Leading Edge R&D:

DECISION SUPPORT DONATES DATA ACCESS TOOLS TO UNC CHARLOTTE

Decision Support Inc, innovator in disparate data integration, reporting and decision support tools, announced that it has made a substantial donation of data access software to the University of North Carolina -- Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) College of Information Technology. Decision Support's gift to the university, valued at over $600,000, includes key components of DQpowersuite, the company's flagship data access product, which provides an easy-to-implement architecture that makes all of a company's business data look and act like it is contained in a single relational database, including non-relational legacy data.

Dr. Mirsad Hadzikadic, dean of the recently established UNC Charlotte College of Information Technology, said, "We are very pleased to receive Decision Support's donation of highly efficient data access and joining software. We will utilize the donation in our Software Solutions Lab, which provides the University and the Charlotte business community with world-class information technology services. The DQpowersuite tools will enable graduate students to work with databases and data mining to create leading edge solutions for hypothetical and real-world business problems. Our next step will be to incorporate it into our undergraduate classrooms." The Dean continued, "DQpowersuite provides powerful, state-of-the-art data access tools that can open up new possibilities for our students working with data access challenges."

Decision Support CEO Herb Verbesey said, "Decision Support is very pleased to support the UNC Charlotte's award-winning College of IT. We understand the value of providing leading-edge data access tools to train the next generation of IT professionals. Dean Hadzikadic has done an outstanding job of setting up the College of IT, and we look forward to continuing to support the school's ongoing growth and success."

The school received Decision Support's DQbroker server software for Microsoft NT, Sun Solaris, and Linux platforms, an enterprise data access and extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) tool. Also included were:

• DQview - a Microsoft Excel plug-in that allows users to create and embed enterprise queries directly in Excel spreadsheets.
• DQvista - a powerful, Web-based reporting tool that enables users to access data from anywhere in the extended enterprise and organize, analyze and report it in a format that characterizes the business operation, then deliver results to other users via disk, browser, e-mail, Excel file or wireless device.
• DQtransform server software - allows development of data marts and data warehouses. Its virtual enterprise tables enable fully functional, virtual pieces of a data mart or data warehouse to be staged without the risk or cost of a large-scale data warehouse project. Decision Support also provided the school with key access licenses for Oracle; SQL Server; ODBC; Informix; Sybase, and DB2 databases.

Hadzikadic added, "Decision Support's gift extends well beyond supplying software. I consider them a strategic partner. They have been very supportive of our programs, and we feel that we have a friend on the business side that understands the value of the College, and how we can add value to their company and to the greater business community. Our partnership with Decision Support is a really wonderful example of how the College and the business community come together in mutual support."

About the University of North Carolina at Charlotte College of IT

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte established the College of Information Technology and made the Department of Computer Science a unit of the college in July 2000. It is the first college in the Carolinas solely devoted to the study and advancement of information technology. The college is multidisciplinary in nature and has attracted the interest of companies and IT professionals from around the country. The university's first Ph.D. candidate in IT graduated in December 2000. In March of 2001, the College of Information Technology at UNCC was named a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency, a division of the Department of Defense. For more information, visit www.cit.uncc.edu.

About Decision Support Inc

Decision Support Inc provides cross-platform data access tools, and reporting and decision support software and services to a worldwide customer base comprising manufacturers, banks and credit unions, healthcare providers, and government agencies. Its latest generation of browser-based reporting solutions incorporates the DQbroker enterprise data access technology developed by Metagon Technologies that enables users to view, modify, and join disparate data in real time, and provides on-demand queries as well as standard scheduled reports. Decision Support is headquartered in Matthews, NC. For more information, visit www.decisionsupport.com or call 704-845-1000.

Contact Grace Cohen of Demaree Public Relations, 603-428-4411, gcohen@demaree-pr.com.