St.George Bank Upgrades to BusinessObjects XI Release 2

Business Objects Global Services Helps Leading Australian Bank Migrate to New Business Objects Platform for Improved Performance and Expanded Usage

SAN JOSE, Calif. and PARIS - Oct. 30, 2006 - Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that St.George Bank has migrated its Business Objects deployment to BusinessObjects™ XI Release 2. Business Objects Global Services helped St.George move to the latest release to take advantage of its expanded functionality, improved performance and ease of use. Australia's fifth largest bank, St.George has more than 1,200 users who leverage Business Objects to help the company monitor and improve performance and provide better service to customers.

St.George is one of the top 15 publicly listed companies by market capitalization in Australia, and employs over 8,500 people. Its national operations span all aspects of the financial services industry, including retail banking, institutional and business banking, and wealth management. St.George has a philosophy of continuous service improvement and maintaining a close relationship with customers. Business Objects plays an important role in helping St.George provide outstanding service to customers and differentiate itself from competing banks.

St.George uses BusinessObjects XI Release 2 for a wide range of reporting and analysis functions within their business, including sales analysis, operational risk analysis, and compliance reporting. St.George also uses Business Objects to help improve the time to market of loans originated by the bank. Using reports and dashboards, employees continually monitor the time to completion of a loan - from the time a customer makes the initial loan inquiry to execution of the loan. They can quickly analyze how long it takes to move the loan through each stage of the process, and identify ways to streamline their business processes and leverage best practices to remove bottlenecks. By easing the loan process for customers, St.George has been able to gain a competitive edge in the market.

St.George originally deployed Business Objects in 2004, to help consolidate the eight different business intelligence solutions used throughout the organization. The bank wanted to move onto one platform to streamline administration and gain a complete and accurate view of their disparate data. In February of 2006, St.George decided to upgrade its business intelligence deployment to BusinessObjects XI Release 2 to take advantage of the significant improvements in performance, as well as several new functionalities of the XI platform. To ensure a smooth transition, the bank worked closely with Business Objects Global Services to scope the project and help manage the migration from start to finish.

"The move to BusinessObjects XI Release 2 has been great for us, as we have seen significant performance gains and more people are asking for access and new developments every day," said Gary Carter, General Manager of IT Relationships and Group Data Warehouse for St.George Bank. "Some of the larger reports and more advanced queries used to take several minutes to complete, and now they can take as little as a few seconds. Performance is a must have, as it helps our employees be more productive and encourages them to use Business Objects in more aspects of their job. We were very impressed with the work of the Business Objects Global Services team on our migration, and we look forward to continuing to expand the use of our Business Objects deployment to improve our business and our customer services."

"With deployments at 40 out of the top 50 banks in the world, Business Objects is quickly becoming the de-facto business intelligence standard in the banking industry," said Robb Eklund, vice president of industry marketing at Business Objects. "BusinessObjects XI Release 2 provides banks like St.George with a powerful platform to gain greater insights into their customers and business operations to drive improved performance. Business Objects understands the unique pressures of the banking industry, and our business intelligence solutions help these organizations more easily leverage their data to develop effective business strategies and make better decisions."

For a whitepaper on how Business Objects helps deliver insight to banks, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/bankinginsight. For more information on BusinessObjects XI Release 2, please visit http://www.businessobjects.com/businessobjectsxi.

About Business Objects, an SAP company

Business Objects has been a pioneer in business intelligence (BI) since the dawn of the category. Today, as the world's leading BI software company, Business Objects transforms the way the world works through intelligent information. The company helps illuminate understanding and decision-making at more than 46,000 organizations around the globe. Through a combination of innovative technology, global consulting and education services, and the industry's strongest and most diverse partner network, Business Objects enables companies of all sizes to make transformative business decisions based on intelligent, accurate, and timely information.

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 and Crystal Reports are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

###

The Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Xcelsius are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

More press releases