Independent Business Intelligence Survey Shows MicroStrategy’s Customers Most Loyal and Least Likely to Defect

MicroStrategy Customers Purchase More Licenses on Average Than Those of Competitors; Also Most Likely to Purchase More Licenses

MCLEAN, Va., November, 29 2001 – An independent survey has found that the customers of MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, are more loyal than those of its competitors -- including Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN), Brio (NASDAQ: BRIO), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Hyperion (NASDAQ: HYSL) and Crystal Decisions/Seagate. The OLAP Survey, conducted by the market research firm Survey.com, also found that MicroStrategy customers are the least likely to defect.

In the largest survey of its kind, more than 644 business intelligence users from 46 countries were asked to rate 11 vendors on implementation, performance and overall satisfaction of business intelligence products.

The survey found MicroStrategy customers were most loyal, with approximately only 2 percent indicating they would not standardize on MicroStrategy. Customers of MicroStrategy’s competitors were noticeably less loyal to their respective products. Approximately 10 percent of Cognos’ customers stated they would not standardize on Cognos; approximately 15 percent of Business Objects’ customers said they would not standardize on Business Objects; approximately 18 percent of Hyperion Essbase customers indicated they would not standardize on Essbase; and approximately 58 percent of Seagate Info customers said they would not standardize on Seagate Info. (For data, see Chart 1 below.)

Among other findings from the survey:

• MicroStrategy customers purchase more licenses on average than the customers of its competitors. The survey found that MicroStrategy led the pack with an average of 797 licenses (or seats) purchased per site (excluding site and server licenses). In contrast, Cognos PowerPlay had an average of 650 licenses purchased per site; Business Objects registered an average of just 368 licenses purchased per site; Hyperion Essbase only 221 purchased per site; Brio 144 per site; and Applix iTM1 only 41 per site. (For data, see Chart 2 below.)
• MicroStrategy customers show the greatest propensity to purchase more licenses. Regarding customer intentions to purchase more licenses, MicroStrategy achieved the survey’s highest “positive gap” -- the differential between those who say they intend to purchase more licenses and those who say they don’t. MicroStrategy led the pack with a positive gap of 63.4 percent, ahead of all others, including Business Objects (55.8 percent), Cognos PowerPlay (48 percent), Hyperion Essbase (39.4 percent), and Seagate Info (25 percent). (For data, see Chart 3 below.)
• MicroStrategy customers are least likely to abandon their business intelligence implementations. Perhaps most significant was the finding that MicroStrategy had the lowest discontinuance rate for its products. Business Objects’ and Cognos’ discontinuance rates were approximately 27 percent and 35 percent, respectively. Hyperion Essbase had the greatest discontinuance rate, with over 50 percent of Hyperion Essbase customers indicating that they discontinued the use of Essbase. (For data, see Chart 4 below.)
• MicroStrategy customers are most aggressively deploying via the Web. According to the survey, MicroStrategy customers were most likely to have successfully deployed their business intelligence licenses via the Web. Approximately 76 percent of MicroStrategy customers have deployed their business intelligence licenses via the Web to at least half of their users. In contrast, only about 42 percent of Business Objects customers, about 30 percent of Hyperion Essbase customers, and only about 18 percent of Seagate Info customers have deployed their business intelligence licenses via the Web to at least half of their users. (For data, see Chart 5 below.)

“We’re obviously very pleased by the findings from this survey, but hardly surprised,” said MicroStrategy’s Vice Chairman and COO Sanju Bansal. “Perhaps what’s most noteworthy about The OLAP Survey findings is not the numbers themselves, but what they suggest – that our business intelligence platform is more likely than that of our competitors to deliver insights to more users in a business. MicroStrategy, in short, extends the benefits of business intelligence to a broader segment of the enterprise.”

Attachments

(Data from The OLAP Survey)

Chart 1: Product disloyalty. The figures show the percentage of respondents in multi-product sites who would NOT pick their nominated product if they had to standardize on a single product. Lower percentages imply greater product loyalty (i.e., lower scores are better). See Chart 1.

MicroStrategy 2%

Microsoft OLAP 5%

Brio 6%

Cognos PowerPlay 10%

iTM1 12%

Oracle Express 13%

Oracle Discoverer 14%

BusinessObjects 15%

Average 16%

Hyperion Essbase 18%

Seagate Info 58%

Chart 2: Average seats purchased per site (excluding site and server licenses). The figures show how many seats each respondent purchased for their nominated product. See Chart 2.

MicroStrategy 797

IBM DB2 OLAP Server 757

Cognos PowerPlay 650

Oracle Express 477

Business Objects 368

Oracle Discoverer 315

Hyperion Essbase 221

Microsoft OLAP 190

Brio 144

Seagate Info 43

Applix iTM1 41

Chart 3: Intention to purchase more seats. The figures highlight the differential, the “Positive Gap,” between those customers who say they intend to purchase more seats and those who say they don’t. See Chart 3.

Chart 4: Discontinuance rates. The figures show the rate at which the use of products has been discontinued. A lower percentage means fewer discontinuances (i.e., lower scores are better). See Chart 4.

MicroStrategy 24%

Business Objects 27%

Seagate Info 30%

Microsoft OLAP 33%

Cognos PowerPlay 35%

Oracle Discoverer 34%

Brio 37%

Oracle Express 39%

Applix iTM1 41%

Total 40%

Hummingbird BI / Analyze 49%

Essbase 51%

*Note that data in charts 1 and 4 are taken from the actual graphs in The OLAP Survey and are therefore approximate.

Chart 5: Web deployment rates by product. The attached chart details Web usage by showing the cumulative deployment rates for the ten products for which more than ten people provided responses. The greater the Web usage, the higher the lines. See Chart 5.

About MicroStrategy Incorporated.

Leadership in a Critical Market: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a worldwide leader in the critical business intelligence software market. Large and small companies alike are harnessing MicroStrategy’s business intelligence software to gain vital insights from their data to help them proactively enhance cost-efficiency, productivity and customer relations and optimize revenue-generating strategies. MicroStrategy's business intelligence platform offers exceptional capabilities that provide organizations -- in virtually all facets of their operations -- with user-friendly solutions to their data query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs, and distributes valuable insight on this data to users via Web, wireless, and voice. PC Magazine recently selected MicroStrategy 7™ as the 2001 “Editors' Choice” for business intelligence software.

Built for the Internet: MicroStrategy 7 is the Scalable Business Intelligence Platform Built for the Internet™. Its pure-Web architecture provides Web reporting, security, performance and standards that are critical for Web deployment. Within intranets, MicroStrategy's products provide employees with information to enable them to make better, more cost-effective business decisions. In extranets, enterprises can use MicroStrategy 7 to build stronger relationships by linking customers and suppliers via the Internet.

Diverse Customer Base: MicroStrategy's customer base cuts across industry and sector lines, with approximately 1,500 enterprise-class customers, including Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, AT&T Wireless Group, Wachovia and GlaxoSmithKline. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 400 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Compaq, Informatica and JD Edwards.

MicroStrategy is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MSTR. For more information on the company, or to purchase or demo MicroStrategy's software, please visit MicroStrategy's Web site at http://www.microstrategy.com.