Canon Revamps Global Product Quality Analysis System with Informix Software's Red Brick Decision Server.

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2001

System Delivers Shared Use of Product Quality Information,

Supports Rapid Decision-Making In Marketing Strategies

Informix Software(R), the database company(TM), a subsidiary of Informix(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:IFMX), today announced that Canon, a leading provider of popular consumer products worldwide in the fields of imaging and information, including cameras and lenses, printers, scanners and video equipment, is relying on Informix Red Brick(R) Decision Server(TM) to advance its ongoing product quality analysis initiative.

"We're making sweeping reforms in market quality programs and services across the whole corporation," says Osamu Sawamura, assistant director of the Quality Planning Center at Canon. "We needed a way for top management to be able to get a handle -- in real time -- on market shifts in product quality, and a means for the quality management staff on location to act rapidly in response."

Canon developed its comprehensive Field Information Tracking System (FITS) to analyze market product quality information using Red Brick. With Red Brick as its data mining solution and high-speed query engine, FICS centrally manages data on defect and return rates for consumer products shipped around the world, including the 1 million product repairs that Canon completes annually. Product and marketing departments are both able access information via the Internet with Red Brick, enabling timely monitoring of market product quality. As a result, market product quality analysis that once took days to complete now takes only a few minutes.

"When new products go on the market, everyone is on tenterhooks -- everyone wants to see what's happening in real-time," said Brian Staff, vice president of marketing at Informix Software. "Red Brick answers that need by performing analysis every day -- or even every hour."

Informix Red Brick Decision Server focuses on meeting specific business needs, including fast load performance, high-capacity/high performance query processing and efficient management of very large databases. Unlike traditional OLTP databases, Informix Red Brick Decision Server is a specialized database technology that has been designed and optimized to meet the requirements of data marts and data warehouses without the complexity and overhead that more traditional database engines require.

About Informix Software

Informix Software, the database company, is a leading provider of database-management systems for data warehousing, transaction processing and e-business applications. With more than 100,000 customers worldwide, Informix Software delivers high-performance database systems in markets including retail, financial services, government, health care, manufacturing, media and publishing, and telecommunications. For more information, visit the Informix Web site at www.informix.com.

(c)2001 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), the database company(TM)and Informix Red Brick(R)Decision Server(TM).