Leading Risk Management Firm Chooses Business Objects to Simplify Workers' Compensation Programs via e-BI Extranet

The Frank Gates Companies Extends Vital e-BI Solution to Customers

San Jose, Calif. - April 24, 2001 - Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced that The Frank Gates Companies, a leader in claims management services aimed at controlling employers' workers' compensation costs, has chosen Business Objects WebIntelligence® to power its extranet, which extends vital e-BI data to Frank Gates' clients. The firm is also using BusinessObjects™ the integrated query, reporting, and analysis solution for the enterprise, to run its internal e-BI systems.

"We view information delivery over the Internet to customers as a core component of our company's business strategy today," said Keith Johnson, vice president of information technology. "Business Objects is clearly the market leader in enabling these Internet information bridges, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them."

Deployed in February 2000, more than 500 Frank Gates' customers use the WebIntelligence-powered extranet. The company hopes to increase the number of extranet users to more than 5,000 within the next three years. Risk managers and workers' compensation specialists at companies such as American Electric Power and the Discount Tire Company use the extranet to produce reports analyzing the types and frequency of injuries, as well as the status of outstanding claims. With access to a variety of claims information, customers can rapidly assess their potential liability, determine the types of injuries that are most common, and take appropriate steps to make their companies safer places to work.

"Business Objects is not only cost effective, it gives us a significant marketing advantage over our competitors, who don't have anything like this kind of system in place," said Johnson. "Since deployment of the Business Objects-enabled extranet, our IT department is no longer inundated with requests from clients to produce claims reports. Using WebIntelligence, clients now produce their own reports in hours."

Internally, Frank Gates' supervisors use BusinessObjects to create reports analyzing the number of claims that are assigned to claims adjusters at any given time. By comparing these reports, supervisors can assess claims adjusters' workloads and manage claims assignments accordingly.

Why Business Objects
Prior to implementing Business Objects integrated e-BI solutions, Frank Gates' IT department had to undertake a time-consuming query and data analysis process for each information request from users and customers. The resulting hardcopy reports took several days to produce, and many clients desired more timely results and self-service access to data.

Beginning in late 1999, the company began a search for a Web-based system that could help in maintaining existing client retention levels of 97 percent while simultaneously attracting new clients and assisting the company to emerge as a leader in claims management. The company decided to deploy an extranet to give its non-technical customers easy access to vital claims data and gain a clear competitive advantage over its rivals. With more than 45 offices around the United States, the company also wanted to standardize on one e-BI solution for its internal reporting needs.

After researching the competition, the company selected WebIntelligence for its extranet and BusinessObjects for its internal e-BI needs. "We needed an extranet solution that could be used by any client, regardless of their technical proficiency or computing environment," said Johnson. "Business Objects products feature the most intuitive user-interface available on the market. In addition, the solution's data analysis capabilities are superior to those of competing platforms."

"Business Objects specializes in helping clients find and use the nuggets of critical e-business intelligence that lie buried inside mountains of raw corporate data," said Joel Weingarten, vice president of the extranet business unit at Business Objects. "By empowering clients to access claims information through its extranet, while using Business Objects e-BI systems internally, The Frank Gates Companies has enhanced the level of service it offers and firmly established itself as a leader in claims management."

About The Frank Gates Companies
Founded in 1946, The Frank Gates Companies provide risk management services aimed at controlling employers' workers' compensation costs. In addition to workers' compensation administration, Frank Gates also administers group health, risk financing, and liability claims management programs to a variety of customers, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small, family-run businesses. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Frank Gates is privately held and employs over 1,000 people in 45 offices throughout the United States.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions. The company coined the term
e-business intelligence in 1998 to describe the intersection of business intelligence and the internet. Using e-business intelligence, organizations can access, analyze, and share information in intranet, extranet, and e-business environments. In intranets, the company's products provide employees with information to make better business decisions, and are used in environments ranging from workgroups of 20 users to enterprise deployments exceeding 20,000. In the extranet environment, the company is pioneering the use of e-BI in applications that allow organizations to build stronger relationships by linking customers, partners, and suppliers via the internet. In addition, the company's products can improve the performance of an e-business by providing reporting and analysis against the ever-expanding amount of transaction and profile data that is collected each day throughout the world wide web.

Founded in 1990, Business Objects pioneered the modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a "semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of database systems. Today, the company has over 12,400 customers in more than 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris: code Euroclear France 12074, and included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.