WAREHOUSE WORKBENCH - THE FIRST DATA MOVEMENT AND TRANSFORMATION TOOL FOR UNDER $1,000 - IS INTRODUCED BY SOLONDE

FREE advanced technology software easily enables the extraction, transformation and loading of data, benefiting the widest range of users in companies of all sizes

Hamburg, Germany, August 20th, 2002 --SOLONDE (solutions on demand) today announced the availability of Warehouse Workbench (WWB) Version 4.95, the first data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) product for under $1,000. A free version, in addition to a 14-day trail version of the full product, is available at www.solonde.com.

"The marketplace will be served well by a low-cost, high-value product that enables a far greater range of companies to benefit from data warehousing," said Bill Inmon, author and the industry renowned `Father of Data Warehousing'. "Warehouse Workbench makes it possible for firms to quickly and easily gather and standardize data from different sources, at a fraction of the price they have been expected to pay up until now. Mid-size and smaller enterprises need the insights that data warehousing provides as much as larger companies do."

The product will join SOLONDE's flagship product, ExtractOnDemand for SAP, as another solution that will be distributed and supported by a compressive on-line web experience.

"We intend to dramatically change the market and bring the power of these tools to a far wider range of companies," said Gerrit Kolb, SOLONDE's founder and CEO. "For too long, this kind of software has been available only to companies willing and able to part with large sums of money for products whose complexity was restrictive. The free availability of Warehouse Workbench breaks the rules forever," Kolb added.

Warehouse Workbench is typically used to move and integrate data between multiple data environments so that it can be used in reports, spreadsheets and databases, as well as in operational and business intelligence applications. SOLONDE's decision to offer the software at no charge is a dramatic departure from industry norms, where comparative tools can routinely cost upwards of $40,000. Those tools have also traditionally been highly complex to install and use, representing another barrier to widespread acceptance and use.

The Warehouse Workbench "Free Edition" is one of three versions of the software available through the company web site. The other editions (Standard and Extended) are also available, each offering progressively more power, speed and functionality for individuals and companies with broader requirements.

The full range of Warehouse Workbench software, running on Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP, is compatible with virtually all of today's commonly used business databases, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix and others. Warehouse Workbench offers unparalleled ease of use with benefits such as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) real-time data visualization during transformation design--a feature not available in any competing product at any price.

Availability and Pricing

All editions of Warehouse Workbench are available immediately for download at www.solonde.com

About SOLONDE

SOLONDE, founded earlier this year, develops and markets next generation data management products that are extremely powerful, simple-to-use and so affordable that they can be used by an unprecedented number of technical users in small, medium and large businesses alike. All their products can be downloaded, purchased and supported over the internet, with users only having to purchase the functionality they need, when they need it.

SOLONDE was founded by the creators of the first distributed-engine driven data transformation architecture - award winning data integration technology that was marketed to large-scale corporate customers. ExtractOnDemand for SAP is the first product to be released by SOLONDE earlier this year.

SOLONDE provides data management products that are

  • affordable - starting with fully functional free and trial versions.
  • leading-edge - developed with, and supporting the latest available technologies and standards.
  • modular - enabling purchasing of the functionality that users need when they need it.
  • available 24x7 - products and support are available through the internet.

Key Product Features & Benefits

Warehouse Workbench provides dozens of technical features that increase the usability, power and control of the data transformation and analysis tasks.

Transformation Features/Benefits

  • While Live Data-Visualization ensures usability, accuracy and speed, all processes are predefined and repeatable, dramatically accelerating development times.
  • Simple data transformation can be extended and enhanced with additional features for more powerful, yet easy, data manipulation using the Universal Transformation Language (UTL). Hundreds of pre-defined functions facilitate easy transformation design and output
  • The RunTimeManager provides total control of the management, scheduling, execution, auditing and analysis of the transformation process. Powerful calendaring facilities enable the scheduling of processing. Email integration allows remote communication of completion, warnings, errors and status, allowing for intervention if required.
  • The UTL debugger saves time and ensures data accuracy by checking construction and syntax, and then reporting errors.
  • "Fast cache" lookup technology enormously increases access speeds across multiple data sources, while the intelligent Update Strategy allows updating of existing data sources with only those records that have changed. Aggregation and 1-n Splitting simplify the task of generating summarized records in the right format.
  • External commands (function calls) to C++ or any other language allow valuable integration with companion applications. Also, pre- and post-SQL routines can be merged before and/or after the transformation processes to extend transformation requirements.

Analysis Features/Benefits

  • Dependency and impact analysis functionality reveals dependencies between various objects and reports on what impact changing a particular object will have on other objects.
  • Performance analysis monitors all processing, detecting problems more quickly--allowing faster recovery and overall faster results.
  • Automatic documentation is provided from the open repository that records all business rules, database structures and processes. Metadata in the repository can be used and exchanged with other systems.


SOLONDE, Inc. is a Delaware Corporation incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware.
SOLONDE AG is a German Corporation incorporated in Hamburg, Germany.

© SOLONDE, 2002. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

For more information:

Brian Coleman
SOLONDE, Inc.
408 -393-7716
Wendenstrasse 493, 5. Etage Hamburg
btc@solonde.com