Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership Standardizes on Business Objects; Non-Profit Agency Selects Crystal Reports XI and Crystal Reports Server XI Over Microsoft Reporting Services

Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP), thelargest regional provider of federally-subsidized rental housingvoucher assistance in Massachusetts, serves more than 11,500 homeless,elderly, disabled, and low-income individuals and families in Bostonand 29 surrounding communities. To streamline operational reportingand manage compliance with extensive state and federal reportingrequirements, the non-profit housing agency turned to Business Objects(Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), theworld's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Bystandardizing on Crystal Reports(R) XI and Crystal Reports Server XIfor managing and delivering reports, MBHP will soon be automating itsreporting processes and distributing reports electronically, as wellas storing them online. This will enable the agency to save time anddramatically reduce labor and paper costs.

As a provider of subsidized housing assistance, MBHP is requiredto generate close to 50 reports each month for state and federalhousing authorities on data such as leasing rates, unit vacancies,resident demographics, and much more. Prior to implementing BusinessObjects, the non-profit agency relied on an 8-page-per-minute printerthat took two days to print nearly 50 standard reports each month.Today, the combination of Crystal Reports XI and Crystal ReportsServer XI automatically generates the reports, which users accessthrough a simple web-based interface. In addition to streamliningcompliance with state and federal regulations, Business Objects allowsthe agency's senior staff to stay better informed on the status of theorganization.

MBHP had initially hoped to use Microsoft SQL Server ReportingServices to improve its reporting processes, but found Crystal Reportswas a better fit for their organization.

"We are a Microsoft shop, but we found Reporting Servicesdifficult to set up and not intuitive to use," said Howard Wright,director of technology at Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership."Creating reports in Reporting Services required Visual Basicprogramming knowledge. Even though Reporting Services was free, thehidden costs associated with implementation and report creation madeit too costly for us. Crystal Reports, with its easy setup, intuitiveinterface, and excellent report writer, was by far the mostcost-effective option and will allow us to create dashboards that willprovide managers with an instant snapshot of organizationalperformance."

"There is no such thing as a free lunch, and nowhere is that moretrue than when it comes to the 'free' reporting tools offered by someof our competitors," said Rene Bonvanie, chief marketing officer atBusiness Objects. "Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership recognizedthat while business intelligence could improve its efficiency andallow more dollars to be dedicated to help the citizens of Boston, theBI solution itself had to be easy to implement and use in order to becost effective. Crystal Reports and Crystal Reports Server have aproven track record of providing organizations with an easy-to-usereporting solution that delivers a low total cost of ownership."

About MBHP

MBHP is the state's largest regional provider of rental housingvoucher assistance, serving Boston and 29 surrounding communities. Ourmission is to ensure that the region's low- and moderate-incomeindividuals and families have choice and mobility in finding andretaining decent affordable housing; all of our programs andinitiatives are designed to encourage housing stability, increasedeconomic self-sufficiency, and the enhanced quality of the lives ofthose we serve. To achieve our mission and to promote efficientservice delivery, we work collaboratively with a broad array ofservice providers and neighborhood-based organizations. Moreinformation can be found at www.mbhp.org.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI)software company. With more than 35,000 customers worldwide, includingover 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helpsorganizations gain better insight into their business, improvedecision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company'sbusiness intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BIindustry's most advanced and complete platform for performancemanagement, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and enterpriseinformation management. BusinessObjects XI includes CrystalReports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. BusinessObjects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partnercommunity, and also offers consulting and education services to helpcustomers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

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

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