Acta Expands Award-Winning B2B Data Platform; Acta eCaches Now Speed Delivery of Data Essential in Two New Functional Areas -- Plant Maintenance and Human Resources.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000

Acta Technology, Inc., which offers the first and only data platform designed to speed the delivery of data essential for business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce and analytic solutions, announced today that it has expanded its platform to help eBusinesses better manage their information assets.

The new products -- Acta's Plant Maintenance Analysis eCache and Human Resources Analysis eCache -- enable businesses to better analyze, interpret and plan activities in two increasingly important functional areas.

"The Acta eCommerce Data Platform is helping Albemarle to better manage itself as an eBusiness by gaining rapid access to specific data for both analytic and eCommerce purposes," said John McChesney, manager of CustomerConnect at Albemarle Corporation, a leading chemical company. "Acta's expanding suite of eCaches is helping Albemarle to add rich and deep understanding in a broad range of areas."

Caching solves major IT problem: back-office systems not designed to meet eBusiness data demands

The Acta platform resolves one of the principal issues in eBusiness today: that back-office systems were not designed to meet the data demands of B2B eCommerce and analytic solutions. Those demands include speed, scalability, and access to both the real-time and historical data locked away in multiple back-office systems.

By staging real-time and historical data from multiple systems in data caches, the Acta platform allows companies to deliver the data that is needed, when it is needed, both inside and outside the enterprise. The Acta platform consists of ActaWorks(tm), an award-winning data movement-and-management server, and eCaches(tm), a suite of packaged data caches that speed the delivery of back-office data in specific subject areas of eCommerce and business intelligence.

With the new Acta Plant Maintenance eCache, corporations can capture and analyze current and historic plant maintenance and equipment information. With the Human Resources eCache, businesses have the ability to capture and flexibly analyze both current and historic HR information in subject areas such as personnel administration, organization deployment, wages and salaries, benefits enrollment, and compliance (EEO demographics).

Using key performance indicators across a variety of dimensions, with drill down access to the detailed employee information, the new eCaches allow businesses to make better decisions in two key functional areas. The new offerings round out Acta's new line of Analytic eCaches, which include Inventory Maintenance, Cost Analysis, Sales Analysis, and AR/AP Analysis (Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable).

Acta also sells Commerce eCaches -- caches designed to capture both the real-time and historical data essential for supporting commercial activity -- for Customer Billing, Customer Order, and Vendor Inventory.

Acta recently won two honors for its work with Albemarle. In June, the Acta/Albemarle implementation won a DM Review World Class Solution Award for Business Intelligence, and more recently the implementation was selected as a finalist for an Intelligent Enterprise RealWare Award (the winners will be announced on August 15).

"The success that the Albemarle implementation continues to gain mirrors the experience of many of our customers," said Acta CEO Carol Mills Baldwin. "The new eCaches add functionality to the Acta eCommerce Data Platform in two areas that our customers need to master in order to compete as eBusinesses."

The Acta platform: combining and caching SAP with other mission critical data

The Human Resources and Plant Maintenance eCaches are designed to extract and package data from SAP R/3, the leading enterprise resource and planning (ERP) system from SAP AG (NYSE:SAP). Acta has maintained a leadership position in moving and managing SAP data for eBusiness. HurwitzGroup, the leading analyst and research firm, recently ranked Acta the No. 1 vendor for managing SAP data.

With the Acta platform, businesses can combine SAP with data from other critical back-office systems.

"With a single data platform for commerce and analytic needs, eBusinesses can bring together all their information assets in an application designed for speed, specificity and accuracy," said Mills Baldwin.

About Acta Technology, Inc.

The Acta eCommerce Data Platform is the first and only solution designed to make enterprise data eCommerce-ready for all channels in the Networked Economy. With Acta's highly scalable data platform, enterprises can maintain a real-time, online dialogue with customers and partners -- providing them the critical information they need for transactions and business analysis.

Acta partners with leading vendors offering enterprise resource planning (ERP), front-end eCommerce and eAnalytic solutions. The company's 140+ customers include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Chevron, Shell, Monsanto and other leaders in the Global 1000. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Acta has international offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, the Netherlands and Zurich. Sales and partnership inquiries should be directed to Acta's toll-free phone number 888/613-3282. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.acta.com.

Note to Editors: eCaches and ActaWorks are trademarks of Acta Technology, Inc. All other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.