Financial Watch:

SPSS Selects Alterian's Analysis Engine

Alterian plc, a leading provider of innovative Analysis Database technology that floated on techMARK during 2000, announces that it has entered into a strategic alliance with SPSS Inc, a worldwide provider of analytical technology.

SPSS provides advanced analytical technology that drives decision-making and improves business performance by profiling and predicting customer behaviour. Alterian provides innovative technology that processes and delivers results to analysis queries on huge volumes of data in seconds.

Under the terms of the agreement, SPSS will integrate Alterian's analysis Engine with its own market leading software products to deliver a high performance option for sale through its extensive worldwide distribution channel.

The agreement is for a minimum of three years and builds on an existing relationship between the two companies.

David Eldridge, Chief Executive of Alterian, said: "The combination of Alterian's innovative Analysis Engine, together with the market leading SPSS advanced analytical tools, will set a new standard in the market for performance and speed in large volume applications. We are delighted to be working with SPSS to enable the development of a range of new modules for distribution through their global sales capability."

Commenting on the relationship, Jack Noonan, president & Chief Executive Officer of SPSS Inc, said: "Alterian's technology can deliver enhanced performance to our high volume users, providing additional value in applications where data volumes are large. We are pleased to be working with Alterian as a strategic partner in the development of our high performance products going forward."

About SPSS Inc

SPSS Inc, headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA, is a worldwide provider of analytical technology for business, government, and higher education. The company's solutions and products enable customers to make better decisions by learning from the past, understanding the present and anticipating the future. With this insight, organizations gain a true competitive advantage: the ability to manage the future. SPSS analytical technology is brought to the market through five divisions: CustomerCentric Solutions (for integrated analytical CRM solutions); SPSS BI (for data mining and statistical products and services used to solve business problems); ShowCase (for analytical products operating on IBM iSeries/AS400 platform); SPSS MR (for analytical solutions in the market research industry); and SPSS Enabling Technologies (for licensing SPSS technologies for use in other analytical applications). For more information, visit www.spss.com.

About Alterian plc

Alterian's analysis database platform and integrated software tools enable the analysis of large volumes of data to be viable both in terms of speed and cost. The resulting information allows organisations to improve their understanding of their customers, products and services. In turn, this enables informed decisions to be made which improve the profitability of their operation. Alterian's data analysis technology can be applied to a wide range of applications from customer and product analysis through to fraud detection and financial markets analysis. Alterian works with business partners to create specialised packages for individual customers and specific vertical end users.

Alterian is focused on providing the de facto software platform for large volume data analysis. Working with key partners including Experian, Vertex, CMG and Dimension Data Alterian is dedicated to creating customised technology that works with existing systems, enabling clients to handle and rapidly process the vast volumes of data available to them. End users include BskyB, Premier Farnell, Trinity Mirror, National Power and the State of Illinois. Alterian is based in Bristol in the UK and Chicago in the US and has recently floated on the techMARK index (July 2000) of the London Stock Exchange.

For more information, visit www.alterian.com.

Contact Luke McKeever, Commercial Director, Alterian Ltd, Tel: +44 (0)117 970 3200, lmckeever@alterian.com.

Brio Teams with IBM to Deliver e-Business Analytics

Brio Technology Inc announced it has teamed with IBM to integrate Brio's analytic software solution into IBM's WebSphere Commerce Analyzer Advanced Edition (WCA/Advanced), IBM's e-commerce product designed for companies using advanced analytics with WebSphere Commerce Suite Pro Edition Version 5.1. This completely integrated solution will be sold through IBM's direct and indirect sales organizations, including IBM's expansive group of Business Partners.

"In today's competitive environment, businesses demand sophisticated, integrated e-business solutions that will help them maximize relationships with customers and partners and optimize their e-business performance," said Jim Kelly, vice president of marketing, at IBM Data Management Solutions. "We are pleased to work with Business Partners like Brio to deliver such industry-leading e-business offerings as WCA/Advanced."

IBM has integrated Brio.Inform, a front-end Web-enabled query and reporting tool, with IBM's DB Universal Database and DB2 Intelligent Miner, which provides advanced business intelligence and data mining capabilities, to create WCA/Advanced. WCA/Advanced is the industry's only out-of-the-box e-commerce product that provides real-time answers to what's driving customerpurchasing decisions. Using WCA/Advanced, a company can easily examine how its customers are using its website and analyze user behavior and buying patterns to help design more effective commerce and marketing campaigns.

"We are thrilled to be building on our long lasting and strong relationship with IBM, by aligning our organizations to deliver strategic business solutions through this worldwide reseller agreement," stated Don Beck, Brio Technology's executive vice president, worldwide sales. "By working with IBM, we are delivering a state-of-the-art solution designed to meet the analytical requirements of IBM customers, enabling them to fine tune and drive their business performance."

With 68 of Fortune 100 companies using Brio solutions, the company has emerged as a leader in the pre-built analytical applications market. Brio and IBM plan to deliver a comprehensive solution, providing an easy-to-use interface for business managers to create dynamic marketing campaigns, product promotions and recommendations, discounts and advertisements -- all targeted at specific customers and prospects.

About IBM Data Management Software

As the foundation for e-business, DB2 data management software is the industry's first multimedia, Web-ready relational database management system, strong enough to meet the demands of large corporations and flexible enough to serve medium-sized and small e-businesses. DB2 data management software combines integrated power for business intelligence, content management, enterprise information portals and e-business with industry-leading performance and reliability to drive the most demanding industry solutions. DB2 data management software together with Internet technology makes information easily accessible, available and secure. There are more than 60 million DB2 users from over 300,000 companies worldwide relying on IBM data management solutions. Additional information on WCA/Advanced is available at www.ibm.com/software/data/bi/wca.

About IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite

IBM's WebSphere Commerce Suite, the first integrated e-commerce solution, provides a wide range of easy-to-use features and functions for content management, relationship marketing, order management, and payment management for all types of Internet businesses, including business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and e-marketplaces. Sites built with WebSphere Commerce Suite can easily integrate with both internal and external systems and grow with the changing needs of an e-business. IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite customers benefit from the functionality of the WebSphere family, which integrates Web commerce, Web application server, Web application development tools, transaction processing and distributed component software from IBM.

About Brio Technology

Brio Technology provides a proven and reliable analytic software platform that enables companies to simplify the complex process of using corporate data to make better day-to-day decisions. Widely recognized as one of the easiest to use and deploy analytic platforms in the industry, the Brio Enterprise Decision Platform expands business intelligence beyond advanced query and analysis technologies to include powerful information delivery through enterprise-class reporting and executive dashboards. Used by more than half of the Fortune 500, Brio products empower individuals, workgroups and executives in an organization to find, access, share, manage, and exchange information with thousands of employees, partners and customers through an Internetenabled enterprise. Founded in 1989, and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, Brio products and services can be found around the globe at www.brio.com.

Contact Mark Peterson of Brio Technology Inc, 408-496-7754, mark.peterson@brio.com.

Dr. Martens Airwair USA LLC Selects Comshare

Comshare, Incorporated announced that privately owned, Oregon-based Dr. Martens Airwair USA LLC has chosen Web-based Comshare software for management planning and control (MPC). The U.S. arm of parent company R. Griggs Group Ltd in the United Kingdom distributes world-famous Dr. Martens patented air-cushioned sole shoes in North, Central and South America. The company is implementing Web-architected Comshare MPC software to integrate Dr. Martens' planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis functions into a single application, using a centralized Microsoft SQL Server database. The Comshare application will allow Dr. Martens' management team to be more proactive, make more informed decisions, and better manage the company's growth. To be implemented in stages, Comshare MPC will be available to all users via the Web and grow to include the company's geographically diverse distribution sites.

"The Comshare system has helped our budgeting and forecasting process immensely," says Martin Buckley, controller, who is responsible for management reports for Dr. Martens' senior management team and the parent company. In addition, he handles budgeting and forecasting for all departments and divisions, while also managing the company's exchange rate risk. "We're constantly looking at ways to make the company better and more efficient," says Buckley. "Comshare has helped us get information to managers on a more timely and efficient basis. It has improved our reporting process and has enabled us to spend more time analyzing rather than rekeying. Using the product's built-in analysis capabilities, we have set goals for how we should be handling our information for the foreseeable future."

The Challenge

For years, Dr. Martens used a combination of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and its JBA enterprise resource planning (ERP) and general ledger systems to handle budgeting, forecasting and reporting requirements. "We were completely Excel-driven," remembers Buckley, "and our ERP system's reporting capabilities didn't meet our needs. The old methods were completely inflexible and left us unable to do ad hoc analysis. It was impossible to look at a trend over three or four years because we had to pull up four or five different spreadsheets. We tried to link them all and, if we forgot something along the way, we ended up getting misleading information," admits Buckley. "We were growing so quickly by divisions, departments and people that we just needed a solution that could help us handle all of that growth."

The Solution

After a rigorous selection process, the solution for Dr. Martens was Comshare. "The Finance and Administration team put together a comprehensive list of our needs, then looked at different companies we thought could satisfy those needs. Candidates included Hyperion, Oracle, Adaytum, SRC and Comshare. The company we chose needed to be professional and interested in building a partnership with us. At the end of our search, we chose Comshare," reports Buckley. "Comshare is a progressive company and a leader in the business. It's definitely on the cutting edge of business planning and management software."

Comshare easily met the requirements put forth by Dr. Martens' finance team. "The new system had to be Euro-compliant and capable of handling multiple currencies. It had to be robust, allowing us to slice-and-dice information as we needed it -- and it had to be ready to go on the Web. Finally, we wanted a company that was progressing rather than regressing. We felt Comshare met our needs in all of these different areas," reports Buckley. "We felt that we meant something to Comshare, and that was important to us," affirms Buckley.

The Benefits

When asked about the major business benefits of the system, Buckley is quick to respond. "I would say a number of things -- more accurate information, quicker turnaround, the ability to analyze the information and to see the relationship of many years of information all at once, a reduced budgeting cycle and a budgeting process that is more participatory, to name a few. And, with Comshare, we've eliminated the majority of our reporting problems. That makes everybody happy here," confirms Buckley.

"Having all the data in a single database has enabled us to get at information we hadn't been able to in the past. We export data out of our ERP system and after some data cleansing, it is loaded into the database and we're ready to go," attests Buckley. The fact that Comshare software runs on mainstream database technologies has also made a difference for Dr. Martens. "We use Microsoft SQL Server with our Comshare application because it was the most efficient and cost-effective solution available, compared to some of the other options that were out there. And it has worked very well," says Buckley.

"With the new Comshare system, we have eliminated those problems that come when you enter things manually -- the time consumption and the proneness to error," says Buckley. "It's definitely given us what we need and it has the capabilities to give us what we're going to need." And Comshare's professionalism and business acumen have continued to play a significant role in Dr. Marten's decision. "Our Comshare consultant has been superb. He has a great finance background and knew very quickly what we were looking for -- that has definitely helped," comments Buckley.

Buckley envisions changes that the new system will bring to decision-making at Dr. Martens. "We budget once a year, after many versions, and we reforecast three times a year. We may be increasing the number of times we reforecast so that we have a better idea of cash flow and our business needs, rather than waiting every quarter -- and again, Comshare can help us do that."

Buckley also praises the system's web architecture and what that will mean at Dr. Martens. "We try to open the budgeting process up to participation as much as possible and that's one of the reasons we've initiated going on the web -- to get managers more involved, more in tune and more accountable for their financial information. Going on the Web gives the Finance department, and eventually all users, time to analyze rather than collect information and that's exactly where I want to take the information users of Dr. Martens," declares Buckley. "Our goal is to get relevant information to the right users -- Comshare is going to help us reach that goal."

About Comshare

Comshare, Incorporated is a leading provider of e-business software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which integrates planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare's applications deliver business-critical information over the Web that can be used to make sound planning and management decisions. In business for 35 years, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Gold Certified Software Partner, Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner, an Oracle Business Alliance Partner, and a Hyperion Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send e-mail to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare's Web site at www.comshare.com.

Contact Sandy Ellinger of Comshare Corporate Communications, 734-769-6194, sellinger@comshare.com.