Friends University Selects Information Builders' WebFOCUS Over Other Business Intelligence Platforms

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - August 15, 2007) - Information Builders, the leader in production business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Friends University has selected Information Builders' WebFOCUS as the BI platform for university-wide business intelligence and reporting.

Located in Wichita, Kansas with facilities in Topeka and Lenexa and courses offered throughout the state, Friends needed a way to extract insight from their Banner software and deliver business intelligence to users throughout the institution to improve decision-making.

"After reviewing packages from Argos, Oracle, Cognos, and Microsoft Reporting services we decided on WebFOCUS," said Cynthia Jacobson, director of IT Business Services at Friends University. "It was very evident that WebFOCUS was a mature information delivery platform and the capabilities were years ahead of the competition. We recognized that Banner offered a lot of advantages for our university, but we needed a business intelligence platform to deliver those benefits."

It was WebFOCUS' flexibility and ease of use that initially won over the university's selection committee. "We were impressed with WebFOCUS' structured ad hoc capabilities and how we could deploy flexible reporting templates without training," said Jacobson. "In addition, we recognized that the mature report development platform would allow us to develop complex reports without programmers."

The ultimate deciding factor, however, was Information Builders' unwavering commitment to a successful BI deployment. "We were impressed with Information Builders' approach, broad higher education and corporate base, and local customer references," said Kelley Dawson, associate vice president of Administration and Finance at the University. "The culture of Information Builders is different. They helped us understand the benefits and risks, and demonstrated a detailed success plan, which outlined how we could achieve our goal. In the end we made a decision on the vendor and not just the tool. It is reassuring when you purchase a top-notch product from a vendor who demonstrates a commitment to our success, and has the experienced people to back it up."

"Information Builders is proud to see Friends University harnessing the power of business intelligence," said Gerald Cohen, CEO of Information Builders. "Education is the cornerstone for success. This is a great example of how technology has empowered the university to reach a new level of understanding of its data."

About Friends University

For more than 100 years, Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, has been providing a Christian-based, liberal-arts education for students of all ages and denominations. The University remains committed to its core curriculum -- the arts and sciences. A broad-based education -- one that truly expands the horizons and frees the mind -- is our goal for every student. It is also expressed in our commitment to teaching and to the personal growth of each Friends University student. As a nondenominational Christian university, Friends incorporates learning within the context of the Christian faith.

About Information Builders

Information Builders' award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30 years. WebFOCUS is the world's most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the security, scalability, and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises. Its simplicity helps create executive, analytical, and operational applications that reach dozens to millions of users. Information Builders subsidiary iWay Software provides state-of-the-art, multi-purpose integration engines that address all SOA, application, data, and information management requirements. Its integration adapters have been adopted by the leading software platform providers. Together, these products give Information Builders' customers the ability to live up to the company motto: Your business. No Barriers.

Information Builders' customers include most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,600 people and has more than 350 business partners.

Contact Information: Press Contact: Kathleen Moran Information Builders (212) 736-4433