San Jose, Calif. - September 24, 2001 - Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJ), the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Owens & Minor, a Business Objects customer, has been named the number one company in InformationWeek’s annual ranking of the 500 most influential and innovative users of information technology. Owens & Minor, a $3.5 billion distributor of medical and surgical supplies, has been recognized by InformationWeek for its pioneering and innovative efforts in "Collaborative Business," which includes a supply chain extranet with its network of customers, partners, and suppliers.

Owens & Minor was one of the first corporations to combine the power of the internet and business intelligence to improve relationships and extend new services to its customers and business partners. In 1998 the company launched WISDOM, (WebIntelligenceâ Supporting Decisions from Owens & Minor), its supply chain extranet which uses WebIntelligence, the business intelligence solution for the internet from Business Objects. Beginning with 12 hospital customers and four suppliers on a pilot project, the application has now expanded to over 130 healthcare systems and several of Owens & Minor’s top suppliers. WISDOM has provided significant benefits to its business partners and competitive advantage to Owens & Minor, and revolutionized the healthcare supplies distribution industry.

"We are extremely pleased to be ranked number one in this year’s InformationWeek 500," said David Guzman, senior vice president and CIO of Owens & Minor. "We have always placed a focus on using technology to deliver innovative service to our customers, and our strong partnership with Business Objects over the years has helped us achieve these goals."

"Owens & Minor has always been a special customer to Business Objects, and we congratulate them for receiving this tremendous honor," said Bernard Liautaud, chief executive officer of Business Objects. "Owens & Minor’s distinction as the most innovative and influential user of information technology demonstrates the power and benefits of using business intelligence to establish collaborative business relationships with your customers, partners, and suppliers."

Using WebIntelligence as its interface to business users, WISDOM allows customers and suppliers of Owens & Minor to use the internet to access, analyze, and share detailed information related to their medical supplies purchasing, inventory, and supply chain. This allows its customers and suppliers to track expenses, manage inventory, and negotiate improved contracts through product and supplier consolidation. For example, a purchasing manager at a large hospital could use WISDOM to view the number of suppliers from whom he or she currently purchases surgical gowns, and consolidate the number of suppliers he or she buys gowns from in order to secure better discounts through volume pricing.

Customers and suppliers are not the only groups to benefit from this supply chain extranet – the customer-focused solution has also contributed to Owens & Minor’s status as one of the top players in the highly competitive medical supplies distribution industry. The supply chain extranet is used as a significant competitive weapon, as Owens & Minor can demonstrate how this solution can help hospitals reduce procurement costs and improve operational efficiency. In the past few years WISDOM has helped Owens & Minor win and retain important customer contracts.

As InformationWeek pointed out in last week’s issue, collaborative business is a hallmark of successful companies. According to the InformationWeek Research Survey of the IT executives from this year’s InformationWeek 500, 97% of the companies on the top 100 of the list say that extranets and supply chains are widely deployed throughout their organization. In addition, 99% of the top 100 responded that they have widely deployed data warehousing products and technologies throughout their organizations.

Starting with Owens & Minor as its first extranet customer in 1998, Business Objects has been helping companies in every industry create collaborative business relationships with their customers, partners, and suppliers. Today Business Objects has over 570 extranet customers, including Caterpillar, Harley Davidson, MasterCard, Penske Logistics, PepsiCo, Principal Financial Group, Sabre, and Zurich Financial Services.

For 13 years, the InformationWeek 500 has tracked the IT agendas of the nation's largest and most innovative IT organizations, providing a unique opportunity to understand and examine their business practices across core areas of operations. To obtain a spot in this annual ranking, companies must demonstrate a pattern of technological, procedural, and organizational innovation. Only companies based in the United States with at least $1 billion in annual revenue may participate. The criteria used in the selection process of the InformationWeek 500 are determined by the magazine's editors.

Business Objects is the world’s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. It helps organizations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings.

The company’s products include BusinessObjects 2000, the industry’s leading integrated business intelligence toolset and platform; and BusinessObjects Analytics, an integrated suite of enterprise analytic applications.

Business Objects pioneered the modern BI industry in 1990 by inventing a patented "semantic layer" that insulates users from the complexity of databases. In 1995, the company was first to focus on enterprise-scale BI deployments and today supports customers with more than 20,000 users. The company moved aggressively to the internet in 1997 by pioneering the market for BI extranets, a market that it continues to lead today. In 2000, the company delivered the industry’s first interactive mobile BI solution. Today, Business Objects continues to innovate, creating and delivering a unique vision for enterprise analytic applications.

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WebIntelligence is a registered trademark of Business Objects.

A full-text copy may be downloaded from the web; access http://www.businesswire.com/cnn and search on "Business Objects." Business Objects product inquiries should contact 800-527-0580.

Press Contact:

Randy Cairns
BUSINESS OBJECTS
408/953-6036
randy.cairns@businessobjects.com

Sherry Lowe
BUSINESS OBJECTS
408/953-6038
slowe@businessobjects.com