Actuate 7 Gives Business Users Immediate Insight without Sacrificing IT Control.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2003

Actuate Delivers the Industry's First Ad-hoc Query and

Server-managed Spreadsheet Reports that Require Zero Training

Actuate Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTU), the world leader in empowering enterprise users with Information Applications, today announced Actuate 7, an Information Application Platform that provides business users with direct access to enterprise information while enabling IT managers to retain control over security, data integrity and IT infrastructure performance. Actuate 7 is the only solution that allows business users to execute ad-hoc queries and create server-managed spreadsheet reports with no additional training or software downloads. Actuate 7 improves enterprise productivity, eliminates multiple versions of the truth within an organization, and enables better business agility -- all at the industry's lowest TCO.

The demand for companies to provide timely, accurate information to users throughout the enterprise and beyond has significantly increased due to the institution of new corporate governance policies and the need for businesses to operate with agility. Organizations need to empower business managers and executives with self-service technologies that allow them to instantly query current sales revenues or create interactive spreadsheet reports within minutes. But today, only 5-10 percent of enterprise users have direct access to the information they need because traditional Business Intelligence solutions require extensive training, additional software downloads and are costly to implement on a wide scale. According to Giga Information Group, Analytic reporting tools appeal to only a small percentage of all possible enterprise users -- Giga estimates no more than 5 percent of the enterprise will use these tools. (Giga Information Group, Selection Criteria: Analytic Reporting, Sept. 30, 2002.)

"A large part of our business is managing claims data for insurance companies through our Web-based ClaimSuite portal," said Cindy Reid, manager of risk management reporting systems at Corporate Systems. "It's critical that we have a secure and personalized system for distributing reports to various clients. Actuate's Information Object Designer will give us the control to pre-define complicated calculations and make this information readily available to our clients. We anticipate that Actuate's Information Objects will help us cut down on development time and help us meet regulatory requirements such as HIPAA."

"Actuate 7 provides a much desired environment of 'controlled empowerment,'" said Dan Vesset, research manager, IDC. "Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer along with Actuate Query empower business users to answer their own questions through a familiar interface with little or no training. At the same time Information Objects allow IT to keep control over the application development process without having to manage an environment of disconnected, stand-alone end-user applications. The resultant productivity gains affect both business and IT user communities."

"In today's world of heightened corporate accountability, IT departments need to ensure that everyone within the organization is getting the information they need, but at a cost that they can afford," said Nobby Akiha, vice president of marketing at Actuate Corporation. "Actuate 7 allows corporations to meet the information demands of business users at about $40 per user per year, versus $200 per user per year from competing products."

Controlled Empowerment

The business user community typically totals about 25 percent of the enterprise population, and to date, has lacked the appropriate ad-hoc query and report creation solutions. Business users have been forced to wait days or weeks for IT to create specific reports or queries. Actuate 7 is specifically geared to address the unique information needs of business executives and managers. Most corporate executives and managers prefer to analyze information within a spreadsheet format. But dumping data into one-off spreadsheets, which are disconnected from the original data source causes multiple versions of the truth -- a situation that corporations can no longer tolerate. Actuate 7 eliminates these problems by powering server-managed spreadsheets which generate reports by retrieving data directly from the original source. Actuate 7 allows organizations to dramatically improve information access to business users without introducing security or system performance issues.

Key Actuate 7 Features

Actuate Query

Actuate Query allows business users to immediately obtain

answers to ad-hoc questions which require information

retrieval from disparate data sources. Business executives and

managers require virtually no training to use this unique,

Web-based tool that utilizes a dashboard interface and

point-and-click operation. Actuate Query improves business

users' productivity and eliminates countless ad-hoc data

requests made to IT departments.

Enhanced Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer

The enhanced Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer is the first

enterprise report creation solution that leverages business

users' knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Business executives and

managers can design their own reports using a familiar

spreadsheet interface with a point-and-click wizard. Reports

are formatted using a drag and drop GUI, which connects data

sources and allows users to design reports without having

knowledge of SQL. Reports are saved as fully-functional Excel

documents that can be published through a Web-based interface.

Actuate Information Object Designer

Actuate Information Object Designer is a tool to develop

meta-layer constructs that provide control over the data

sources that individuals or groups can access. IT managers

define data streams, which are mapped to data access and

security policies set by the organization. IT managers define

these data streams either by individual or group, and create

an Information Object. These Information Objects give users

direct access to only the data that has been approved for

their consumption. Users can create queries or generate

reports by accessing data through an Information Object.

Pricing and Availability

Actuate 7, including Actuate Query will be available in a limited production version at the end of March, and is scheduled for general availability at the end of April. Pricing for Actuate 7 starts at $35,000 per CPU, or $495 per named user. Pricing for the Actuate Query Option starts at $5,000 per CPU.

About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation is the world leader in empowering enterprise users with Information Applications. Actuate's Information Application Platform is the foundation on which Global 9000 organizations (companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion) and packaged application software vendors create Business Performance Management (BPM) dashboards, Information Portals as well as business analytic, enterprise reporting and spreadsheet reporting applications. Information Applications built with Actuate can empower 100% of an organization's user community inside and outside the firewall, and thereby allow companies to increase their business agility, improve customer and partner relationships, adhere to corporate governance policies, and increase revenues while leveraging existing technology assets. When tested against other alternatives, Actuate's Information Application Platform has been proven to offer the best performance, highest scale and lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Actuate has over 2,000 direct customers and 300 OEM partners in the financial services, pharmaceutical, insurance, logistics and government industries among other sectors.

Founded in 1993, Actuate has headquarters in South San Francisco, Calif., and has offices worldwide. For more information on Actuate, visit the company's Web site at www.actuate.com.

Actuate is a registered trademark of Actuate Corporation. Other company names and trademarks are trademarks of their respective companies.