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Business Objects Awards Customers for Excellence in Business Intelligence

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 03:00 CST

Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ):

-- Business Objects Honors Air France/KLM, The Allstate Corporation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, U.S. Department of Defense-TRICARE, Ferrovie dello Stato, Kohl's Department Stores, Sharp Corporation, and Telefonica Brazil

Business Objects credits much of its own success to the innovative and strategic business intelligence deployments of its customers. That is why each year, Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250-BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, recognizes the extraordinary way that customers are using our software to take profits and performance to the next level. With Business Objects solutions, these eight organizations have immediate access to information so they can make better business decisions. This year's winners of the Business Objects 2005 Customer Excellence Award -- Air France/KLM, The Allstate Corporation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Department of Defense-TRICARE, Ferrovie dello Stato, Kohl's Department Stores, Sharp Corporation, and Telefonica Brazil -- all use business intelligence solutions to put information into the hands of users across the organization to pave the way to financial success.

"Our award winning customers realize that gaining insight into operations and understanding the business can ultimately have a huge impact on the bottom line," said John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. "As Business Objects continues to grow, our customers' deployments have become more effective and strategic, allowing everyone in an organization to use business intelligence to improve performance. This year's customer excellence award winners truly represent the theme of our conference -- 'performance on an entirely new scale.' These organizations are proving that business intelligence allows them to look into all aspects of their operations and take advantage of fast-changing business opportunities."

Following is a brief description of this year's winners:

Air France/KLM

Air France, Europe's leading airliner operating more than 1,800 daily flights, has been a customer for the past six years, and has deployed Business Objects solutions throughout the company. Today, close to 4,500 employees use Business Objects to improve operations in several departments, including sales, industrial, freight, operations, human resources, financial, and IT. With Business Objects, the airline can predict traffic patterns, manage passenger and freight transports, and has streamlined the corporate BI system to achieve a consistent management strategy for the company.

Allstate Insurance Company

Allstate Insurance Company is the United States' largest publicly held personal lines insurer. BusinessObjects(TM) is the standard Business Intelligence tool across the company. For example, Business Objects is deployed to help Allstate's special investigations unit detect and analyze fraudulent activity. In addition, Allstate has deployed an extranet for all independent agents of a subsidiary company who now have the ability to log-in and review their book of business management reports on a monthly basis. Based on the decision to consolidate reporting tools on Business Objects and create a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence, Allstate has demonstrated significant cost savings.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit health insurer in Kansas City. BusinessObjects XI is the enterprise standard, and the organization uses Business Objects for a variety of reporting needs, with the primary focus to integrate data from finance, human resources, and the claims department. For example, with BusinessObjects XI, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City users can examine claims over time and monitor trends to help its members better manage their health. In addition, BusinessObjects XI users are able to track, understand, and manage detailed patient information in order to help better manage costs. Business Objects has helped reduce report turnaround time. Previously, they relied on IT for reports, but now employees build their own reports, and this has led to over $200,000 of savings annually.

Department of Defense -- TRICARE

The U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) health care system, TRICARE, has implemented a business intelligence solution from Business Objects to plan and monitor execution of its multi-billion dollar annual budget for healthcare system that supports almost 9 million active duty and regular/Reserve retired military members and their families. Business Objects is used by TRICARE headquarters/regional office and Service Surgeon General resource managers to analyze purchasing of pharmaceuticals and other medical commodities, as well as for resource planning/financial forecasting, and budget exhibit displays. Data mining has been effectively used to monitor financial performance from global Military Health System-wide perspective down to individual military hospital/clinic transactions. With Business Object tools, the organization identified more than $40 million of unspent money within the TRICARE budget, which could be used internally rather than being added to a Congressional budget request at taxpayer's expense -- an achievement which was recognized with the DoD (Comptroller) Financial Management Award. In addition to these financial applications, Business Objects is used throughout the Military Health System by thousands of licensed customers, to analyze a wide variety of enterprise to facility level clinical and logistical data.

Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian Railways)

Ferrovie dello Stato, the Italian Railway system, uses Business Objects solutions across the organization, including the finance, operations, marketing, and executive management teams. Specifically, Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato is recognized by Business Objects for its investment control deployment, which is responsible for on-time deliveries, monitoring spending, as well as other business functions. In addition, managers at Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato use an executive dashboard to monitor and improve service levels, as well as integrate all information that the CEO and other top management need to make decisions.

Kohl's Department Stores

A leading department store in the United States, Kohl's operates 732 stores in 41 states. BusinessObjects XI is the enterprise business intelligence standard and is used for inventory management and to monitor direct marketing targets and campaign effectiveness. Kohl's has seen a number of benefits from its business intelligence deployment, including the ability for all of its suppliers and partners to directly access information on sales, inventory, receipts and order information via an extranet. In addition, improved analysis by Kohl's managers has allowed for a better view of sales and inventory that ultimately translates into decisions being made more quickly and at a cost savings to the company.

Sharp Corporation

A $22 billion electronics company based in Japan, Sharp Corporation has 55,000 employees. Business Objects solutions were first deployed in various device-related departments of the company, and have been extended in more than 30 branches and multiple divisions within Sharp, with plans to extend the BI deployment to overseas factories. Business Objects solutions are used to monitor sales results, customer and products information, budgets, sales forecasting, and inventory. Top executives of device-related departments at Sharp access a dashboard powered by Business objects solutions to measure key performance indicators. Executives refer to this as the "one second report viewing" strategic executive portal and can now see sales figures immediately on their laptops each morning. Sharp calculates they have seen 120 percent improvement in sales of devices with improved analysis provided by the Business Objects deployment.

Telefonica Brazil

The leading provider of broadband internet service in Brazil, and a Business Objects customer for more than six years, Telefonica Brazil uses Business Objects in the marketing, finance, billing, and fraud departments to improve customer relationships and overall performance. Using Business Objects solutions, the company is able to obtain a clear profile of its customers so it knows which services to offer its customer base. With Business Objects, the company is able to create new products and offers based on customer behavior, reduce customer churn, create efficient marketing campaigns, and detect fraudulent activity for overall improved performance.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 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 performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and also 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, and Crystal Enterprise 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.

Source: Business Wire

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