Maximal Launches Max 2.0 BI Solution

Maximal Innovative Intelligence Ltd announced the release of version 2.0 of the Max business intelligence software solution, its award-winning client for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 OLAP Services. Max 2.0 offers unprecedented multidimensional viewing and navigation and sets a new standard for the ease and speed with which any decision-maker can get timely information from corporate data.

Maximal's business partner, OS Integration, a beta user, utilized Max 2.0 as part of their innovative retail fraud detection solution. "We chose Max for its ease of use and its ability to effortlessly highlight anomalies in transaction data," said Barrie Pike, Business Intelligence Practice Manager at OS Integration. "Once an unusual behavior pattern has been identified, Max allows our customers to quickly move to a greater level of detail in order to explore potential fraudulent activity and gather information required for effective preventive action."

Since its launch in June 1999, the Max business front-end has carved a strong niche in the Microsoft-centric business intelligence market. Acclaimed by users, industry analysts, and media reviewers for the ease and speed of use it offers non-technical business users, Max has also been cited as a powerful enabler for expert analysts and database administrators.

Commented Bob Moran, Research VP and Managing Director, Decision Support Research, at the Aberdeen Group: "Numerous suppliers of decision support tools continue to focus on deepening the analytical capabilities of their tools. While many of the new improvements to Maximal 2.0 are focused on analytics, Maximal continues to push the envelope with a visual interface that helps users interpret the result. The new version brings a new level of ease of use and greater sophistication to uncovering hidden data within the enterprise."

Max 2.0 builds on this success with tools and features that enable even easier and faster navigation through the data, and by providing greater flexibility and user control. Additionally, Max 2.0 offers enhanced openness, with advanced integration tools and tight integration with Windows 2000.

"We were very pleased with the market response to the first release of Max," said Eran Megiddo, Chief Technology Officer at Maximal. "The tools and features we have added to Max for version 2.0 reflect the input of our worldwide user base and partners, reinforcing our commitment to bring business intelligence to the entire organization."

Max features a unique graphical interface that uses colors and bars to display multiple dimensions (aspects of a business) on a single screen, which makes it extremely easy to spot trends and relationships across multiple dimensions. Guided analysis wizards enable users to find hidden information quickly and easily.

New features in Max 2.0 include enhanced viewing flexibility that allows users to see an unlimited number of dimensions on a single screen, to organize the screen the way it makes sense to them, and to view data from multiple hierarchies in parallel. This enables users to view and analyze as broad a spectrum of data as they need to, easily and quickly, without having to compare multiple separate screens or spreadsheets. Max 2.0 also offers faster performance, exploiting the Microsoft client-side cache and calculation architecture to its fullest to provide near-instantaneous response times.

With a suggested retail price of $495.00 for a single seat, Max 2.0 begins shipping on July 1, and will be available through leading distributors and Maximal business partners.

New Features in Max version 2.0

• Automatic benchmarking for easy comparison of members.
• Advanced exploitation of Microsoft's OLAP Services features, including member properties, multiple hierarchies, and a more comprehensive implementation of Microsoft's calculated member capabilities, together providing enhanced functionality and ease of use.
• Increased openness, with straightforward API and open infrastructure for expanding functionality.
• Windows 2000 compatibility
• Increased viewing flexibility (as described in the paragraph above)
• Faster performance (as described in the paragraph above)

About Maximal

Founded in 1998, privately held Maximal Innovative Intelligence provides powerful, easy to use business intelligence solutions that enable organizations to quickly and easily discover the knowledge hidden in their data warehouses and gain the competitive edge. Maximal is a member of the Microsoft Data Warehouse Alliance 2000 and is a certified Microsoft ISV. The Company is also a founding member of the Analytical Solutions Forum. Maximal is headquartered in Tel Aviv, where it maintains its R&D. Its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Maximal Corporation, provides sales, marketing, distribution, training and customer support in North America. For more information, visit our Web site at www.maxsw.com.

About OS Integration

OS Integration is an Internet Professional Services company delivering services and solutions to European and US organizations. The company's aim is to help its clients leverage competitive advantage and increased shareholder value from the application of information technologies and the Internet. The company has significant expertise in eBusiness enablement, in knowledge management, business intelligence and in the creative design, integration and deployment of complex Web-based business models.

OS Integration's e-nablers methodology fuses practical experience in enterprise IT with business process, strategy and creative expertise to deliver quick-to-market enabling solutions. See also www.os-integration.com.

Contact Maximal Corporation, 11921 Freedom Drive Suite 550, Reston VA 20190, 703-925-5959, info@maxsw.com.