Business Objects Finds Retailers Becoming More Savvy about Business Intelligence; Retail Systems Alert Group-led Survey Shows Retailers Moving from Reactive to More Proactive Use of Business Intelligence

Business Wire, Jan 16, 2006

NEW YORK -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code:FR0004026250-BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced key findings from a survey of U.S.-based retailers that concludes retailers are increasingly using business intelligence and detailed transactional data to drive their business decisions. The survey, conducted by the Retail Systems Alert Group, the leading provider of objective, high quality information resources for the extended retail industry, also offered areas where retailers can more fully-leverage their business intelligence data.

"Retailers have come a long way from the late 1980's, when barcodes and scanning technologies were the only tools to track merchandise and inventory levels," said Russ Hill, director of worldwide retail industry marketing at Business Objects. "Today, retailers rely on business intelligence as a critical component to improving their business and making key choices about inventory, marketing effectiveness, assortment planning, as well as other performance indicators."

"From the survey results, it is clear that business intelligence solutions are no longer a tool for top-tiered retailers only. Price, feature, and performance characteristics of hardware and software have made it possible for all retailers to make use of sophisticated analytical tools," commented Brian Kilcourse, chief strategist for Retail Systems Alert Group. "Retailers are using their business intelligence capabilities not only to determine the effectiveness of past merchandising decisions, but also to influence and even drive these decisions."

Key findings of the 2005 Business Intelligence in Retail Survey include:

Retailers are Expanding Beyond Item Movement Trends and Ranking Analysis

Many retailers are building on basic sales trend and ranking analysis and inventory reporting capabilities to understand and drive the buy- and sell-sides of their business. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed are using business intelligence to study the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns by geographic segments and to track customer segments responses. Additionally, more than three quarters of the respondents are using business intelligence to make decisions about future inventory levels, and analyze current and historical data about product movement through the supply chain to impact future order cycles.

Retailers Use BI to Drive Replenishment, Assortment, and Supply Chain Optimization

Business intelligence is now being used to influence and even drive merchandising decisions. Promotional merchandise initial allocations (79 percent), replenishment of orders (75 percent), and assortment planning by store (73 percent) ranked as the top indicators that are impacted by business intelligence data.

Delivering a Focused Value Proposition to Customers

Most retailers surveyed still do not use business intelligence to calculate the lifetime value of specific customers, nor do many create cross-sell/up-sell opportunities with their data. Less than half of the retailers in the survey analyze customer acquisition and retention. Together, this creates huge opportunities for the retailers that can leverage BI information for better targeted marketing campaigns.

Business Intelligence Tools in Use

Finally, the survey determined that most retailers do store large volumes of operational data including inflows and outflows of merchandise (81 percent), detailed item sales from POS (89 percent), and detailed store level inventory transactions (76 percent). Sixty percent keep a central database of customer-related information.

The survey was conducted online in October and November of 2005. Responses were compiled from the information received from 84 U.S. retailers. For a full copy of the survey, please visit http://www.retailsystems.com/index.cfm?PageName=ProductRequest&Product Id=32. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About Retail Systems Alert Group

Retail Systems Alert Group is the leading provider of objective, high quality information resources for the extended retail industry. We have followed the advancements of technology and business process innovation in this industry for almost two decades, and we deliver our insights and analysis through high-value conferences and tradeshows, publications, research, training, and web-based services.

Retail Systems Alert Group services the Extended Retail Industry (ERI). This term, coined by Retail Systems Alert Group, describes a broader consumer-focused ecosystem encompassing retail, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, logistics, warehousing, solution providers, and other supporting organizations. For more information, visit www.retailsystems.com.

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 also built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and the company offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.