Business Objects and Rapt Form Strategic Alliance to Deliver
Intelligent Procurement Solutions
San Jose, Calif.- March 14, 2001 -- Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, and Rapt Inc., a provider of solutions for Dynamic Commerce Management, today announced an alliance to deliver solutions for enterprises to improve its ability to make direct goods procurement decisions in high risk environments.
As part of the alliance, Rapt and Business Objects will integrate Rapt Buy, Rapt's analytic application for optimized direct procurement decisions, with Business Objects query, reporting, and analytics technologies. The combined offering will provide business executives with the ability to access and analyze Rapt's procurement strategies, and share reports for determining the optimal direct goods investment plan for the enterprise.
"As optimizing direct goods procurement takes more of a center stage role in the enterprise, the ability to effectively manage uncertainty in buying and selling decisions is critical," said Mark Tice, group vice president of global alliance for Business Objects. "Business Objects provides Rapt with the ability to access a customers' business intelligence information and present it in a way that is clear and easy to translate."
"Both Rapt and Business Objects are committed to making enterprises more successful by uncovering opportunities and lost value in the strategic business decisions they make," said Narry Singh, vice president, business development and global trading at Rapt. "The real-time intelligence capabilities that the joint solution provides will allow executives to view the best plan of action for their enterprise."
As part of the new alliance, Rapt and Business Objects will jointly train account representatives and explore joint marketing opportunities. Business Objects will also become a member of Rapt's global alliance program.
Detecting Direct Procurement Risks
Business Objects technologies will enable Rapt to display and present its optimized supply plans, and risk analyses in multiple formats that executives can more easily manipulate. It also allows Rapt Buy users to manage risks in their direct procurement process. Specifically, companies can identify potential supply shortage or financial risks before committing to purchases, thereby enhancing top and bottom line performance.
By coupling Rapt and Business Objects technologies, customers will have powerful insights as they determine how much more they should buy to cover demand without risking costly oversupply. Also, customers will be able to better allocate investment levels to fulfill additional demand. Customers can create ad hoc reports on the fly and drill down on the details of the optimized plan to quickly assess potential business and financial impacts, and to take preemptive action.
About Rapt Buy
Rapt Buy is a web-based application that gives companies real-time intelligence to optimize the procurement of strategic goods. Based on patent-pending analytics, Rapt Buy delivers the most comprehensive framework for managing risk and reward in fast-moving markets. Moreover, Rapt Buy delivers real-time recommendations, enabling users to rapidly analyze the potential effect of various procurement, and negotiation strategies in minutes.
About Rapt
Rapt Inc. is a leading provider of software and services for enabling real-time, risk-optimized buying and selling decisions in complex business environments, and internet marketplaces. Rapt's vision is to define and deliver the e-business standard for pervasive decision intelligence. Rapt's Dynamic Commerce Management solutions represent a new class of technology and services targeting companies that buy and sell high volumes of goods in fast-moving markets. Founded in 1998, Rapt is a privately held, San Francisco-based company funded by Accel Partners, Summit Accelerator Fund, Octane Capital, Sun Microsystems and Chase H&Q, as well as strategic individual investors. For more information about Rapt's solutions, please call 415-284-5800 or visit www.rapt.com.
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.
