V&S Group, the Makers of Absolut Vodka, Selects Information Builders Over Other BI Vendors, as Their Enterprise Business Intelligence Standard

V&S Group, the Makers of Absolut Vodka, Selects Information Builders Over Other BI Vendors, as Their Enterprise Business Intelligence Standard V&S Standardizes on WebFOCUS to Improve Business Efficiencies and Reduce Costs NEW YORK, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Information Builders the leader in enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions and real-time operational reporting, today announced that V&S Group, the makers of Absolut vodka and leading producer and distributor of spirits and wines in Northern Europe, and one of the world's ten largest international spirits companies, has selected WebFOCUS as its corporate standard for business intelligence and enterprise reporting. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020619/IBLOGOhttp://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020904/IWAYLOGO ) V&S chose WebFOCUS over other BI tools based on the software's proven ability to meet all the unique information requirements of an unlimited number of diverse users every day, in realtime. The software will improve global operations and provide accurate and reliable information to an unlimited number of users within the organization and eventually to its extended enterprise -- customers, suppliers, and even business partners. "Although other vendors could empower our users to access and manage their business models," said Goran Francke, senior vice president IT and CIO at V&S, "Information Builders was the only company that delivered the complete, enterprise solution -- one built to cost-effectively scale to meet both current and future reporting requirements." What sets WebFOCUS apart from the competition is its efficient, Web-based architecture and broad set of capabilities for organizing and presenting information, according to Francke. "Information Builders is supplying the single most important piece of technology that we've licensed to restore global business unity -- data access, integration, reporting, and business intelligence," he said. WebFOCUS' comprehensive and fully integrated enterprise business intelligence suite delivers maximum power, performance, and scalability offering the broadest range of features available today. "Standardizing with WebFOCUS will not only save time tracking quality issues from the point of origin, but it will also reduce inventory costs and improve customer order fulfillment," said Francke. "Leading organizations are standardizing on a single business intelligence vendor that can meet the needs of the entire enterprise," said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders. "V&S' strategic decision will facilitate its supply chain management and provide valuable insight necessary to monitor and control supply and demand issues." About V&S Group V&S Group is a leading producer and distributor of spirits and wines in Northern Europe, and one of the world's ten largest international spirits companies. The V&S product portfolio includes both its own brands for local, regional, and international sales, as well as agency products. The Group has operations in 12 countries and sales in about 125 markets. The most important brand is Absolut, the third largest premium spirits brand in the world. The Group has approximately 2,200 employees and sales in 2003 amounted to SEK 9.3 billion. The parent company, V&S Vin & Sprit AB (publ), is wholly owned by the Swedish State. For further information, http://www.vsgroup.com/ About Information Builders Information Builders, a $300 million company, is the leader in enterprise business intelligence and real-time operational reporting. The company's WebFOCUS product -- the industry's most secure and flexible -- is able to meet all the reporting needs of the extended enterprise, ranging from analysts to power users to the widest deployments for hundreds of thousands of users. Additionally, WebFOCUS' empowerment of organizations seeking to leverage all their data by accessing it all -- from legacy to data warehouse -- is unmatched. Information Builders' award-winning technology has successfully provided quality software and superior services for 29 years to more than 12,000 customers, including most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,750 people and has over 350 business partners. Trademarks: This press release refers to numerous products by their trade names. In most cases, their respective companies claim these designations as trademarks or registered trademarks. Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020619/IBLOGO http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020904/IWAYLOGO Source: Information Builders CONTACT: Press - Kathleen Moran of Information Builders, +1-917-339-6313, Kathleen_Moran@ibi.com Web site: http://www.informationbuilders.com/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment