09/17/2007

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) today announced the general availability of Business Intelligence OnDemand, its complete suite of business intelligence (BI) capabilities, delivered on demand.

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Building on its years of experience as the world’s leading provider of BI solutions, and significant R&D investment, Business Objects now offers customers the ability to realize the full benefits of business intelligence without the need for on-premise infrastructure. This announcement continues the company’s momentum in the on demand BI market, where it has established itself as the clear leader, with over 50,000 subscribers to date.

Business Intelligence OnDemand extends the value of a company’s information infrastructure. The solution builds on the foundation provided by crystalreports.com, the company’s first Software as a Service (SaaS) initiative, by maintaining and managing a copy of a company’s data within the Business Objects OnDemand data center, enabling more complex queries, faster performance, and reduced data administration costs for customers. Customers now have the ability to access the full power of BI such as formatted reporting, dashboards, and ad-hoc query and analysis - delivered by Business Objects’ industry leading products including Crystal Reports®, Crystal Xcelsius® and Web Intelligence® - all in an on demand model.

“We are taking on the heavy lifting of building and maintaining our customers’ data warehouse and business intelligence infrastructure,” said Steve Lucas, vice president of the on demand business at Business Objects. “The time is right for customers to start maximizing a return on their investment in packaged applications – whether on premise or on demand. By offering a full spectrum of best-in-breed business intelligence solutions on demand, we are giving business users what they need – an easy way to turn all their data into intelligent and powerful information. This delivers all the benefits of enterprise BI, made available in a simple, secure, accessible way.”

Business Intelligence OnDemand for Salesforce.com Customers

Available today, this is the first in a full suite of on demand BI offerings from Business Objects. Specifically designed for enterprises with large Salesforce datasets that are looking for more in-depth analysis, Business Intelligence OnDemand for Salesforce provides advanced reporting, real-time dashboards, and powerful ad-hoc analysis tools for maximizing the value of Salesforce data. This solution supports the reporting and analysis needs of marketing, sales, sales operations and business analysts.

“Business Objects has delivered an industry-leading set of business intelligence applications on demand on the AppExchange,” said George Hu, chief marketing officer at salesforce.com. “With Business Intelligence OnDemand, our joint customers can use the AppExchange to enjoy even greater insight into their Salesforce data, and generate maximum return on their investment in salesforce.com’s Force.com platform and CRM applications. These innovative solutions from the leader in on demand business intelligence give customers new ways to assess key trends and metrics such as sales performance, new cross-sell/upsell opportunities and marketing campaign effectiveness. With BI OnDemand and Salesforce, customers will have the ease, power, and insight to differentiate their initiatives through powerful information on demand.”

“We have seen the adoption of SaaS steadily increase as the delivery model continues to impact a variety of software markets that now extend beyond CRM applications,” said Erin TenWolde, senior analyst, Software as a Service (SaaS) at IDC. “What Business Objects is offering its customers is a portfolio of business intelligence tools on demand, which will help users leverage the value of their application investment. This is another example of how companies continue to innovate using the SaaS delivery model.”