Yorkshire Building Society Standardizes on BusinessObjects XI Release 2

Business Wire, Nov 20, 2006

Business Objects Delivers Performance Management Capabilities to Improve Efficiency and Maximize Financial Benefits for Society Members

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 that Yorkshire Building Society, one of the UK's largest building societies with 131 branches and more than 2000 employees, has standardized on BusinessObjects[TM] XI Release 2, the industry's most advanced and complete BI platform. As part of the engagement with Yorkshire Building Society, the Business Objects Global Services team is managing the implementation of BusinessObjects XI Release 2.

BusinessObjects[TM] XI Release 2 will provide Yorkshire Building Society with an integrated BI solution for planning, performance management, reporting, query and analysis, and enterprise information management. Users, including more than 500 senior managers and professionals, will be able to access and share a single, accurate, and up-to-the minute view of information to improve operational efficiency.

"We chose to standardize on BusinessObjects XI Release 2 because we felt it was the only platform that would be able to deliver on all of our BI requirements," said Robert Jackson, chief operating officer at Yorkshire Building Society. "It offers a scalable and intuitive web-based BI solution that we can easily expand to users across all our branches, to provide one consistent view of information across the organization. It will help us to improve performance in every area of the business, from faster and more accurate planning and budgeting, to meeting regulatory requirements and increasing productivity. These capabilities will be central to the Society's policy of growing the business as efficiently as possible in order to generate enhanced benefits for members."

Prior to standardizing on Business Objects, Yorkshire Building Society was reliant on keying data into Excel spreadsheets for its reporting and planning requirements, which proved labor-intensive and time-consuming. Budgets and management reports took weeks to consolidate, often leaving board members without time to review vital information they needed for their monthly company performance meetings. With various departments using different versions of the spreadsheets, inconsistencies in the data was commonplace.

With BusinessObjects XI Release 2, Yorkshire Building Society now has an integrated enterprise performance management solution that includes key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards and budgeting and planning capabilities that offer an excel-based interface, to give users familiar spreadsheet formatting and calculating features while instantly populating reports with the most up-to-date information. Interactive dashboards and dynamic reports will enable Yorkshire Building Society to create a dynamic and comprehensive budgeting and reporting process to ensure accuracy of data and minimize turnaround time. As a result, Yorkshire Building Society will have more control over its financial planning and key business drivers for better decision-making and to ensure its budget stays on track with the organization's long-term strategies and plans.

BusinessObjects Data Integrator XI will be used to extract data from a number of disparate sources and move it into a central Oracle data warehouse for a consolidated view of financial and customer information. Once information has been migrated users will be able to easily analyze this single source of data using Web Intelligence[R] XI, the web-based query and analysis solution from Business Objects.

In addition, BusinessObjects XI Release 2 will play a vital part in ensuring that the organization is meeting regulatory compliance. The ability to drill down and trace figures back to the original data source will enable Yorkshire Building Society to examine the accuracy of data with confidence. In the future the organization also plans to share information with auditors externally via an extranet.

"Leading financial services companies, like Yorkshire Building Society, are increasingly turning to Business Objects for their business intelligence needs," said Maurizio Carli, senior vice president and general manager of EMEA at Business Objects. "The financial services industry is changing rapidly, and companies must be able to react to these changes. By providing end-users with easy access to large amounts of complex data from disparate sources, Business Objects XI Release 2 enables companies to be more agile, better manage costs and performance, and attract new customers."

About Yorkshire Building Society

Yorkshire Building Society is one of Britain's largest and most successful societies with 1.8 million members, assets that exceed [pounds sterling]16.3 billion and 131 branches and 75 agencies. It is a mutual organisation which means it is owned by and run for, the benefit of members and not outside shareholders. As a result, its purpose is to maximise long term financial benefits for its members. For many years, the society has also been one of the most cost-effective in the industry.