American Savings Bank Chooses Vision Solutions High Availability Software to Play Key Role in eCommerce Initiative.

Business Editors

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2000

Vision Solutions Inc. ("Vision"), a global leader in the development and marketing of Information Availability Management Solutions, Monday announced that American Savings Bank, a $2 billion consumer bank in central Connecticut and a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Financial Holdings (Nasdaq: AMFH), has selected Vision Solutions' high availability product, Vision Suite(TM), as a vital link in its eCommerce strategy.

"We've always been concerned that a single system is a single point of failure, and now that we're moving into online web banking, we need our systems available 24 hours a day," said Richard Dennison, Chief Information Officer at American Savings Bank. "The installation of Vision Suite is an extremely important first step towards implementing and ensuring a successful eCommerce initiative."

As companies step up their eBusiness efforts, eCommerce applications will rise from 4% of the total application portfolio today to 35% in 2003, according to a Forrester Research report from November, 1999. The demand for 24x7 operations is also increasing as the eCommerce business model requires continuous access to information in mission-critical Internet applications. For AS/400 environments supporting eBusiness applications, Vision Suite ensures 24x7 operations, meeting the most rigorous requirements for zero downtime. Vision Suite is a middleware software tool that uses proprietary replication and data transportation technology to eliminate business interruption due to planned or unplanned system outages.

"American Savings Bank recognized that providing online services also means ensuring 24x7 access to its information," said Vision Solutions Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Chris Turner. "For the online banking industry, system reliability is not enough. Any downtime, whether planned or unplanned, means poor customer satisfaction. The need for high availability and disaster tolerance has become a critical factor for financial institutions and for any company participating in the eEconomy. Vision's technology is powerful and proven."

As American Savings Bank shifts from being an online bill-paying service to a complete, interactive customer online bank, Vision Suite will be used for both high availability and disaster recovery. Once Vision is fully integrated, the company plans to house its two AS/400 systems in separate locations, thereby ensuring instant recovery from disasters such as power outages, fire and floods.

Dennison said that American Savings Bank's selection of Vision's high availability software over competitive offerings was an easy decision, and based mainly on his confidence in the sales and support staff at both Vision Solutions and Vision Business Partner, Lighthouse Computer Systems. "Support is one of our biggest priorities when working with any vendor and Vision and Lighthouse demonstrated a level of competency we could trust," he said.

Lighthouse Computer Services, also an IBM Premier Business Partner based in North Smithfield, R.I., is working with American Savings Bank to ensure the successful implementation of its high availability system early this year. "American Savings Bank is going through a dynamic change by fully immersing its customers and its business into eBanking," said Al Columbus, Lighthouse Director of Sales. "Its choice of Vision's high availability product suite is a credit to Vision's proven 24x7 technology. We're committed to helping American Savings implement the most secure and stable eBusiness technology infrastructure possible."

As an IBM Premier Business Partner, Vision Solutions now dominates the information availability management market. Its recent announcement of a merger with South African-based Idion Software, a leading software and professional services provider of availability solutions, places Vision in the premier position as a provider for high availability, clustering and partitioning solutions on the AS/400.

About Vision Suite

Vision Suite is an unsurpassed High Availability solution consisting of three independent, but integrated, modules: OMS/400 Object Mirroring System, ODS/400 Object Distribution System and SAM/400 System Availability Monitor. Vision Suite delivers disaster recovery, group simulcasting, object management and scalability, workload balancing and horizontal growth, to an AS/400 environment.

About American Savings Bank

American Savings Bank is a $2 billion retail bank serving central Connecticut for more than 137 years. With 17 branches in 12 Connecticut towns, including 10 drive-through and seven walk-up ATMs, American Savings is one of Connecticut's largest independent banks. American Savings Bank can be found on the Internet at www.americansb.com. American Savings Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Financial Holdings (Nasdaq:AMFH).

About Lighthouse Computer Systems

As an IBM Premier Business Partner, Lighthouse offers premium skills and support to its customers through a highly skilled team of technical professionals. Its services include RISC System/6000 disaster and recovery planning; PC, AS/400, RISC System/6000, and Mainframe Connectivity; LAN and network cabling; network design and implementation; client/server integration and system performance analysis and tuning. Lighthouse can be found on the Internet at www.lighthousecs.com.

About Vision Solutions Inc.

Founded in 1990, Vision Solutions Inc., is a global leader in the development and marketing of Information Availability Management Solutions. These solutions include high availability and data protection for the IBM AS/400 midrange computer, and data sharing between most databases on major platforms including Windows NT, UNIX and AS/400. Vision's innovative products are used to maintain the integrity and accuracy of data in a wide variety of industries such as banking/finance, government/education, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation, and gaming.

Vision Solutions is an IBM Premier Business Partner and a member of the Microsoft Alliance for Data Warehousing, and maintains technical partnerships with Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase, Informix and Progress Software. Vision Solutions was recently named to Deloitte and Touche's "Fast 500" list of fastest growing U.S. technology companies and placed 11th among the 50 fastest growing Southern California companies. Vision can be found on the Internet at www.visionsolutions.com and can be reached via email at [e-mail].

Vision Solutions, Vision Suite, OMS/400, ODS/400, SAM/400 and SYMBIATOR are trademarks of Vision Solutions Inc. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.