BUSINESS OBJECTS ANNOUNCES SET ANALYZER 2.0

Business Objects, one of the world's leading providers of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, announced general availability of BUSINESSOBJECTS SET ANALYZER 2.0, the newest version of its groundbreaking set-based analysis tool.

Set-based analysis is a new style of business intelligence (BI) analysis that is based on set theory and complements traditional Boolean logic. Business Objects pioneered the market for set-based analysis with its 1998 introduction of SET ANALYZER. Set-based analysis provides an intuitive, powerful way to segment data, simplifies the expression of complex queries, and enables users to track customer movement between segments. Thus, the early adopters of set- based analysis have frequently been marketers performing customer segmentation and customer data analysis for customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

BUSINESSOBJECTS SET ANALYZER enables marketers to segment customer data into "sets" and then share this information with other CRM tools such as campaign management and sales force automation applications to ensure consistent treatment of customers across all touchpoints. A "set" is a customized grouping of specific customers or products such as "good customers" or "most profitable products." SET ANALYZER includes visual selection, step-wise querying, and set-based analysis features that help users decide what questions to ask and how to pose the questions simply and demonstrate clear and simple options for using the results. This process of taking the end users from the initial data collection all the way to measurable action provides consistent data selection, more efficient marketing campaigns, and better measurement of marketing programs.

"SET ANALYZER's set-based approach to selecting data is the key to its ease of use and its reliable results," said Philip Russom, director of business intelligence at Hurwitz Group. "Any business user, even a non-technical one, can quickly learn to apply set operations like intersection to discover product affinities and exclusion to isolate outliers. The results of these straightforward set operations are reliable - unlike the results from cranky data mining algorithms found in similar discovery tools - so users can act on their discoveries with full confidence."

BUSINESSOBJECTS SET ANALYZER 2.0 builds on customer feedback from the existing version, and includes new specific CRM functionality to reflect the tool's increasing usage in CRM applications. SET ANALYZER 2.0 includes a set of pre-built reports called CRM Report Suite, new visual set diagrams, and a new, streamlined user interface to provide the most complete and easy to use set-based analysis tool.

Pre-defined CRM Report Suite gives a jump start to customer analysis

SET ANALYZER 2.0 comes with a collection of 20+ simple pre-packaged CRM reports providing customers with a quick and easy way to start analyzing customer behavior. These reports leverage existing customer investments in Business Objects and provide new customers with a huge lead in acquiring customers, building customer value, and caring for customers to ensure their long-term retention. By purposely keeping the sample reports to a manageable number, Business Objects is providing customers with the most useful reports that present data in a visual format. In making complex analyses simple by presenting the results visually with graphs and charts, CRM Report Suite helps non-technical users get a head start on complex customer analysis and campaign measurement.

"The addition of CRM report suite makes it fast and easy for marketers to start performing the kind of customer analysis that they desperately want to do," said Dave Kellogg, senior vice president of marketing at Business Objects. "With CRM Report Suite, SET ANALYZER easily matches the power what other vendors position as CRM analytic applications and does so at a fraction of the cost."

The sample reports in CRM Report Suite are designed to provide an easy, three-step framework to simplify the process of complex analytics for non-technical users and are structured around major analysis needs of marketing professionals. The analysis process walks users through a simple method of model, segment, and measure to help them understand the customer data, segment the data into actionable groups, and then measure the effect of the marketing actions.

• Model. The model step enables users to get a closer look at their customer data to get a better understanding of data quality and customer behavior, for example to determine buying patterns, dependencies, and affinities among their customer base. Users can interact with their data to generate rules that will predict which customers will belong to a specific segment, for example, "high spending customers." In addition, users can use the model step to understand customer movement, for example, use a churn prediction report to determine reasons that customers might leave, join, or stay in a specific segment. Sample model report types include data quality reporting, recency/frequency analysis, set-based data mining, and contribution analysis.
• Segment. The segmentation reports help users subdivide customers and then carry out specific actions depending on these specific customer groups. Users can then use these segments to personalize web content or to drive the execution of a standard operational CRM application. Sample segment reports include personal profile reports, segment interaction analysis, and segment trend analysis. For example, with segment interaction analysis, a user could track two types of customers with similar characteristics, and then use that information as the basis of a marketing campaign. In this example, a user could compare a set of customers who bought mystery books against a set of customers who bought mystery videos, and then send a promotional discount on videos to the book purchasers to entice them to buy a mystery video.
• Measure. In addition to helping users understand customer behavior and segment customers into actionable groups, CRM Report Suite enables customers to measure the effectiveness of their actions. Sample measure reports include basket analysis, test/control analysis, migration analysis, and repeat purchase analysis. For example, with the migration analysis report, a user could track customer behavior over time, e.g., which customers are moving from "low spending" to "high spending" each quarter to gauge the results of more focused marketing campaigns.

In addition, the sets derived from set-based analysis, such as "good customers," can be used to drive the CRM reports, a statistics tool, or a campaign management tool - any application that accesses and shares the source database can perform analysis based on these sets. This enables users to maximize the investment in SET ANALYZER by sharing the results and applying them to other CRM solutions, thus saving time and ensuring consistent execution and analysis.

Easy segmentation of data with visual set-based analysis

SET ANALYZER 2.0 provides users with features that make it easy to see and interact with the data, resulting in quicker selection of the most focused segment and a faster start to marketing programs. New in version 2.0, set interaction and mapping features give users a clearer picture of the data, including the logic and relationship between sets, crucial features for complex customer analysis.

• Set diagrams. SET ANALYZER includes interactive Venn diagrams - sets represented graphically as a collection of interlinking circles - extending the tool's existing visual selection features. Now users can compare data visually and could, for example, confirm that they are focussing on the right customers for a particular promotion or could discover an opportunity to cross sell products among groups of customers. These visually depicted sets greatly simplify the marketing process, a feature that is particularly useful for non-technical users.
• Inheritance maps and sequencing maps. SET ANALYZER now provides a simpler method of managing sets within the database by providing an easy way for nontechnical users to see the sequence of the data selection to their sets and understand which sets are based on other sets. Extended selection capabilities allow users to perform "fuzzy logic" in their set building; for example, a user could select a set of customers that meets four out of five criteria. This helps users to find the most ideal prospects, especially when too few perfect targets exist, making the selection process simple and highly scaleable.

Improved ease of use with updated, Microsoft Outlook-style interface

SET ANALYZER 2.0 has a completely new interface that is easier to learn as it has the look and feel of familiar technology and is easier to navigate due to its flatter menu structure. This means that more users throughout the organization can quickly get up to speed on segmentation and customer analysis and can use the power of SET ANALYZER to get more from their marketing efforts and customer relationships. In addition, SET ANALYZER shields end users from the complexity of the set-creation and customer analytics technology, enabling non-technical users to perform complex analysis in just a few steps.

Enhanced features provide speed and scaleability for the enterprise

SET ANALYZER 2.0 also includes improved features that underscore its ability to serve many types of applications and large numbers of users throughout an enterprise. These features include an extended security model, an updated fast counting engine, and a new set-processing engine. Usability and performance tests have shown a 10 times faster reprocessing cycle which means that users can track more segments, more frequently, with less resources in less time. In addition, SET ANALYZER 2.0 features a new processing log which allows users to track and chart how segments change to give new insight into customer behavior over time. For example, if a user is able to see how customer behavior changes over time, they can target offers that are more timely and relevant, greatly improving the response rate.

Customer Response

BUSINESSOBJECTS SET ANALYZER is being used by the following companies:

• 3M
• AT&T
• Bank One
• BT Cellnet
• BT Conferencing
• Component Source
• eBay
• Medical Control Agency
• One 2 One
• Orange
• Shell
• SmithKline Beecham
• Telecom Italia
• Tower Publishing

"We have approximately a half a million customers and prospects and have been using SET ANALYZER for a year now. Being able to group, categorize, and analyze data rapidly in a few minutes rather than hours helps us to directly input valuable information back into our core business processes," said Adrian Robinson chief operating officer at ComponentSource, the worlds largest software component community. "SET ANALYZER 2.0, offers greatly enhanced ease-of -use features to help speed up analysis and execution."

"There are several new features in SET ANALYZER that will make it easier for our users to use and understand," said Adrian Daniel, data warehouse decision support manager at One2One. "For one, SET ANALYZER now enables users to see the data represented visually by diagrams; this gives a much simpler way of building a set of information, and enables the users to complete more complex analysis in one easy step. In addition, the improvements to the processing engine provide a significant benefit as our business is dealing with ever increasing amounts of data. SET ANALYZER enables us to more easily and quickly understand our customer base, empowering us to respond pro-actively as a business and manage the customer base more efficiently and confidently."

Availability

BUSINESSOBJECTS SET ANALYZER 2.0 is available immediately on Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Informix, Red Brick, NCR Teradata, and Sybase.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is one of the world's leading providers of e-business intelligence (e-BI) 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 2,268,000 licenses to over 10,900 organizations in more than 80 countries. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

Contact Business Objects, Melissa Biel, 408-953-6105, mbiel@businessobjects.com or Eastwick Communications, Erin McCabe, 408-572- 7204, erin.mccabe@eastwick.com.