SAFFRON TECHNOLOGY DEBUTS SaffronOne

Saffron Technology, a company that seeks to redefine how people interact with data, announced commercial availability of SaffronOne. A Java-based core technology, SaffronOne leverages proprietary associative memory and compression technologies, avoiding existing knowledge management and personalization scaling limitations to enable employees or customers to make better decisions in real time.

SaffronOne integrates with any Java-enabled IT platform to observe interactions between people and computers, locate experts in the context of user needs, and then use that information to predict relevant and accurate outcomes. SaffronOne participates with the user to accomplish tasks through intelligent dialog which helps to refine input and resolve uncertainties. SaffronOne translates complex nonlinear processes into a highly compressed space that can be both read and written to in real time, providing users with the power and scalability of human associative processes, and the capacity, speed and clarity of digital recall. Its compression capabilities allow SaffronOne to be scaled up to Internet populations or down to handheld wireless devices.

Because SaffronOne learns about user behavior and preferences in real-time, it is one of the first systems of its kind to eliminate the need for constant system upgrading; for file maintenance; and for the exhaustive categorization of online catalogs or databases that have traditionally prolonged the implementation process for knowledge management and e-Commerce personalization systems.

"I have been in this busness of figuring out how to represent knowledge assets using the mathematics of learning and technology of agents for 20 years, but we've finally made a breakthrough," said Manuel Aparicio IV, Saffron co- founder and chief technology officer. "Our key differentiator is SaffronOne's associative memory, which enables applications to interact with users in a more intelligent and effective way. Saffron's associative memory makes it possible to observe and learn from individual behaviors in real time, assigning unique attributes to individuals and taking personalization to a new level. Our compression technology allows Saffron-enabled systems to scale up smoothly to million-plus inventories and complex data libraries where multiple product attributes are a fact of doing business."

"SaffronOne is a technology that learns what people do and shares what people know," said Saffron CEO and President James Kessler III. "Our early customers tell us that they have been most impressed with the accurate results SaffronOne returns in real time, and the sheer amount of data it can handle. Ultimately, we believe SaffronOne will enable a more human way of computing."

SaffronOne at Work

FedCenter.com is an early Saffron trial customer with significant scalability requirements. Headquartered in Herndon, Va., FedCenter.com is the world's largest business-to-government electronic marketplace designed exclusively for government buyers. The company's online catalog lists more than 18 million products, from office supplies and electronics to exercise equipment. Each product has an average of 32 features and thousands of customers. FedCenter.com sought a platform capable of linking product attributes with user requests in real-time, remembering what users are buying and allowing easy access to that data without having to categorize thousands of products. FedCenter.com wanted to be able to give customers true one-to-one online experiences and required high scalability to handle high data requirements and easily integrate new product offerings.

"As we've been testing SaffronOne, we have seen a positive difference in the way a consumer would interact with our online marketplace," said Tony Bansal, president and CEO of Digital Commerce Corporation. "We anticipate that our government buyers will be able to find what they are looking for faster and will continue to have an easier e-purchasing experience. We're relieved to have found a solution to what could have become a challenge for our online marketplace."

Additional SaffronOne customers include Batanga, of Greensboro, North Carolina, the leading Web-based radio station for Latino listeners; Veridian, of Arlington, Virginia, a world leader in information assurance and critical infrastructure protection for government and commercial organizations, and EnCabler, of Bradbury, California, the leading developer of personalization tools for interactive television applications.

SaffronOne Key Benefits

SaffronOne affords fast-paced knowledge management and e-Commerce environments the ability to realize a return on investment quickly with:

• Lower cost from lack of rules: since SaffronOne is not rules-based, there are no writing rules, authoring decision trees, off-line batch training and other requirements; this results in lower cost of ownership and greater knowledge accuracy
• Real-time analysis: without the need to extract marketing information from a huge data warehouse, SaffronOne delivers answers in real time
• Greater site "stickiness": SaffronOne enables an application to ask users intelligent questions, help accomplish goals quickly and efficiently, and keep them coming back
• Measurable results: with the ability to reduce pages per transaction and cost per transaction, SaffronOne provides a snapshot of the true efficiency of a service
• Security and Privacy Support: through its mediator protocol which respects individual knowledge, SaffronOne supports fine-grained access control

SaffronOne System Requirements

SaffronOne is a Java toolkit which contains everything necessary for integration. The primary components of the toolkit are Java program components, documentation, examples with source code, and default implementations for back-end integration. Minimum hardware requirements include:

• 150 KB free space for runtime images
• 1 MB for example code and documentation
• 500KB or more per user for associative memory

SaffronOne is a pure Java implementation, and will run on any Java-enabled operating system, including Windows, Solaris and Linux. JDK level 1.1.7 is the minimum recommended level. For a personal demonstration of SaffronOne, please contact Nick Pilos of Saffron Technology at 919-468-8201 or npilos@saffrontech.com.

About Saffron Technology

Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C., Saffron Technology leverages proprietary associative memory and compression technologies to redefine how people interact with data. Like the spice for which it is named, Saffron Technology offers a compact and concentrated solution that yields a rapid and dramatic transformation of any context to which it is added. SaffronOne, the company's core technology, observes interactions between people and data, locates experts in the context of user needs, and uses that information to predict relevant and accurate outcomes. Its fast delivery of accurate results helps employees or customers make better decisions in real time. Saffron Technology is privately held. For more information, visit www.saffrontech.com.

Contact Saffron Technology, Mariea Noblitt, 919-468-8201, mnoblitt@saffrontech.com or Citigate Cunningham, Brooke Selby, 617-374-4248, bselby@cunningham.com.