allow financial institutions to effectively utilize the most accurate and timely information while maintaining conformity with the broad spectrum of compliance initiatives supported by FRS, including prudential reporting, Basel II, IFRS, and Sarbanes-Oxley."

"Our strength in risk management and compliance is based on the power of our innovative solutions," said Rene Bonvanie, chief marketing officer at Business Objects. "We believe our placement on the Basel II Gartner Magic Quadrant shows the breadth of functionality provided by our industry-leading business intelligence platform. Customers want to standardize on a single, unified platform, and BusinessObjects XI enables the world's leading financial institutions to manage and model data, query and drill down in risk information, and create and share reports. In addition, customers use Business Objects dashboards to track and monitor key risk, a critical component of new Basel II regulations."

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted September 16, 2005 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most advanced and complete platform for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Desktop Intelligence are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.