Macromedia and Business Objects Enter Agreement

Business Objects, a world leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, announced a partnership with Macromedia Inc, a leading provider of solutions for compelling and effective Web sites. Macromedia selected Business Objects e-BI technology to embed in the newest version of its Web site analysis solution, Macromedia Aria Enterprise 5.0 software.

Business Objects technology adds online analytical processing (OLAP) reporting functionality to Macromedia Aria Enterprise 5.0 software. The integration will provide Macromedia's e-business customers with more powerful, flexible reporting capabilities including the ability to build custom reports via a drag-and-drop interface, graphing and filtering of data, robust security through authentication and access controls, and the ability to manage reporting on large data sets with many users.

The product integration will allow business users to move beyond basic Web traffic reports to analyze rich real-time information about what is actually happening with their online business. Macromedia Aria Enterprise software customers will benefit from new reports such as campaign ROI for tracking online advertising and marketing campaigns, site and page duration reports, and next click/previous click analysis, data critical for understanding visitor segments, user navigation and content effectiveness for complex, high volume Web sites.

"Our enterprise customer needs are constantly growing and changing as their Web-based business expands and their site traffic increases," said Stephen Elop, senior vice president and general manager for Macromedia. "The integration of Business Objects OLAP capabilities with Aria Enterprise 5.0 enables us to help customers create a better overall site experience for their online audiences, driving visitor retention, ROI, and ultimately the bottom line."

"Many of today's e-businesses are finding they can best retain customers through superior Web-based service and easy site navigation," said Mark Tice, group vice president of global alliances at Business Objects. "We are pleased to provide Macromedia Aria customers with OLAP functionality that will help them create an e-BI strategy that will maximize the return from their online investment."

About Macromedia

Macromedia is passionate about what the Web can be. Its award-winning products empower developers to provide the most engaging experience on the Web, and enable more effective e-business. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia has more than 1,000 employees worldwide and is available on the Internet at www.macromedia.com.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is a world leading provider of e-business intelligence (eBI) solutions. The company coined the term e-business intelligence in 1998 to describe the intersection of business intelligence and the Internet. Using e-business intelligence, organizations can access, analyze and share information in intranet, extranet and e-business environments. In intranets, the company's products provide employees with information to make better business decisions, and are used in environments ranging from workgroups of 20 users to enterprise deployments exceeding 20,000. In the extranet environment, the company is pioneering the use of e-BI in applications that allow organizations to build stronger relationships by linking customers, partners and suppliers via the Internet. In addition, the company's products can improve the performance of an e-business by providing reporting and analysis against the ever-expanding amount of transaction and profile data that is collected each day throughout the world wide Web.

Founded in 1990, Business Objects pioneered the modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a "semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of database systems. Today, the company has sold more than 1,910,000 licenses to over 10,200 organizations in more than 80 countries. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

Contact Steve Ballerini of Macromedia Inc, 415-615-6408, sballerini@macromedia.com or April Newton of Business Objects, 408-953-6350, anewton@businessobjects.com