Crystal Decisions Enhances Web Report Creation and Interactivity in Crystal Enterprise

Extends end user report creation, modification and analysis over the web

PALO ALTO, CA, Sept. 8, 2003 - Crystal Decisions today announced a significant extension to its web-based report creation, modification and analysis capabilities with the release of new ad hoc functionality for Crystal Enterprise. This functionality builds on the combined power of Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Reports and Crystal Analysis to empower users to create reports from scratch, modify the layout or data of existing highly formatted reports and perform OLAP analysis on reports over the web, using a zero client DHTML interface.

"As the audience for information expands throughout an organization to include employees, partners, suppliers and customers, the need for different levels of interactivity and security for each type of user becomes increasingly important," said Andrew Handford, vice president of product at Crystal Decisions. "In many cases, it is not enough for these users to simply view information in order to take action, but it is also important for them to interact with the information and analyze it as required. The improved ad hoc functionality allows Crystal Enterprise to be tailored to the needs of each individual user, to help improve overall productivity and lower a customer's total cost of ownership."

Crystal Enterprise administrators now have extensive options to uniquely tailor interfaces and capabilities to the individual needs of end users. Functions can be turned on or off, and secured for specific users or groups of users. This includes broad-based function areas such as report creation, modification and analysis features, as well as more finely tuned capabilities such as the ability to add or remove fields, sort and filter the data, add new calculations and change the layout of a report.

Handford continued, "Whether you're a customer visiting a web site to view your individual invoice history, or a power-user planning an integrated marketing campaign-Crystal Enterprise is designed to provide the appropriate level of interactivity and security required to help each end user achieve their business goals. We view this level of functionality as a cornerstone for the mass delivery of information across any organization."

Key to evolving this type of functionality is the open architecture of Crystal Enterprise, which allows additional functionality to be easily added, without requiring an upgrade to the full system.

"Crystal Decisions has taken a modular approach to Crystal Enterprise's system architecture," said Eric Rogge, Vice President and Research Director from Ventana Research. "This allows Crystal Decisions to add additional features such as ad hoc to Crystal Enterprise, without having to re-release their entire suite. For Crystal Enterprise administrators, this new functionality can reduce the upgrade aspect of their system ownership costs."

The improved ad hoc functionality in Crystal Enterprise is designed to address a number of customer requested enhancements, including:

- Tight integration with Crystal Enterprise user interfaces

- Drag-and-drop field selection

- Improved access to OLAP charts and tables

- Sophisticated data filtering

- Report templates for creating highly formatted user reports

For More Information

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 is a leading global provider of business intelligence software and services with more than 15 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 360 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

Crystal Decisions, Crystal Reports & Crystal Enterprise, 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.