Crystal Decisions unveils Crystal Analysis Professional 9Powerful new analytics for improved business performance PALO ALTO, CA, April 9, 2003 - Crystal Decisions, one of the world's leading information management software companies, today announced the availability of Crystal Analysis Professional 9, a powerful new version of its Web-based analytic reporting solution. The new version enables business users throughout an organization to gain insight into business data to make better, faster decisions for improved business performance. Crystal Analysis Professional 9 is integrated into Crystal Enterprise, a complete Business Intelligence platform that blends all of Crystal Decisions' reporting, analysis and information delivery technologies into one scalable infrastructure (Refer to separate press release announcing availability of Crystal Enterprise 9 Premium; Dated April 9, 2003). The inclusion of Crystal Analysis Professional 9 represents a critical step towards combining powerful analytics and best-in-class enterprise reporting into one, highly scalable solution for improved collaboration and lower total cost of ownership. Crystal Analysis Professional is designed to solve a key business challenge facing companies today: the need to empower business users at all levels in the organization (employees, partners and customers) with access to the right information to make well-informed decisions quickly. Using conventional tools, users often have access to static views of business data, which prohibits them from easily conducting meaningful in-depth analysis. As a result, these business users are relegated to time-consuming manual data analysis, resulting in inaccurate information. Crystal Analysis Professional solves this business challenge by giving business users powerful guided analysis capabilities, enabling them to easily explore trends, comparisons, and significant points of interest within their organizational data. The solution provides business users with the ability to quickly explore data interactively through an easy-to-use 'point and click' design environment, without the need for IT involvement. "Crystal Analysis Professional provides powerful analytic reporting capabilities to help enterprise customers uncover answers to critical business problems and gain a coordinated view of the organization," said Andrew Handford, vice president of product, Crystal Decisions. "When combined with the scalable infrastructure of Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis Professional enables thousands of users across an organization have access to a single, powerful solution to make better, and faster business decisions." Handford Continues: "Enterprise customers are striving to consolidate their disparate Business Intelligence applications into one integrated enterprise-wide solution to reduce costs, but most importantly, deliver the right information to business users across the organization. Crystal Analysis Professional 9 represents a critical step in combining our advanced analytics and enterprise reporting into a single, scalable infrastructure." "Huntington National Bank's decisions to standardize on Crystal Decisions' complete suite of reporting, analysis and information delivery solutions was a key step towards achieving our goal of becoming 'best in class' at transforming data into meaningful information to speed decision- making, improve business performance, and better serve the needs of our customers," said Joe Gottron II, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer for Huntington. "Crystal Analysis Professional provides a critical piece to the solution by ensuring the analytic capabilities are easy-to-use and are tailored to the specific needs of end users throughout the organization." New Features and Functionality New features in Crystal Analysis Professional 9 include: - Integration with Crystal Reports, a world leading report writer, to seamlessly move between a formatted and analytic view of data, thereby achieving a deep level of analysis - Greater flexibility to design reports that are easy-to-use and that provide meaningful information for business users - Enhanced usability for powerful guided analysis - Deeper Microsoft Excel integration to maintain data reliability - Openness for more enterprise data sources including Hyperion Essbase and IBM DB2 For More Information Crystal Analysis Professional 9 is currently available and is sold directly through the Crystal Decisions sales force and global distribution channel. The company is currently accepting orders for the new version. For more information on Crystal Decisions technologies and services, phone 1-800- 877-2340 (North America) or 1-604-681-3435 (International), or visit the Crystal Decisions Web site at http://www.crystaldecisions.com. About Crystal Decisions Crystal Decisions, a privately held company, is one of the world's leading information management software companies with more than 14 million licenses shipped. Since 1984, Crystal Decisions has powered winning organizations with one of the fastest ways for employees, partners and customers to access the information they need to make the best decisions and ultimately reduce costs and increase productivity. The Crystal brand is among the most trusted names in enterprise reporting and more than 345 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) have standardized on Crystal Decisions solutions. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Crystal Decisions has more than 25 offices worldwide and can be found on the Internet at http://www.crystaldecisions.com. For Further Information Contact
Ian Galbraith, Crystal Decisions
(604) 974-2370
ian.galbraith@crystaldecisions.com
Liz Sloan, Ruder Finn / Switzer
(415) 249-6778
sloanl@ruderfinnswitzer.com
Crystal Decisions, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, Crystal Services, Crystal Care, Crystal Assist, Crystal Applications and Holos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Crystal Decisions, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Crystal Decisions Inc. |