New York, NY_ April 21, 2005 – NOAD, the leading provider of business intelligence (BI) quality assurance solutions, today announced it has signed a new Technology Partnership agreement with Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ; Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 – BOB), the world’s leading provider of BI solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, NOAD will join the Business Objects Technology Partner Program, and will engage in joint technical, sales, and marketing activities. NOAD and Business Objects have initiated joint development efforts to expand EQM, NOAD’s quality assurance solution, helping existing Business Objects customers quickly and easily migrate from earlier versions of Business Objects software to the new BusinessObjects™ XI platform.
For the last 5 years, NOAD has developed EQM specifically for Business Objects, adding additional transparency and control to Business Objects deployments through advanced monitoring and full life-cycle management capabilities. BusinessObjects XI, the industry’s most advanced and complete business intelligence platform, marks a revolutionary step forward for BI technology.
It is the first and only business intelligence platform that delivers a complete set of market-leading BI capabilities: best-in-class reporting, query and analysis, performance management, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI introduces significant innovations that will benefit new or existing Business Objects customers that migrate to the new platform, by delivering BI in new ways to a much broader set of users.
“This Technology Partnership is a key milestone in our relationship that enables us to better align product development and initiate joint selling and co-marketing activities,” said Andre Grift, CEO and President of NOAD. “As the only BI Quality Assurance vendor, we are excited to be part of the worldwide Business Objects Technology Partner Program.”
According to Gartner Group, Business Intelligence is a top 3 priority on the CIO’s agenda in 2005. The BI market space is experiencing tremendous growth as BI technology is becoming a strategic asset across all industries and is more often recognized as a business process instead of an IT project. NOAD provides the tools and methodology to support organizations’ BI Competency Centers in leveraging their overall BI strategy.
One of the main driving forces for the growth in BI is regulatory compliance, such as Sarbanes-Oxley. For this reason, EQM is used by a successful American premium cable television network, obtaining higher confidence of compliance through better analysis, transparency, consistency and accuracy of information stored in Business Objects reports.
“This agreement with NOAD brings our complementary solutions closer together, providing additional value to customers looking to migrate their existing Business Objects deployments to our new BusinessObjects XI platform,” said Jon Dorrington, vice president of strategic alliances at Business Objects. “NOAD will help customers to deploy BusinessObjects XI quicker and with full control, and further increases the already strong return on investment from our solutions.”
The Business Objects Technology Partner Program is a worldwide program designed to help complementary software and hardware providers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information, visit www.businessobjects.com/partners/.
About NOAD
NOAD delivers world leading business intelligence (BI) Quality Assurance solutions for the enterprise. By effectively monitoring and managing BI deployments, NOAD’s solutions reduce BI control costs thereby improving the return on existing BI investments.
NOAD is the only company to support all key stages of the BI Quality Assurance Cycle – Scanning, Planning, Executing, Controlling, and Supporting – enabling significant improvements within corporate BI performance. Associated consulting and training services ensure effective management and deployment of all projects.
Founded in 2000, NOAD software actively improves BI delivery on an enterprise scale for more than 150 customers in over 18 countries. NOAD solutions have been implemented across all industry sectors including automotive, banking and insurance, energy and natural resources, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.
NOAD solutions are sold directly, and are also available from more than 25 worldwide partners and resellers – supported by an experienced and certified field force of over 80 professionals. More information about NOAD and EQM can be found at www.noadbi.com.
About Business Objects
Business Objects is the world’s leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 29,000 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™ XI, offers the BI industry’s most complete and trusted platform for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports®, the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has also 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.
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Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery 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.
Contact NOAD:
Ferry van Asperen
+31 343 449430
fvasperen@noadbi.com