Organizations Turn to Information Builders for Business Activity Monitoring Solutions

Combined BI and Integration Capabilities from Information Builders and iWay Software Deliver Unique Value to Extend BAM Across the Enterprise

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2004 -- Information Builders, the leader in enterprise business intelligence (BI) and real-time Web reporting, today announced momentum with its business activity monitoring (BAM) solution across its customer base. Customers around the world are using WebFOCUS and iWay Software for applications ranging from syndromic surveillance to real-time inventory management. Information Builders has a distinct advantage over other vendors in the market because its subsidiary, iWay Software brings extensive integration capabilities to companies deploying BAM across multiple divisions or business units.

Business activity monitoring applies operational business intelligence and application integration technologies in order to continually refine automated processes based on feedback. In addition to auditing business processes, BAM solutions also can be used to alert individuals to changes in the business that may require action and to provide aggregated insight for strategic planning.

The real value of BAM for organizations is the ability to look across multiple business applications and accept events from multiple sources, such as those supporting customer relationships, the supply chain, and sales transactions, so that effective rules can be written that span an end-to-end business process. Coupling iWay Software's range of adapters and integration technology with the reporting and alert capabilities of WebFOCUS, make Information Builders the only vendor that can work in real time across multiple business applications to deliver best in class BAM solutions.

BAM In Action

Businesses can use BAM solutions in a continuous effort to fine-tune operations ranging from claims processing to inventory replenishment. Government agencies can use it to identify and thwart money-laundering schemes or bioterrorist attacks. BAM solutions also can help organizations track and forecast trends, identifying patterns that can lead to more efficient resource allocation.

Syndromic surveillance systems are already in use by Delaware, New York City, Houston, and other state and local governments. These systems leverage Information Builders' WebFOCUS and iWay Software to identify data trends in real-time and aid collaboration across multiple health care facilities, in order to speed response to a potential health care emergencies. This creates an extremely effective first response system, protecting citizens from potential bioterrorism threats.

Pervasive BAM Capabilities

Gartner predicts that business activity monitoring will be among the top four IT initiatives in 30 percent of Global 2000 enterprises. Through advanced integration, intelligent monitoring, and state-of-the-art reporting and alert technologies, Information Builders supplies organizations with all the capabilities needed to build high-powered BAM solutions. Information Builders-based BAM solutions can audit any business process in real time, and propagate information from any information source, including real-time ERP transactions, warehoused data, and business-to-business systems.

"No vendor accesses and integrates as many transaction types and data sources as Information Builders," stated Gerald Cohen, CEO of Information Builders. "Customers using WebFOCUS and iWay for BAM can capture complete transactional and workflow data across applications spanning multiple business units. This streamlines business processes and help people make fully informed decisions."

About Information Builders

Information Builders is the leader in enterprise business intelligence and real-time Web reporting. The company's WebFOCUS product -- the industry's most secure and flexible -- is able to meet all the reporting needs of the extended enterprise, ranging from analysts to power users to the widest deployments for hundreds of thousands of users. Additionally, WebFOCUS' empowerment of organizations seeking to leverage all their data by accessing it all -- from legacy to data warehouse -- is unmatched.

Information Builders' award-winning technology has successfully provided quality software and superior services for 28 years to more than 11,000 customers, including most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,750 people, has over 350 business partners, and generated revenues exceeding $300 million in 2002.

About iWay Software

iWay Software, an Information Builders company and the world's leading adapter vendor, is a market leader in middleware that accelerates business integration. With facilities to integrate systems in real time, near-real time, or on a scheduled basis, iWay provides a complete reusable infrastructure for EAI, B2B, e-commerce, mobile business, and e-government. iWay's experience with complex information systems led to the development of prepackaged intelligent adapters to connect to more than 250 packaged applications, transaction systems, legacy data, relational databases, and e-business formats, without writing custom code. iWay Software integration solutions significantly reduce the time, cost, effort, and risk of integration projects throughout the enterprise.

Trademarks: This press release refers to numerous products by their trade names. In most cases, their respective companies claim these designations as trademarks or registered trademarks

SOURCE Information Builders

Web Site: http://www.informationbuilders.com