THE WORLD BANK IMPLEMENTS MICROSOFT/KNOSYS SOLUTION

Knosys Inc, an award-winning provider of analytic front-end technology designed specifically for the Microsoft .NET Platform, announced that the World Bank has implemented a global economic analysis solution based on the ProClarity Analytical Platform 3.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The Second Generation Live Database (LDB) was designed for economists, decision makers and general business users within the World Bank's 182 member countries. This solution promises to deliver an extremely powerful and customized economic analysis tool for the exploration and comprehension of extremely complex global data.

"The World Bank provides billions of dollars in loans and grants to developing countries and at the end of the day, we need to make sure there is a system in place to measure results," said Christian Petersen, Lead Economist of the World Bank. "We took advantage of the flexibility of the ProClarity Analytical Platform to meet our specific analysis needs and requirements with a powerful analysis solution based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The customized solution allows us to quickly and cost-effectively provide economic analysts with access to up-to-date information for more informed decision-making that meets our ultimate goal of reducing poverty."

The long-term plan is to make available the combined Microsoft/Knosys solution to national institutions, such as ministries of finance, central banks, national statistical offices and others in developing countries. In fact, the Second Generation LDB was developed with their requirements in mind as a means of easily sharing and delivering this best practice to their clients. The World Bank recently approved a grant to transfer this solution to six Southern African countries. The World Bank project was developed entirely on technology from Microsoft Corporation and Knosys Inc including Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Analysis Services, Visual Basic for Applications, Visual Studio 6.0, the Knosys ProClarity 3.0 OLAP Client and the ProClarity Analytical Platform, version 3.0.

"By taking advantage of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and the Knosys ProClarity Analytical Platform, World Bank was able to build a powerful, scalable and cost-effective solution that helps them analyze huge volumes of complex information," said Chris Atkinson, vice president of .NET Developer Solutions Group, Microsoft. "Microsoft is proud that our relationship with Knosys is helping the World Bank to combat poverty around the world."

"The ProClarity Analytical Platform enables economists in the World Bank to get to the data, to explore it and understand it because it is not good enough anymore to simply make the data accessible," said Bob Lokken, president and CEO, Knosys Inc. "You have to help users understand what that data means to their decisions. We are developing custom aggregation algorithms that takes into consideration the fact that some of the data is missing and interpolates values and really gives the user a seamless experience without having to deal with the fact that the data is not always as clean as it should be."

Knosys Inc

Founded in 1995, Knosys is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, ID, with European headquarters in the Netherlands. The ProClarity Analytical Platform provides a completely open, flexible and extensible front-end platform for the development of custom analytical applications around the Microsoft .NET platform, including SQL Server 2000 and Commerce Server 2000. The ProClarity OLAP clients deliver best in class out-of-the-box analytics. Knosys is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and a Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance 2000 Partner. Clients include companies such as AT&T, Compaq, Ericsson, GE Capital, Hewlett Packard, L'Oreal, Nabisco, Nordstrom and Pfizer. Platform OEM customers include: Best Software, Changepoint, Great Plains, Infinium and Manugistics. For more information visit the Web site at www.knosysinc.com.

The World Bank Group

The World Bank is the largest source of development assistance to developing countries in the World. It aims to use its financial resources, its highly trained staff and its extensive knowledge base to help developing countries onto paths of stable, sustainable and equitable growth. The World Bank commits on average $16 billion dollars a year towards this end. It is comprised of 182 member countries with a mission of "fighting poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results."

Contact Angie Mogensen, Public Relations Knosys Inc, 208-344-1630 x133, amogensen@knosysinc.com.