HURWITZ GROUP VALIDATES ACTA TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

A report recently published by Hurwitz Group-a leading research and analyst firm serving the IT industry-validates Acta Technology Inc's packaged approach for staging data for business intelligence from SAP R/3, the leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) system by SAP AG. In its review of multiple software providers, Hurwitz Group ranked Acta, the pioneering leader in enterprise data caching, highest overall. Acta announced the Hurwitz report at the America's SAP Users Group (ASUG) 2000 conference in Atlanta.

The report, entitled "Competitive Landscape for Data Warehouse Solutions in the SAP R/3 Environment," ranked Acta first for the completeness of its available packaged solutions and the ease and completeness of its integration with SAP. The report concludes that "Acta satisfies more requirements-for both packaging of pre-built components and for R/3 data savvy-than any other software vendor in the market segment."

Acta also scored high marks for metadata (impact analysis), and legacy/mainframe data integration. Such integration is becoming increasingly important to eBusinesses as they look for ways to share key historical information both inside and outside the enterprise.

Acta: Quick-to-Market and "SAP Aware"

"Acta has taken a leadership role in producing packaged data solutions that address practical, real-world needs," said Philip Russom, the report's primary author and Director of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence for Hurwitz Group. "With its deep SAP expertise and experience, and its industry-leading packaged approach, Acta has taken the right steps to ensure integration with SAP."

Integrating a data warehouse or other data cache with SAP R/3 is one of the greatest challenges an IT professional can face, due to the large number of hard-to-access data structures in SAP R/3. The Hurwitz Group report discusses each of these, with recommendations for best practices and vendor tools that can assist IT organizations with SAP integration.

"The complexity of SAP data structures makes the data movement requirements extremely demanding," said Russom. "SAP users clearly understand the benefits of packaged solutions designed by experienced, SAP-aware vendors."

The Hurwitz Group report warns companies to be wary of generic tools that force the user to develop their own solution from scratch because of the potential risk, cost and time delays of hand-building solutions for data extraction and movement.

"Companies are looking for vendors who can provide both the expertise and leadership in packaged solutions for all their enterprise information needs," said Acta president and CEO Carol Mills Baldwin. "Our customers, particularly those in the manufacturing industry, have shown us that SAP data is becoming one of the most important-if not the most important-information assets as they mature their eBusiness strategies. Hurwitz Group's recognition of the value of Acta's quick-to-market 'packaged' approach, and its close integration and partnership with SAP, is another very positive endorsement of our leadership in this market."

Acta's provides companies with the first data platform for enabling companies to compete across all channels in the Networked Economy-including eMarketplaces, direct eCommerce, and traditional markets. For eCommerce applications, Acta sells Commerce eCaches, a suite of XML-enabled caches that enable the rapid delivery of data essential for B2B eCommerce. For internal decision support and eAnalytic applications, Acta sells Analytic eCaches, a suite of caches designed for analysis in areas such as sales, costs, accounting, human resources, and inventory. All eCaches are built on ActaWorks, an award-winning data movement-and-management solution (DBMS Magazine: Editor's Choice).

For further information regarding the Hurwitz report, contact Hurwitz Group, 508-872-3344, or www.hurwitz.com.

About Acta Technology Inc.

The Acta eCommerce Data Platform is the solution designed to make enterprise data eCommerce-ready for all channels in the Networked Economy. With Acta's highly scalable data platform, enterprises can maintain a real-time, online dialogue with customers and partners-providing them the critical information they need for transactions and business analysis.

Acta partners with leading vendors offering enterprise resource planning (ERP), front-end eCommerce, and eAnalytic solutions. The company's 140+ customers include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Chevron, Shell, Monsanto, and other leaders in the Global 1000. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Acta has international offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, the Netherlands, and Zurich.

Contact Acta Technology Inc, Giovanni Rodriguez 650-230-4468 grodriguez@acta.com.