Cap Gemini Adds PL/1, TELON and IDMS Language Capabilities to its Year 2000 "ARCdrive" Toolset.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 1997--

Year 2000 market leader enhances a proven, highly

automated renovation tool

Cap Gemini America, a market leader in Year 2000 services, today announced the addition of three new languages to its highly automated, Year 2000 "ARCdrive(SM)" toolset. The enhancements will now allow the firm's licensees to renovate code written in the PL/1 and TELON computer languages and COBOL utilizing IDMS databases.

The three new languages complement the ARCdrive toolset's long-established capabilities to automatically renovate code written in COBOL, the language comprising approximately three quarters of the mainframe programs subject to "millennium bug" corrections. In addition, the toolset can scan and workbench renovate almost any language running on an IBM MVS operating system.

"Tools with new language capabilities are only released when they are robust and when we are confident of their accuracy and effectiveness," said Jim Woodward, senior vice president of Cap Gemini America's TransMillennium(TM) Services. "Our time-tested, ARCdrive toolset has now successfully renovated a sufficient number of non-COBOL programs to allow us to offer these enhancements."

"We are constantly testing the accuracy of our tools, so new offerings are constantly being improved," Woodward said. "We continuously take the lessons learned from Year 2000 future date testing engagements and incorporate them into the tools to Gemini to offer an enhanced toolset that effectively and accurately addresses important marketplace needs."

"The new capabilities Cap Gemini chooses to develop are based upon the date conversion services clients want most," Woodward said. "We're building on a successful track record to address the needs of our clients, who almost always deal with multiple languages."

The expanded, artificial intelligence-based toolset also offers increased efficiency through enhanced data mapping capabilities, built-in support for dates in key field encoding, expanded documentation, and extensive training and support. Services including renovation and testing are provided on a fixed-price basis.

Woodward said that the Easytrieve, FOCUS and Natural languages are in beta release with final release planned for the fourth quarter. Languages in development are DOS/VSE, ICL, and BULL.

Cap Gemini's enhanced ARCdrive toolset brings highly automated renovation to every affected mainframe application component, including programs, JCL, sort control cards, files, test data, and bridging.

Key elements of TransMillennium(TM) Services' ARCdrive toolset include:

--DataMap, a date-related data repository containing the intelligence to drive the renovation process on a customized basis;

--ARCdrive Workbench Analysis, which improves efficiency and productivity by resolving conflicts and inconsistencies in determining date information;

--Client Specification, which gives clients maximum flexibility in customizing date expansion and interpretation during renovation;

--Automated Renovation, which creates new, customized programs, copybooks and JCL based upon Data Map specifications;

--The Universal Data Migrator(SM)(UDM(SM)), which facilitates data conversion, data validation, and bridging;

--Automated File Conversion, which modifies data files when fields have been specified for expansion and concentrates hundreds of customized conversion programs into a single conversion utility;

--Intelligent Test Data, which are created by the UDM to expand baseline data for comparison purposes and "time warps" test data forward for 20XX testing; and

--Intelligent Bridging, which is used during the implementation phase and allows renovated programs to use unrenovated files and vice versa without having to touch the programs again. -0-

Cap Gemini, with nearly $3.4 billion in revenues, is one of the world's largest information technology consulting firms and a market leader in providing Year 2000 renovations. TransMillennium(TM) Services, the company's Year 2000 group, has more than 450 completed and active engagements for Year 2000 clients in diverse major industries, including financial services, telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing, and healthcare. Cap Gemini America, which is ISO 9001-certified, uses a highly automated and factory-based approach to the date change problem. The company was the first international Year 2000 provider to gain ITAA*2000 certification by the Information Technology Association of America.

CONTACT: Cap Gemini, New York

Steve Vitoff, 212/481-7000 x137

Raina Grossman, 212/481-7000 x128

www.usa.capgemini.com/services/y2k.html