WHITELIGHT ANNOUNCES THE INDUSTRY'S FIRST ANALYTIC APPLICATION SERVER; ENABLES A NEW CLASS OF APPLICATIONS THAT SUPPORT INTEGRATED DECISION PROCESSING

WhiteLight Systems, Inc., has announced a new analytic application server that, for the first time, allows large enterprises to build applications that automate the entire process of making complex decisions. Unlike current decision support products that simply publish information or analyze historical data, the WhiteLight Analytic Application Server 2.0 enables applications that allow business users to access critical information, model sophisticated business problems, predict the outcome of decisions, and implement the decisions.

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This set of capabilities makes possible a fundamentally new approach to decision-making called Integrated Decision Processing (IDP). IDP combines flexible data access, powerful business modeling, and multi-variable 'what-if' analyses with process automation and workflow features to produce an end-to-end decision processing system. Analytic applications based on WhiteLight's Analytic Application Server 2.0 support IDP for such complex processes as brand management, portfolio management, enterprise risk management and customer relationship management. In the past, these areas have required a great deal of human intervention and hands-on analysis. The resulting gaps in the decision process led to delayed decisions, which were often based on inadequate data, faulty analysis, and inconsistent business measures. With IDP, these processes can benefit from the kind of automation that operational areas such as accounting and human resources have employed for the past decade.

Strategic Impact to the Bottom Line

"Large enterprises have made significant investments in systems for collecting critical data and automating operational business processes. WhiteLight now extends these systems by using the collected data and automating the analytical business processes," said Tom Berquist, senior research analyst for Piper Jaffray Inc. "Ultimately, we believe that these analytic applications have more strategic value to a company than the underlying transactional applications themselves."

The WhiteLight 2.0 server is the first product engineered to support Integrated Decision Processing. It was developed with input from more than two dozen large customers who have purchased the first version of the WhiteLight server since it began shipping in early 1998. The WhiteLight 2.0 server combines the capabilities of on-line analytical processing (OLAP) tools with the application development, deployment and scalability benefits of traditional application servers.

"The WhiteLight Analytic Application Server is a strategic enabler of success for GEFA or any business," explained Dan Greenshields, assistant vice president, ventures, for General Electric Financial Assurance, both a WhiteLight customer and investor. "We believe Integrated Decision Processing is the wave of the future."

"Innovative companies in finance, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications have purchased and deployed the first version of the WhiteLight server. They have proven that it is the only product that can leverage their data warehouse investments and get them beyond simple report publishing into applications that bridge the gaps in the decision process," explained WhiteLight CEO Dennis McGinn. "With the WhiteLight Analytic Application Server 2.0 we have focused on building up the capability required to make it an even better platform for building these applications."

New Capabilities in WhiteLight 2.0

The WhiteLight 2.0 server introduces significant new features in three areas: a simplified process for creating applications; the ability to link to other systems and processes within the organization; and the ability to leverage and extend existing investments in databases, application logic and client tools.

Drag and Drop Assembly of Analytic Applications

The WhiteLight 2.0 server introduces an innovative approach to creating Web-based user interfaces with the Application Component Environment (ACE). ACE is a suite of Java-based intelligent user interface components that can be dragged and dropped onto any Web page using standard Web authoring tools to create powerful, customized applications. ACE's component approach shifts the power of application development from highly skilled programmers to the business users themselves. For specialized presentation requirements, ACE also includes the Component Development Kit, which allows information technology professionals to easily create new components that can be dragged and dropped by business users.

Universal Data and Client Integration

In addition to its extensive relational database support, the WhiteLight 2.0 server can now access any type of information from any data source, such as a real-time data feed or the Web. This capability, the result of WhiteLight's support for CORBA and MIME standards, allows the server to integrate multiple information sources into a single analytical model. For example, a customer intelligence model could integrate an internal customer warehouse with Web-based information such as analyst reports, credit ratings and graphical maps.

The WhiteLight 2.0 server also supports a range of client connectivity options, including new support for Microsoft's OLE DB for OLAP application interface. With OLE DB for OLAP, major reporting and analysis environments such as Brio, Microsoft Excel and Crystal Info can access all of the WhiteLight server's capabilities.

Interactive Business Modeling

The heart of an analytic application server is the business logic that drives decisions. WhiteLight's patent-pending ActiveRules modeling technology enables business analysts to build repositories of reusable business models by assembling graphical model components instead of the complex programming required by traditional application servers. Now with the WhiteLight 2.0 server, external analytics such as advanced statistics and data mining, can be easily integrated as drag-and-drop model components.

Business Process Integration

The WhiteLight 2.0 server supports multi-user write-back to data warehouses and direct integration with ERP and legacy systems as well as analysis workflow -- linking the outcome of the analysis to the other systems and users necessary to complete the decision-making process. For example, in a financial application, changing a projected value by more than 10% from budget may route an alert to a manager, enabling immediate reaction to changing business conditions.

Availability, Pricing and Platform Support

The WhiteLight Analytic Application Server 2.0 is currently entering beta with general availability by mid-year. Pricing begins at US $50,000. The server will be available on both Windows NT and Unix platforms.

About WhiteLight

WhiteLight Systems, Inc. develops and markets the industry's first Analytic Application Server, the foundation for a new class of applications that support Integrated Decision Processing (IDP). IDP is a new approach to decision making in large enterprises -- combining the process automation of ERP software with the analysis capabilities of OLAP. IDP moves beyond information delivery, and simple query and analysis, to delivering end-to-end systems for automating complex business decision processes. WhiteLight is a privately held company based in Palo Alto, California, with European headquarters in Bracknell, UK. For more information about WhiteLight Systems, visit Web site: http://www.whitelight.com.