Altris EB Launched Into Document Management Market; Next Generation of Enterprise Document Management.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1997--Altris Software, Inc. (Nasdaq/NMS: ALTS) today announced Altris EB, its next generation of document management software, is in full release. The product represents a leap forward in leveraging corporate information for business advantage.

"Before developing our next generation product, we examined the document management industry and observed that our customers' needs were changing," stated Jay Tanna, Altris Chairman and CEO. "We looked beyond traditional automated library services and redefined the document to encompass far more than paper. By recognizing that we now rely on voice mail, e-mail, video, photographs, memos, electronic files, faxes and drawings as documentation, Altris made great strides in architecting its next generation enterprise document management software."

With Altris EB, the company introduces software that goes beyond managing and distributing a document. Altris has created software that orchestrates an environment in which a company can leverage its corporate knowledge through efficient, intuitive electronic management.

Moving beyond the traditional design, Altris EB opens the frontier on knowledge management, maintaining information in a secure electronic environment. The Intelligent Document and SmartPush, technologies for delivering information to the user based on profiling, position the product in the forefront of enterprise document management.

Altris EB Is a Leader in this Next Phase of Document Management

"This approach positions the document at the heart of the thinking organization, one that proactively captures its experience and accumulated knowledge set to create a corporate memory," commented Carl Frappaolo, Vice President and Cofounder of Delphi Consulting Group. "The system can use that memory to augment human performance in business processes through a form of push technology. Altris EB is a major player in this second phase of document management."

Altris products are specifically designed to support this process with personalized document management, providing the user with the power to search, discover and manage documents across the enterprise. Altris documents have the ability to determine who should be aware of their content and in which processes they should participate.

"Companies constructing Knowledge ManageNets require not only strong document repository capabilities but also the assurance that information contained within documents can either be found or can find the user within the context of his process," said David Yockelson, Vice President of META Group. "Altris EB provides an infrastructure supportive of knowledge management initiatives through comprehensive information and decision management capabilities."

Altris EB is built on a multi-tier architecture, allowing customers to choose between thin and thick client models and deploy process and data servers most efficiently. With an out-of-the-box CD-ROM, installation is a snap. A wide range of tools are provided for information exchange and review, system administration, configuration and tailoring plus desktop tools for easy modification of the look-and-feel and extension of functionality.

"End users are not systems integrators," said Bill Zastrow, Vice President at Data General. "Altris EB offers innovative `connectors' and `adapters' that streamline integration and customization options for end users. That feature is very important to our award winning AV Image family of products."

Altris EB supports easy-to-use enterprise tools such as the Microsoft Office suite, including Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Windows NT Workstation and the BackOffice family, including Microsoft NT Server, Systems Management Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server.

According to Rich Noffsinger, Industry Marketing Manager for Document Management at Microsoft, "Altris has demonstrated great confidence and support in developing its new product to be so thoroughly supportive of Microsoft products. We are pleased to have a relationship with a company that is planning its strategy with such broad consideration of the industry." Altris is a finalist in the Industry Solutions award program, sponsored by Microsoft.

Altris EB also integrates easily with other commercial applications for mail, accounting and various manufacturing and maintenance systems. Add-on modules enable CAD connectivity, configuration management and document management for product data management (PDM) systems.

About Altris EB

Altris EB is a complete enterprise document management system, supporting common databases, networks, file types and desktop platforms. The product offers rich functionality for end users in office and engineering environments. Altris EB extends the current Altris product set, simplifying setup, lowering startup costs and harnessing the power of the document warehouse.

Through Altris EB, the authorized user can obtain, on demand or through push publishing, all information of interest. Multiple levels of functionality are provided to the desktop, ensuring the lowest training costs and creating a personal environment. Both thin and thick clients are supported, allowing the customer the choice of appropriate deployment strategy.

Altris EB offers tight coupling with structured data, enabling a complete view of corporate knowledge. Technologies such as COLD (report data) and data warehousing (data set aside for mining) are all supported, as well as integration with in- place database applications for human resources, accounts payable, maintenance and other functions.

Pricing for the product will start under $1,000 per user for software systems with more than 100 concurrent users. The Altris EB supports the Microsoft BackOffice product family as well as UNIX servers and other Internet servers, plus UNIX workstation and Macintosh access.

About Altris

Altris Software is a leader in delivering enterprise-wide document management software to thousands of customer installations around the world that include hundreds of thousands of users and tens of millions of documents. Across industries and applications, the San Diego-based company provides its customers with quality document management software systems that increase productivity and profitability. From manufacturing and utilities to banking and government, Altris systems integrate with existing computer resources, ensuring that data of every size and shape is handled rapidly and cost-effectively over global networks. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

CONTACT: Altris Software

Jay Tanna or John W. Low, 619/625-3000

or

Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates Inc.

Lillian B. Armstrong or Adam M. Aron, 415/433-3777