Ardent DataStage Quickly Unlocks SAP Information for Leading Global Companies; Informix Announces Version 2.0 of Ardent DataStage Extract PACK for SAP R/3.

Business/Technology Editors

WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

Informix(R) Corporation (NASDAQ: IFMX), the technology leader in software infrastructure for the i.Economy, today announced version 2.0 of its Ardent DataStage Extract Packaged Application Connection Kit (PACK) for SAP R/3. Extract PACK for SAP R/3 version 2.0 extends Informix's leadership position in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market, by better enabling companies to directly extract and leverage vast amounts of corporate information from their SAP R/3 systems. Today, more than 25 industry-leading companies around the world have adopted ArdentTM DataStage(R) Solutions for SAP to transform ERP data into valuable business information; these companies include Agip Aeroporto Di Roma, Airbus Industries, Fujitsu-Siemens, Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy, Railpart, and Siemens.

"Ardent DataStage Extract PACK for SAP/R3, version 2.0 provides our customers with some very powerful enhancements," said Peter Gyenes, president and CEO of Informix. "The Extract PACK development team worked closely with existing customers to find out where the product could most effectively be improved. The result is an easier-to-use version that enables quicker, more accurate extraction and integration of SAP data."

DataStage Extract PACK for SAP/R3 2.0 has been designed specifically to meet ease-of-use requirements of customers. The new product offers an improved ABAP code generator to take full advantage of SAP's version 4.x releases. The Plug-in browser has been revamped to offer significant benefits in viewing SAP/R3 metadata, and will display all business descriptions when viewing SAP/R3 tables and fields. This significant improvement removes the guess-work and enables users to quickly navigate through SAP R/3 meta data.

"We chose Extract PACK for SAP R/3 because we knew it could help us meet our deadlines and ensure that we had complete data in our reporting system -- both of which were critical requirements for our project," said George Kirkham, reporting systems manager, Fujitsu-Siemens. "We felt strongly that the functionality included in this product - including the ability to manipulate SAP R/3 data and load it into a new or existing data warehouse - would help us achieve these goals and ensure that our data could be accessed, managed, and viewed across our entire organization."

Available today, Informix's Ardent DataStage Extract PACK for SAP R/3, version 2.0, enables companies to directly extract and integrate vast amounts of corporate information stored in their SAP R/3 systems and leverage it for enterprise decision support, further extending Informix's ability to help companies transform data into valuable business information. Other leading companies that have adopted the Ardent DataStage Solution for SAP include Anheuser-Busch, Eliva, Lucent Technologies, Marubeni, New South Wales Police, Petrogal, SAPPI, SASOL, SC Johnson, Singapore Power, Union Gas, and Universal Music.

About Ardent DataStage

Ardent DataStage provides the enterprise business intelligence infrastructure for more than 1,200 of the world's leading companies--enabling them to turn corporate data into competitive advantage. Companies rely on Ardent DataStage's powerful data integration capabilities to extract, transform and integrate enterprise data into their data warehouses, analytical applications, and eBusiness solutions. Ardent DataStage uniquely addresses enterprise-level business intelligence requirements, including: native support for Web-based, mainframe, relational and ERP data; enterprise-wide business intelligence meta data management; integrated data quality assessment and cleansing; and enterprise-class performance and scalability.

About Informix

Informix Software is the technology leader in software infrastructure solutions for the Internet--providing a fast, simple and complete way to bring businesses to the Web. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., Informix is the first and only company to integrate e-commerce and business intelligence on a true Internet infrastructure. The company's highly scalable Web engine, together with its personalized content management, real-time analytics and media asset management capabilities, offer customers a unique competitive advantage. For more information, contact the nearest sales office or visit the Web site at www.informix.com.

(c)2000 Informix Corporation. All rights reserved. The following are trademarks of Informix Corporation or its affiliates, one or more of which may be registered in the U.S. or other jurisdictions: Informix(R), Ardent(TM), DataStage(R)and Extract PACK(TM).