Award Winning Customers Look to Business Intelligence to Keep Profits Growing
San Jose, Calif. - April 25, 2001 - Owens & Minor, a national medical supplies distributor and Fortune 500 company, is a Business Objects success story. So is Zurich North America, and the State of Wisconsin. All three organizations have something in common. They are cutting costs, increasing profits, attracting customers, and winning awards with Business Objects, the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions.
Owens & Minor: DM Review 2001 World Class Solution Winner
Owens & Minor was selected from a field of 38 finalists for the DM Review World Class Solutions Award in the business intelligence category. The award recognizes an initiative based on business benefits derived from the implementation and innovative use of technology to solve a business problem. The company was recognized for its deployment of the WISDOM extranet powered by WebIntelligence®, the integrated query, reporting, and analysis solution for the web from Business Objects. Owens & Minor credited WISDOM (WebIntelligence Supporting Decisions from O&M), as the reason it secured a $150 million/5 year deal with Baylor Health Care System, a deal estimated to bring in $30 million dollars annually in sales revenue. It has also helped Owens & Minor generate $60 million in new business. WISDOM, an innovative supply chain extranet that allows customers and suppliers to access and analyze information on their buying and selling of products through the company, is powered by WebIntelligence®, the query, reporting and analysis solution for the internet from Business Objects. With WISDOM, partners can get a better handle on inventories, costs, and shipping times.
"We are very pleased that DM Review has selected the Business Objects implementation at Owens & Minor, and that we have been recognized as a world class solution in the business intelligence category," said Dave Kellogg, senior vice president of marketing for Business Objects. "Everyday, Owens & Minor proves that using business intelligence can help manage costs, and bring in new customers, in a time when companies are cutting costs and watching their pennies."
Zurich North America: ComputerWorld Premier 100 IT Leaders Winner
Zurich North America is also staying financially strong in these tough times by using Business Objects to improve customer relationships, save money, and gain a competitive advantage. Zurich, a $6.2 billion insurance and risk management corporation, launched RiskIntelligence, the first customer care extranet in the risk management marketplace. Zurich estimates it has saved up to $400,000 per year with RiskIntelligence. The extranet is powered by WebIntelligence®, and has been such a huge success that Zurich has expanded it outside the U.S. to the global marketplace. Recently, Frank Colletti, director of e-business at Zurich, and the lead manager of the RiskIntelligence project was selected to the Premier 100 IT Leaders list by ComputerWorld Magazine.
State of Wisconsin: ComputerWorld IT List and ADT 2001 Innovator Award Winner
Joining Colletti on ComputerWorld's Premier 100 It Leader's list is Wayne Thompson, chief, decision support systems for the State of Wisconsin, a Business Objects customer. State of Wisconsin received an honorable mention for Application Development Trends (ADT) Magazine's 2001 Innovator Award for its implementation of the Medicaid Evaluation and Decision Support (MEDS), a data/warehouse support system development by the Department of Health and Family Services and built on BusinessObjects™. The system provides faster access and improved information to help manage $2.7 billion in health programs, which helps Wisconsin look at where money is being spent, and track benefits residents receive.
"e-business intelligence is an important strategic maneuver for the tough times ahead," added Kellogg. " Companies who count themselves among the e-business intelligent will prosper by having a daily dashboard view of how their company is doing. They will stay in control when it is important to watch spending closely."
Read the Book: How to Win with Business Objects
In these tough financial times, it's important to have one guide you can rely on to keep your business on the right track. Bernard Liautaud, president and CEO of Business Objects, has written the one, must-have guide for managers who want to take their company to the next level. Liautaud wrote "e-Business Intelligence: Turning Information Into Knowledge Into Profit," to help business leaders across the globe use e-BI to achieve success in the information economy. Now, more than ever, businesses need to extract the maximum value from their information assets.
About Business Objects
Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 35,000 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 performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports®, 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.
