Business Objects EIM Solution Receives Widespread Praise From Customers Around the World; New Products, Services, and Partnerships Will Provide Customers With Data They Can Trust

Business Wire, May 3, 2006

CANNES, France -- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 -- BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced widespread customer support for the company's products, services, and partnerships for enterprise information management (EIM). EIM provides customers with a strategy to ensure that their information is accurate and current. Now Business Objects offers comprehensive EIM solutions that give customers a foundation of trustworthy data for their BI and performance management initiatives.

Many Business Objects customers have previewed the new EIM solutions over the past two months and applaud the offerings. Customers expressing support of the new strategy and solutions include: Bulldog Communications, Business Link for London, Groupama, Nemours, Omnium Worldwide, Overstock.com, Stampin' Up!, The Tile Shop, and the University of Quebec at Montreal. Here are some of their comments:

Bulldog Communications

"It is vital to our company that we have access to a single view of accurate and timely information across every area of the organization," said Nicholas Huddart, Business Intelligence Systems Manager at Bulldog Communications. "As a fast growing provider of high speed broadband and phone services for homes and businesses, we generate huge volumes of data related to sales, customers, calls and billing. We use Data Integrator XI, part of Business Objects EIM product suite, to extract that data out of multiple operational systems and move it into a data warehouse, so that users can report on one reliable source of consistent and up-to-date information. For example, previously staff would turn up to meetings with conflicting figures, but now that's all a thing of the past. Moving forward, we see benefits from expanding our use of EIM solutions so that we can offer an even more competitive service and greater innovation. With the addition of EIM Business Objects provides us with one integrated platform that meets our business intelligence and information management needs."

Business Link for London

"We have been a Firstlogic customer for a long time and when I heard Business Objects was acquiring Firstlogic, I was very enthusiastic about the possibilities," said Mike Pratt, Data Integrity Manager at Business Link for London. "Together it is a formidable association. Now Business Objects EIM offerings bring together all the key technologies to make sure my company has trustworthy data. For the first time, I can see the entire cycle -- from data management to data quality, right through BI. A complete EIM strategy will enable me to have consistency running throughout all my business processes -- all in an integrated way. I have not heard of any company embarking upon an EIM strategy anywhere else."

Groupama

"The evolution of financial communication standards and new regulations imposed by International Finance Reporting Standards (IFRS) require significant improvements in data quality," said Sylvain Duchene, Responsible MOA Finance Department at the accounting division of Groupama. "We are using Business Objects products, in particular Data Integrator, for three major data quality initiatives. Enterprise Information Management (EIM) is the guarantee of reliable information from start to finish in our decision-making chain. With EIM, we will be ready to develop more regular financial communication, be more responsive to changing business conditions, and compare the performance of one period's results to the other."

Nemours

"While lots of companies talk about the need for data quality, Business Objects is actually delivering a complete EIM solution that is tightly integrated with the rest of our Business Objects deployment," said Ed Todd, data warehouse manager at Nemours. "This is technology I can load in the morning and it will immediately start to improve the completeness, accuracy, and quality of our data. Also, it will give our warehouse team much needed visibility into our data and metadata."

Omnium Worldwide

"Omnium helps our customers to better manage their accounts receivable process and deals with sensitive financial information, so ensuring trustworthy, consistent data is critical," said Ed Peabody, director of application development at Omnium Worldwide. "We first chose Data Integrator because it was tightly integrated with Firstlogic, as well as our existing Crystal Reports deployment. The joint solution allows us to bring together huge files of raw billing data from insurance customers, then cleanse the data, and create accurate reports on outstanding debtors so customers more quickly collect payment from their clients. With EIM, we'll be able to gain better visibility into our overall operations and develop more effective customer offerings. We view Business Objects as a strategic partner and are excited about continuing to develop our EIM strategy together."

Overstock.com

"We have staff that look at Business Objects reports and dashboards everyday, and that data must be spot on," said Jack Garzella, vice-president of data warehousing, reporting and analytics at Overstock.com. "For example, marketing managers run e-mail campaigns and they look at the performance of each campaign daily -- if it's not doing well, they make adjustments. We're a young, quickly growing company and our data quality must be superior. We have a lot of different data sources both internally and from our partners, so it's critical for us to have an integrated EIM strategy. With the help of Business Objects EIM solutions, we know that the data throughout our BI deployment is exact, timely, and consistent."