Financial Watch:

Camstar/Business Objects to Deliver LiveView

Camstar, a leading provider of Collaborative Manufacturing Execution (CME) solutions, announced it has signed an Application Provider agreement with Business Objects to develop and deliver LiveView, an enterprise-wide analytics and reporting solution specifically designed to aggregate and distribute live production information throughout global manufacturing enterprises. Camstar is developing this application based on technology from Business Objects, the world's leading provider of business intelligence solutions, to deliver this valuable component of Camstar's Virtual Factory Suite. This partnership marks an important step in creating a new best-of-breed collaborative manufacturing solution for global manufacturers.

LiveView is a business intelligence platform that manufacturers use to gather and analyze valuable production information throughout the enterprise. LiveView allows real-time information from all production facilities to be easily summarized at any level of the enterprise, allowing maximization of asset return by accelerating the ability to react to changes in the business environment. The solution also provides production reporting tools for customers. LiveView allows any employee to quickly access, analyze, and share reports and perform ad hoc queries within the enterprise database. With each user gaining the ability to create customized reports, the enterprise can devote fewer IT resources toward these time-consuming projects.

"Information is the key to competitive advantage," said Robert Rudder, vice president of business development and solutions marketing for Camstar. "Partnering with Business Objects, the recognized market leader in the business intelligence space, is the best solution for our customers. As part of the Virtual Factory Suite, LiveView allows manufacturing enterprises to expand and extend the value of the live information already collected from their manufacturing facilities."

LiveView gathers and consolidates information from distributed manufacturing plants and processes. Businesses can use LiveView to broadcast information to individuals via the Web, PCs or wireless devices. Company leaders can use these performance reports to make mission-critical decisions.

"The growing number of distributed production networks has highlighted global manufacturers' need for live information from their manufacturing environments," said Bill Robinson, vice president of North American sales for Business Objects. "We are pleased to work with Camstar to deliver business intelligence capabilities for leading manufacturing enterprises. Creating this analytic and reporting application within Camstar's solution ensures that companies have the information to make decisions based on real-time information and maximizes their abilities to react to market change."

About Camstar Systems Inc

Camstar is a leading provider of Collaborative Manufacturing Execution (CME) solutions for global manufacturers. Only Camstar, with customers around the world, enables manufacturers to fully leverage live production information across the enterprise and supply chain. Camstar's Virtual Factory Suite makes the enterprise live by managing multiple manufacturing locations, processes and companies as a single virtual factory. Major manufacturers like Agilent, Amkor, Corning and IBM have joined with Camstar to lead the live revolution. The company is headquartered in Campbell, Calif. For more information about Camstar and the Virtual Factory, call 800-237-2841 or visit www.camstar.com.

Contact Jed Morley of Camstar Systems Inc, 408-559-5700, jedm@camstar.com.

Embarcadero Technologies Expands SQL Server Solutions

Embarcadero Technologies, a leading provider of database lifecycle management solutions, and Lumigent Technologies, a developer of high-availability database tools for critical business platforms, announced they have entered into a strategic relationship that includes joint marketing and selling initiatives.

This relationship involves Embarcadero adding Lumigent's Log Explorer product to its Microsoft SQL Server database management product portfolio. Log Explorer makes direct use of the Microsoft SQL Server transaction log to help resolve elusive application or user problems, quickly and selectively recover data online, and salvage data when traditional recovery techniques fail. The unique data audit, transaction analysis and recovery features of Log Explorer help users meet their goals of ensuring database integrity and availability without incurring run-time overhead costs.

The addition of Lumigent's Log Explorer will allow Embarcadero to extend its existing offering of Microsoft SQL Server solutions to include critical log analysis and data recovery functions. Embarcadero currently offers a comprehensive set of software solutions for Microsoft SQL Server across the database lifecycle, including database design, development and administration.

"Log Explorer brings an important value to Embarcadero customers who cannot afford database downtime or performance penalties when performing business-critical auditing or data recovery functions," explained Raj Sabhlok, CFO and senior vice president of corporate development at Embarcadero. "This relationship with Lumigent Technologies extends our offering to SQL Server customers who require the highest level of database availability and reliability."

"As a financial organization, CyberTrader, a direct access brokerage, is required to audit all access to the database server," said Michael Shannon, CyberTrader DBMS manager. "Log Explorer fulfills this requirement transparently, without consuming additional processing resources. In addition, we have found it useful for reviewing archived transaction logs for auditing and code debugging."

"Embarcadero is known for its award-winning database software and blue-chip customer base," said Stephen Lewin-Berlin, chief operating officer of Lumigent Technologies. "Our relationship with Embarcadero provides customers with a more complete set of products for Microsoft SQL Server management."

About Embarcadero Technologies

Embarcadero Technologies Inc is a leading provider of software solutions that enable organizations to build, optimize and manage databases and applications supporting today's critical enterprise systems. Thousands of customers, including 90 of the Fortune 100, use Embarcadero products to design, develop and administer their mission-critical database applications. Embarcadero Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, call 415-834-3131 or visit www.embarcadero.com.

About Lumigent Technologies

Lumigent Technologies Inc is dedicated to helping businesses protect the integrity and availability of corporate data. Incorporated in 2000, the company is privately held and is based in Concord, Massachusetts (USA). For further information, please contact Lumigent toll-free at 866-LUMIGENT 866-586-4436, or visit www.lumigent.com.

Contact Embarcadero Technologies, San Francisco, Joy Lowry, 415-834-3131, joy.lowry@embarcadero.com.

Fortis Luxembourg Assurances First to Implement Clementine

How can we customize offerings to customers so that they're more likely to respond positively?

That's the question Fortis Luxembourg Assurances expects to answer, with help from data mining software from ShowCase, a leading provider of business intelligence solutions and a division of SPSS Inc. The company is the first ShowCase customer to implement SPSS' industry-leading data mining solution, Clementine. Fortis Luxembourg Assurances, which specializes in insurance products and services, is a member of Belgium/Dutch-based Fortis Group, a global organization with almost $44 billion (USD) in annual revenues.

"We plan to use data mining to develop profiles that will help us understand our customers' needs and preferences, so that we can offer the right products to the right people in the right way," said Christian Adam, IT-Manager at Fortis Luxembourg Assurances. "We selected the Clementine solution because it can handle the large amounts of data we generate and because it works with the ShowCase business intelligence solutions we are already using."

Clementine helps government and business organizations improve customer relationships through in-depth understanding of data. Organizations use the insight gained from Clementine to reduce risk, improve service delivery, attract new customers and retain profitable ones, identify up- and cross-selling opportunities and detect fraud. Clementine also helps organizations better understand how customers behave online, resulting in improved Web site design, increased e-store sales and more effective delivery of online services.

"ShowCase business intelligence solutions -- STRATEGY and Essbase for the iSeries -- currently allow Fortis Luxembourg Assurances to efficiently organize and analyze information," said Pascal Clement, ShowCase vice president, EMEA. "By adding Clementine, the premier data mining solution, they will be able to see new patterns in their information and understand customers in new ways."

Clementine is designed to be easy for business people to use, even if they don't have a background in computer programming or statistics. It is used in a wide range of industries including telecommunications, finance, retail, health care, government and higher education. More than 500 organizations worldwide use Clementine.

"SPSS leadership was confident that ShowCase customers would recognize the benefits of an end-to-end business intelligence solution, including the predictive capabilities offered by data mining," said Patrick Dauga, ShowCase president. "This sale validates that confidence. Our division is pleased to be able to offer our customers the industry's leading data mining solution, in addition to the ShowCase solutions they already know and trust."

About Fortis

Fortis Luxembourg Assurances is part of Fortis, an international financial services provider active in the fields of insurance, banking and investment. With a market capitalization of EUR 44.7 billion and around 70,000 employees, Fortis ranks among the fifteen largest financial institutions in Europe. At year-end 2000 Fortis had total assets of EUR 438 billion (USD 407 billion), and its net profit went up to EUR 2.8 billion (USD 260.4billion).

In its home market, the Benelux countries, Fortis occupies a leading position and offers a broad range of financial services to individuals, companies and the public sector. Outside its home market, Fortis concentrates on selected market segments. Additional information is available at www.fortis.com.

About ShowCase

ShowCase, a division of SPSS, provides business intelligence solutions to help companies around the world discover and seize business opportunities. ShowCase solutions support a wide range of business activities, including budgeting and financial reporting, sales analysis, campaign management, merchandise planning, and supply chain and CRM analytics. They take full advantage of the strengths of the IBM iSeries (AS/400) platform, but also allow customers to draw data from DB2 sources on other platforms, as well as from Lotus Domino, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and others. ShowCase solutions incorporate Essbase OLAP technology, and integrate with solutions from J.D. Edwards, Infinium Software and others. The ShowCase Web site can be found at www.spssshowcase.com.

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 the IBM iSeries/AS400 platform); SPSS MR (for analytical solutions in the market research industry); and SPSS Enabling Technologies (for integration of SPSS technologies in third party solutions through strategic partnerships). For more information, visit www.spss.com.

Contact ShowCase, a Division of SPSS, Jennifer London, 847-685-6514, jlondon@spss.com.