Business Objects News - Leading Technology and Consulting Companies Working with Business Objects Mobile Business Intelligence Strategy

Leading Technology and Consulting Companies Working with Business Objects Mobile Business Intelligence Strategy

San Jose, Calif.- June 19, 2001. Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced support from key mobile technology and consulting companies for BusinessObjects™ InfoView Mobile 4.0, the new version of its mobile business intelligence portal. Announced today, InfoView Mobile 4.0 enables mobile workers to access key corporate information from their cellular phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) devices and view and analyze this information in several formats, including color and charts.

Business Objects continues to build strong alliances and reseller agreements with mobile business solution providers including systems integrators, infrastructure providers, and solution and mobile device providers to help businesses integrate InfoView Mobile for deploying mobile business intelligence applications. Today's announcement underscores the growing support for the Business Objects strategy by the mobile industry. AvantGo has integrated InfoView Mobile 4.0 into its mobile business solutions to offer advanced business intelligence capabilities to customers globally. Aspective, Handspring, and PricewaterhouseCoopers will also work with Business Objects to provide business intelligence solutions based on InfoView Mobile 4.0. In addition, Business Objects is working with NTT DoCoMo on platform support and has achieved certification of BusinessObjects InfoView Mobile 4.0 on i-mode, the mobile internet standard from NTT DoCoMo.

InfoView Mobile 4.0 runs on both NT and UNIX platforms on the server side and runs on any Palm OS PDA including Palm Pilot, IBM Workpad, HandSpring Visor, and Prism; as well as Windows CE-driven PDAs including Compaq iPAQ and HP Jordana. InfoView Mobile 4.0 also adds native support for PocketIE HTM, to the support for WML, HDML, and i-mode provided in earlier versions.

"The support and enthusiasm for our mobile BI strategy has been tremendous," said Mark Tice, group vice president at Business Objects. "Business Objects is providing a key business application with InfoView Mobile by enabling corporations to access and analyze corporate data through any mobile device. We will continue to work with organizations who share our vision for the mobile enterprise, to deliver products, solutions, and services for the mobile business intelligence market."

Business Objects has formed alliances and reseller agreements in order to continue making mobile BI solutions a reality for enterprise companies. These alliances help deliver best-of-breed products that combine support services through the Business Objects Mobile Business Intelligence Initiative. The following companies are working with Business Objects to bring business intelligence capabilities to end users located anywhere, anytime, whether users are at their desk or on the road:

Aspective, Ltd
Aspective is a leading eBusiness solution provider delivering front office' solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service - including eCRM, eCommerce, Customer Analytics, and mBusiness applications. Aspective enables its clients to realize the value of their business by maximizing the value of their customer relationships. The company has strategic partnerships with BroadVision, Siebel Systems, Business Objects, Lotus, Exodus, CrossWorlds, Sun Microsystems, Storage Networks and EMC.

"With the introduction of this world-class application for mobile business users, Business Objects and Aspective will be able to offer a valuable management information service to all our customers," said Andrew Myers, business development director, business intelligence, at Aspective. "As the UK's leading solution provider delivering eBusiness applications to mobile devices via General Packet Radio Service, Aspective is ideally placed to incorporate this application within our innovative service portfolio for mobile business users."

AvantGo, Inc.
AvantGo is the leading provider of mobile infrastructure software and services for global enterprise businesses. AvantGo delivers a robust Dynamic Mobility Model - ensuring instant, anytime, anywhere access to important information, messaging and applications with any mobile device and wireless service - even outside of wireless coverage areas. Through AvantGo's alliance with Business Objects, joint customers have the ability to use advanced analysis capabilities with their AvantGo applications via BusinessObjects InfoView Mobile to access, analyze, and share information while on the move. AvantGo M-Business Server allows customers to use any device, access any application, and take advantage of any connection option and wireless data service, thus delivering real-world solutions for both wireless and off-line use. For more information, please visit www.avantgo.com.

"Business Objects and AvantGo have worked closely to integrate the power of InfoView Mobile and the AvantGo M-Business Server. Together, we have created a world-class mobile business intelligence solution that will help eliminate the wired barriers to business information access," said Mike Kritzman, vice president of channels for AvantGo. "Enterprise mobility is a goal that both Business Objects and AvantGo share, and we are excited about working closely with Business Objects to offer this mobile solution to its current and future customers."

Handspring
Handspring is a leading innovator in the handheld computing industry that develops, manufactures, and markets a family of expandable handheld computers for a broad range of markets and customers. Handspring's Blazer browser supports InfoView Mobile and can be integrated to deliver business intelligence capabilities to Handspring's customers. Founded in 1998, Handspring's flagship technology is the Springboard platform that provides a simple and easy method for hardware and software expansion. Today Handspring sells its products and accessories in Asia, Canada, Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and the United States.

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Business Objects and PricewaterhouseCoopers have a long-standing systems integrator agreement to provide clients with business intelligence solutions. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services practice has more than 500 professionals dedicated to mobile business globally. In addition, clients can draw on the capabilities of over 1,500 professionals knowledgeable in mobile-related solutions such as enterprise systems, B2E and customer relationship management.

"We're seeing increasing interest from our clients in mobile business and view Business Objects and their technology solutions as an important step in this evolving market," said Roy Dube, PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services partner leading mobile business initiatives in America. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with Business Objects and to working together to help businesses expand their intelligence platform from the enterprise to mobile devices."

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Consulting Services practice is helping clients exploit the benefits of mobile business globally by providing strategic advisory services, encouraging the mobilization of enterprise software and assisting in application development and systems integration. By integrating mobile devices with existing systems and infrastructures, a wide range of organizations in virtually every industry will be able to grow their businesses, boost productivity, generate greater efficiencies, and increase the bottom line.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwcglobal.com) is the world's largest professional services organization. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of more than 150,000 people in 150 countries, we help our clients solve complex business problems and measurable enhance their ability to build value, manage risk and improve performance in an Internet-enabled world. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the member firms of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization.

About Business Objects Mobile Business Intelligence Initiative
The Business Objects Mobile BI Initiative enables Business Objects and individual partners to collaborate to develop real world business applications for mobile phones and PDAs by integrating InfoView Mobile with their own mobile product or service. The goal of this initiative is for Business Objects and mobile partners to identify the best methods for bringing mobile BI capabilities to customers.

In addition to partnering with systems integrators, infrastructure and solution providers, Business Objects also works with leading device manufacturers, software vendors, and browser providers within the mobile industry. The companies currently participating in the Mobile BI Initiative include: AvantGo, Openwave, Neomar, and Nokia. Palm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Research in Motion (RIM) are also working with Business Objects on joint mobile solutions.