Customers around the World Praise Crystal Reports XI and Crystal Repor

Customers around the World Praise Crystal Reports XI and Crystal Reports Server XI

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2005--

Developers and IT Professionals Embrace the New Features of Crystal Reports XI, while Mid-Market Organizations Laud the Introduction of the Crystal Reports Server XI Reporting Platform
    Business Objects customers are set to take reporting to the next level thanks to today's release of Crystal Reports(R) XI, the industry standard in reporting from Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Today, customers worldwide are offering praise for Crystal Reports XI, which delivers new features to benefit organizations of all sizes with easier report design, simplified report maintenance, expanded data access, and complete integration with the BusinessObjects XI platform. In addition, customers are excited about Crystal Reports Server XI, a packaged reporting solution that includes everything small to medium-sized organizations need to create, deliver, and manage reports over the web.

    Customers Praise Crystal Reports XI

    Customers around the world give Crystal Reports XI "top marks" as they realize that access to data will happen more quickly and reports will be easier to build. In addition, developers can now organize reports and decide how to schedule, manage, distribute, and secure access to reports. The following customers had this to say about testing Crystal Reports XI:

    Missouri Department of Elementary Secondary Education (DESE)

    "Crystal Reports XI is easy to use and gives our staff a better way to look at information that affects our students and how they measure up to academic achievement standards," said Steve White, web and network manager for the Missouri DESE. "We are especially pleased with the new features found in Crystal Reports XI, such as cascading prompts, which allows our users to build complex reports in the simplest manner. In addition, Crystal Reports XI shields our users from the complexity of report building. Many schools do not have the resources to create complex reports, but the ease of use behind Crystal Reports XI makes it easy for us to help them create complex reports even with non-technical people."

    Port of Napier

    "We have had great success using Crystal Reports over the years. The new features and functionality of Crystal Reports XI will provide us with both strategic and operational efficiencies that have not been possible in the past," said Steve Johansen, CIO at Port of Napier. "We are impressed with the increases in speed, and the new interface and report designer have much more user appeal. Our experience with the beta program has been so positive that we will go live with Crystal Reports XI immediately."

    Simon & Schuster

    "Our experience with Crystal Reports XI has been very positive in terms of large-scale report publication," said Paul Zanis, director of business information systems at Simon & Schuster. "The efficiencies are apparent immediately and will enable us to provide everyone in the organization with complex information contained in highly formatted reports. With Crystal Reports XI, we can securely deliver the most requested pieces of information to end users both inside and outside Simon & Schuster."

    STAEDTLER Mars GmbH & Co. KG

    "The new functionality included in Crystal Reports XI provides us with significant enhancements to the overall performance of the Business Objects BI platform," said Hans-Peter Simon, head of department ERP-basis/data basis management at STAEDTLER Mars GmbH & Co. KG. "Installation of Crystal Reports XI has gone very smoothly, and we are impressed with the level of integration between the Business Objects and Crystal technologies. The greatest benefit to our organization is the ability to integrate relational reporting and multidimensional reporting with powerful analytics -- all within one BI environment."

    Crystal Reports Server XI Delivers Benefits to Mid-Market Organizations

    Crystal Reports Server XI gives small to medium-sized organizations the full reporting capabilities available to large enterprises without the cost and complexity of those implementations. The following customers had this to say about Crystal Reports Server XI:

    Missouri Department of Elementary Secondary Education (DESE)

    "As a mid-sized organization, we need the same reporting capabilities of a large enterprise and we need the flexible pricing to grow with us," said White. "Crystal Reports Server XI fits our needs perfectly and gives us better-targeted, up-to-date information so our users make the best decisions possible."

    Remedy Intelligent Staffing

    "The pricing for Crystal Reports Server XI is designed to specifically meet the needs of small to medium-sized businesses and we are pleased with the more affordable pricing structure," said Mario Scubla, CIO of Remedy Intelligent Staffing. "In our business, it is important that we deliver ROI and a lower total cost of ownership. Crystal Reports Server XI is designed to help companies better track, understand, and manage their businesses to deliver value quickly."

    About Business Objects

    Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 29,000 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, with more than 3,000 partners worldwide. In addition, the company 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.

--30--NJ/sf*

CONTACT: Business Objects Sherry Lowe, 408-953-6038 sherry.lowe@businessobjects.com or Eastwick Communications Erin McCabe, 650-480-4016 erin@eastwick.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA FRANCE INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING PRODUCT SOURCE: Business Objects

Copyright Business Wire 2005