Business Objects Announces BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite

New Capabilities Deliver Greater Simplicity, Efficiency, and Performance to the Market-Leading BI Platform

Business Objects Insight Americas 2006 -- SAN FRANCISCO - Nov. 6, 2006 - Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite, a new set of capabilities that will extend and enhance BusinessObjects XI Release 2, the industry's leading BI platform. The new solutions, currently scheduled to be available in the first half of 2007, will deliver enhanced simplicity for end users, greater scalability and performance for enterprise information management (EIM), and improved efficiency for IT. Productivity Suite includes enhancements to the entire Business Objects product line including core BI, EIM, and enterprise performance management (EPM).

"Any high-performing organization knows that success depends on breaking down the barriers between decision makers and the information they need,” said Herve Couturier, senior vice president of product management at Business Objects. "BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite gives our customers a simpler, more powerful way to use information intelligently. Productivity Suite makes BI more accessible, relevant, and valuable to a much wider audience, allowing organizations to more effectively use BI to transform their business."

"Business Objects stands out against competitors in the BI market for offering the most comprehensive BI solutions which spans all three key areas: core BI, EIM, and EPM," said Philip Russom, senior manager of research at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). "BusinessObjects XI Release 2 offers enhanced ease-of-use and performance so organizations can build smarter, more nimble solutions. For example, the new embedded search capabilities provide a friendly and familiar user interface that taps into the broad data access of integrated BI, EPM, and EIM, so that employees, partners, and customers can access the data they need to make business-critical decisions with security, speed, and self-service."

New Capabilities Offer Simpler Ways to Answer Complex Business Questions

Productivity Suite helps customers more easily find the exact information they need to improve business performance. Whether customers start from a search box, Microsoft Office document, or business process management solution - Productivity Suite delivers simplified BI to users where and how they work.

Business Intelligence Search - New search features enable users to quickly and intuitively retrieve critical business information from their Business Objects environment including Crystal reports, Web Intelligence, or Dashboard Manager. In addition, users can search data directly, generating completely new Web Intelligence reports. (For more information on how search is redefining BI, please read the companion release: www.businessobjects.com/releases/search/)
BusinessObjects Voyager - Productivity Suite includes a new tool designed specifically for business analysts who rely on OLAP data, enabling them to quickly bring together and view OLAP data from multiple sources – all from within the Business Objects platform.
BusinessObjects Live Office - BusinessObjects Live Office allows customers to use BI securely within Microsoft Office applications. An updated version of the solution will deliver BI to users outside the corporate firewall. If Microsoft Office applications are posted on an extranet, authorized users can interact with secure, real-time information from within Microsoft applications. For example, a shipping company can post an Excel spreadsheet of all deliveries on its extranet and whenever data changes in BusinessObjects XI Release 2, information in the spreadsheet is automatically updated and distributed to authorized users.
Query as a Web Service – Productivity Suite includes a wizard-driven interface which enables customers to design queries and publish them as web services without writing any code. Simplified web services will make it easier to securely connect data from BusinessObjects XI Release 2 and allow customers to use BI seamlessly within other applications.
Operational BI - Operational BI delivers real-time data to users within daily business processes - whether they're on the phone with a customer or on the road with inventory - so they can make quick, informed decisions. With new web services focused on operational BI, Business Objects will provide enhanced integration with leading business process management (BPM) solutions, ensuring that BI is an integral part of business operations. For example, a procurement manager can use BI within a BPM application to monitor how well vendors are delivering against their contracts.

Accelerated Performance for EIM Delivers Trusted Information More Quickly

As part of Productivity Suite, today Business Objects also updates EIM products, including Data Integrator XI Release 2 Accelerated and Data Federator XI Release 2 Accelerated. These new releases enhance scalability and performance for moving massive amounts of information. Data Integrator XI Release 2 Accelerated enhances speed and fault tolerance for physically consolidating large amounts of data. The new solution uses advanced grid computing techniques to improve performance by breaking up large jobs, distributing them to multiple servers, and balancing large loads. Data Federator XI Release 2 Accelerated leverages an enhanced query engine to more quickly integrate multiple data sources virtually, giving customers answers to their questions instantly. In addition, Productivity Suite includes self-tuning capabilities to optimize Data Integrator performance. The new feature automatically removes bottlenecks and accelerates the data integration process.

Improved Efficiency for IT Deliver Time and Cost-Savings

Productivity Suite helps IT staff to more easily manage BI, EIM, and EPM deployments across the BusinessObjects XI Release 2 platform.

BI and EIM Management - Because successful BI deployments depend on trustworthy data, Productivity Suite delivers new capabilities that bring BI and EIM processes closer together. BusinessObjects XI Release 2 offers a single place to schedule both Data Integrator and BI jobs. This helps IT managers ensure that all data is unified and cleansed before running BI reports or dashboards.
Centralized BI and EPM Management - Productivity Suite also enables IT administrators to manage their BI and EPM projects from one place, making it easier to share budgeting, planning, and financial data across the organization. Now IT administrators supporting EPM projects can more simply and consistently share critical business data and improve decision making.

Availability
BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Suite is currently expected to be available during the first half of 2007.

Safe Harbor for Forward Looking Statements
Certain sections of this press release contain forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions regarding Business Objects' product release date and features which will be included. However, these statements are not guarantees of the date of availability, which may be delayed or cancelled, or of the availability of the features mentioned which may be changed or removed prior to release. Statements such as "expected" or "planned" denote forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. More information about potential factors that could affect Business Objects' business is included in Business Objects' Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, each of which is on file with the SEC and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Business Objects is not obligated to undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

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.

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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.

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