Actuate Extends its Scalability on SAP BW; Scalability of Actuate Running on SAP BW Enables Companies to Meet Growing Demand for Access to Valuable Corporate Data.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004

Actuate Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTU) the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications and SAP(R) certified vendor, today announced the successful results of the largest benchmark to use SAP(R) Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) as its data source. The results of a performance test conducted at the Sun Microsystems Benchmark Center help prove that Actuate can support 15,000 active users reporting against SAP BW on just 32 CPUs, averaging 469 users per CPU. The results underscore that existing investments in SAP BW can be fully utilized in conjunction with the Actuate architecture to support the ever-growing requirement to serve 100% of the enterprise, as well as customers, partners and suppliers outside the firewall.

"Exploiting SAP BW to deliver breakaway business performance improvements is one of the primary BI concerns among large enterprises. In 2003, customers specifically asked about SAP BW in 6% of the customer inquiries to META Group's Enterprise Analytic Strategies service, which is significantly more than any other product." Kurt Schlegel, Program Director, Enterprise Analytic Strategies, META Group.

The benchmark tested Actuate's performance and scalability when reporting against SAP Business Information Warehouse Release 3.1 on Sun Solaris (128 CPUs), with Actuate configurations ranging from 1 to 32 CPUs, across 1 to 4 virtual cluster nodes. Using the SAP Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System (IDES) data and standard queries, the tests covered the spectrum of Enterprise Reporting Application scenarios, including generating batch reports, viewing cached reports and on-demand requests. In addition, a real world environment was simulated with mixed load tests.

"Our customers show great interest in SAP BW, and their focus is extending to how they can best utilize it as a central resource to provide a single access point for both SAP and non-SAP data," said Mark Coggins, senior vice president of Engineering at Actuate. "Frequently, their conclusion is to leverage the value of SAP BW outside the traditional ERP domain, using Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Applications to distribute both SAP BW and SAP R3 information to access an even larger user base. With this approach they reach 100% of users while freeing up SAP resources for other tasks."

This benchmark helps prove that Actuate's outstanding performance and scalability is not limited to relational database reporting, but encompasses reporting against sophisticated, high value business intelligence sources, including SAP Business Information Warehouse, a core product within SAP NetWeaver(TM), SAP's open integration and application platform. Actuate compliments the performance of SAP BW by:

-- Serving 15,000 active users on just 32 CPUs, which averages to

469 active users per CPU

-- Performing as well or better against SAP BW than in previous

benchmarks performed on RDBMS or flat files

-- Providing near-perfect scalability (greater than 95%) for

report generation

-- Reducing the load on SAP BW by consolidating reporting

requests and streamlining report generation

-- Generating 132 million report pages per day on just 32 CPUs

-- Achieving 100% CPU utilization in mixed load test environment

-- Leverage existing (SAP) security model to manage massive

populations efficiently with minimal set up administration

To Find Out More

The complete benchmark study with full details on test methodology and results is available for download at: http://www.actuate.com/products/productresources.asp?ArticleId=5284. For more information about Actuate and its support of SAP solutions visit: http://www.actuate.com/actuatework/strategicisv/sap.asp.

About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation is the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications that ensure 100% adoption by users. Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform is the foundation on which Global 9000 organizations (companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion) and packaged application software vendors develop intuitive, Web portal-like reporting and analytic applications that empower 100% of users with decision-making information. These applications are deployed inside and outside the firewall to improve corporate performance across a range of business functions including financial management, sales, human resource management, and customer self-service. When tested against other business intelligence products, Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform has been proven to offer industry-leading scalability and the lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Actuate has over 2,700 customers globally in a range of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and distribution services, as well as the government sector.

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

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