SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS, May 9, 2005 -- Business Objects, the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of several analytic solutions on BusinessObjects(TM) XI, the industry's most advanced and complete BI platform. These analytic solutions, part of the performance management applications in BusinessObjects XI, bring together best practices, dashboards and scorecards, analytic engines, and targeted metrics to help organizations address critical business issues. The new analytic solutions will help retailers increase profits and finance professionals comply with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

Analytic Solutions Help Retailers Get Closer to Customers and Better Understand Product Performance

Retailers today are challenged by inadequate insight into customers' buying behavior and frequently face difficulty ensuring the right assortment of merchandise. With new analytic solutions from Business Objects, retailers will be able to identify the optimal product mixture, accurately profile their customers, and find ways to increase sales at each store. Customer Profiling and Campaign Management Analytics enable sales and marketing managers to identify the best customers for a product campaign, understand customers' response triggers, and create promotions that will result in the greatest response and revenue generation. Using the Store Assortment Optimization Analytics, retail buyers can ensure they stock the most profitable products and maximize category effectiveness.

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Analytics Help Financial Professionals Meet Corporate Governance Requirements

Today, no organization is exempt from needing to comply with new corporate governance regulations. Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Analytics enables the CEO, CFO, and the finance department to improve the integrity of both financial information and internal controls, giving them the confidence to approve and sign-off on financial results. With BusinessObjects Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Analytics, financial managers can gain quick insight into their financial performance, understand adherence levels to Sections 302, 404, and 409 of the law, and rapidly identify processes which exceed internal risk tolerance levels.

The latest version of the analytic solutions gives companies new ways to understand their organizational challenges and drill down into business metrics. Delivered on the BusinessObjects XI platform, these solutions take advantage of performance enhancements as well as new collaborative features in BusinessObjects XI. Managers can utilize BusinessObjects XI to build discussion threads with colleagues around metrics, dashboards, and analytics. Also, managers can use new visual tools -- like geographical and strategy maps that link to reports, metrics and goals -- to better understand key performance indicators.

"Organizations today are increasingly looking to their technology vendors for solutions to support performance management initiatives," said Kathleen Wilhide, director of compliance and business performance management solutions at IDC. "Performance dashboards and scorecards provide a mechanism for delivering role based performance measures and insight through the organization, supporting decision making with analysis. The new analytic solutions from Business Objects deliver industry-specific content that can help organizations implement performance management capabilities quickly and consistently based upon a single business intelligence environment."

"Organizations want a BI solution that can help them quickly and precisely manage specific business problems," said Bernard Liautaud, chairman and CEO of Business Objects. "Delivering our analytic solutions on the BusinessObjects XI platform provides our customers with the power they need to attack particular business pains and maximize business opportunities. These solutions display a deep understanding of the specific business challenges that companies face in various industries. Business Objects is more than a software vendor -- we are a strategic partner to our more than 30,000 customers worldwide. As we continue to deliver additional performance management solutions on BusinessObjects XI, we will only strengthen these partnerships with our customers."

Availability

Customer Profiling and Campaign Management Analytics, Store Assortment Optimization Analytics, and Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Analytics on BusinessObjects XI are currently available.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most complete and trusted platform for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has also built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Business Objects
Robin Meyerhoff, 408-943-6714
robin.meyerhoff@businessobjects.com