BI2000 Initiative Meets With Widespread Industry Support.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1999--

Developer of the BI2000(TM) Methodology and Consortium Leader Brio Technology Announces New Consortium Members, Products and Programs for

BI2000

At the forefront of an industry-wide movement to help companies address the numerous issues associated with Year 2000 (Y2K), Brio Technology (Nasdaq: BRYO) today announced new product packages and programs in support of the BI2000(TM) Initiative.

In addition, several leading data warehouse solution providers -- including Ardent Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDT) and Informatica -- have joined the BI2000(TM) Consortium.

Launched by Brio in December 1998, BI2000(TM) is a comprehensive program designed to assist organizations in their efforts to address Y2K problems. Capitalizing on Brio's experience using business intelligence tools and solutions, BI2000 provides organizations with a methodology for accelerating their Y2K problem resolution by: enhancing the safety of corporate data; allowing critical business reporting to continue in the event of potential system failures; and freeing IT resources to focus on addressing noncompliant legacy applications.

"Brio's BI2000 solution is elegant in its simplicity and pragmatism: decouple the decision support environment from the legacy transaction system by creating a Brio-enabled, Y2K-compliant data mart to quickly address analysis and reporting requirements while deploying the freed-up personnel to focus on other Y2K projects," said Mike Schiff, director of data warehousing strategies at Current Analysis, Inc. "Even in the unfortunate situation where the Y2K conversion or ERP replacement of the legacy systems falls behind schedule, the resultant Y2K-compliant data store can serve as an insurance policy and buy additional time for fixing or replacing the legacy systems."

New Product Packages for Quick-Start BI2000 Solutions

Today, Brio made available a series of three "BI2000 Starter Kits" for new customers (limited to one starter kit per customer). The BI2000 Starter Kits -- which include server products (for Microsoft Windows NT Server only), IT and end user client software, expert consulting, maintenance, documentation and computer-based training -- are designed to provide a complete, cost-effective solution that is easy to implement and will quickly demonstrate results. The BI2000 Enterprise Starter Kit supports both client/server and web clients, while the BI2000 Web Starter Kit supports web clients and the BI2000 Client/Server Starter Kit supports client/server clients.

The BI2000 Methodology is based in large part on the successful resolution of Y2K problems by numerous Brio customers such as Tokai Financial and Plymouth Rock Assurance. In the higher education field, innovative organizations like the California State University (CSU) have followed the BI2000 approach. Noted Chuck Kensicki, Director of Business Management Systems for the 23 California State Universities, "By combining Brio Enterprise with an Oracle database, we were able to get the mainframe applications for our business systems into a Y2K-compliant system, offload a good portion of reporting to the users and free up significant resources to work on other Y2K projects."

Brio also announced new "Expert to Expert" consulting services for BI2000 implementations. Business Intelligence Mentoring Services for BI2000 help customers develop the best architecture for their BI2000 solutions. Brio Deployment Services for BI2000 deliver the right start for a Brio-focused product implementation. Brio Tactical Services for BI2000 help ensure optimal Brio-focused product performance and usage through the best follow up program.

"For many companies, there is no time to spare in addressing their Y2K reporting issues," commented Chris Grejtak, Brio's executive vice president of marketing. "The intent of these new product and service offerings is to enable organizations to more quickly take advantage of the benefits of BI2000."

Additional Industry Leaders Join the BI2000(TM) Consortium

In addition to publishing a methodology for implementing BI2000 solutions, Brio launched a consortium of partners which provide both the integrated software and consulting services necessary to easily, quickly and successfully implement BI2000. Numerous industry leaders have already joined the BI2000 consortium, providing the crucial link for customers between Brio's suite of business intelligence products, platform vendors and systems integrators.

To ensure accessibility to a wide range of data sources and legacy data systems, Microsoft is recommending SQL Server 7.0 as an optimal platform for BI2000 data warehouse solutions. "SQL Server 7.0 and Brio Enterprise together provide an excellent platform for BI2000 data warehouse solutions," said Andrew Hoover, Group Industry Marketing Manager for Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing. "With Brio's BI2000 methodology, SQL Server 7.0 and Brio Enterprise, customers can rapidly implement a datamart and DSS application that preserves and makes customer data available so end users can perform reporting and decision making while IT resources focus on addressing other Y2K projects."

Ardent Software and Informatica have recently joined the BI2000 Consortium, which already includes IBM, Broadbase and Sand Technology. As Brio partners, Ardent and Informatica's products are already tightly integrated with Brio Enterprise and are part of numerous successful data warehouse solutions.

"We believe the BI2000 Initiative presents a prudent approach for companies struggling with Year 2000 issues in data warehousing," said Peter Fiore, vice president and general manager of Ardent Software's Data Warehouse business unit. "This methodology, combined with Ardent's ETL tools, offers companies an optimal approach to ensure that their data is ready for the next millennium."

"With just eleven months until the end of the century, speed of implementation is critical in resolving Y2K issues," said David Downing, vice president of marketing at Informatica. "The combination of Informatica and Brio has already proven to be a robust and easily maintained solution for speeding information across an organization. Using the BI2000 approach, companies can apply that speed of delivery and ROI to their Y2K projects."

Also joining the BI2000 Consortium are several leading implementation consulting organizations and systems integrators, including Active Interest, Inc., Analysts International Corporation and Raymond James Consulting. "Most organizations are facing two challenges: scarcity of resources and lack of timely information analysis," noted Harold Borges, BI2000 Consortium Member and president of the Yaletown Technology Group. "We believe that outsourcing the decision support initiatives using the web as the basis for delivery is the best way for companies to maximize utilization of internal resources and get speedy access to critical knowledge about their business, their industry and the economy as a whole."

www.BI2000.org

In addition to making the BI2000 Methodology (detailed in a white paper, BI2000: Business Intelligence Solutions for the Next Millennium) available free of charge via the web, Brio Technology has established a website located at http://www.BI2000.org to serve as a central point for information, background and resources on data warehousing-enabled Y2K solutions. BI2000 Consortium members and industry experts will offer a series of free "cyberseminars" on implementing Y2K solutions using the BI2000 Methodology. The next BI2000 cyberseminar will be held on February 4th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific. Registration information for the BI2000 cyberseminars is located at www.BI2000.org.

About Brio Technology

Brio Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRYO) is a leading provider of enterprise business intelligence software. Brio develops, markets and supports software products that improve the ability of business professionals to make timely, fact-based business decisions. Available in five languages on ten platforms, the Brio Enterprise suite of products is used by businesses in more than 20 countries. Brio products are available through direct sales and services organizations located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia, and worldwide through VARs, resellers and distributors. Brio has commercial relationships with Access Graphics, Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HWP), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Netscape (Nasdaq: NSCP), Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW). Brio Technology is based in Palo Alto, California, and can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.brio.com, or by calling 1.800.879.BRIO.

The matters contained in this news release that are not purely historical are "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including, without limitation, any statements included herein regarding Brio's future product development and commercialization, product sales and other revenues, market opportunities, beliefs, expectations, goals, financial performance and future strategies, all of which are dependent on certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these or any other forward looking statements made by or on behalf of Brio. These risks and uncertainties include such factors, among others, as the potential for fluctuations in Brio's quarterly operating results, Brio's dependence upon its direct sales force, Brio's ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, Brio's lengthy product sales cycle and the other risk factors listed in the Company's Prospectus dated April 30, 1998, its Annual Report of Form 10-K and in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.