Contivo Awarded Patent for Data Integration Matrix View Technology; Unique Technology Lowers Cost and Risk of Integration Projects.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2003

Contivo(R), Inc., the leading provider of automated data integration solutions, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued the company U.S. Patent No. 6,662,237 for a key element of the Contivo Vocabulary Management System(TM). The patent protects the method and apparatus for Contivo's Matrix View, a powerful element of the CVMS user interface. The matrix view enables Contivo users to more quickly understand the complex relationships among application interface data elements, and helps save enterprises time and money by streamlining integration projects. This is the second U.S. patent awarded Contivo this year, with several others pending PTO approval.

Most integration tools continue to use "tree views" to depict individual interfaces and data elements. Tree views break down, however, when users try to manipulate relationships among multiple elements simultaneously, leading to confusion, delay and error. Contivo's matrix view is a much more intuitive way of presenting the correlations among data elements and application interfaces, making it easier to identify mapped/unmapped fields, mapping intersections, gaps, overlaps, rule assignments and mandatory, optional or unused fields. The matrix view facilitates drilldown inspection and makes it much easier to locate and debug transformation problems.

"Contivo was the first company to develop semantic-driven products for data integration, and we continue to lead the market with a solid commitment to intellectual property leadership," said Dave Hollander, CTO of Contivo. "The patent for our matrix view re-affirms Contivo's leadership in automating data integration. We continue to focus on providing customers the easiest to use system for data transformation. Contivo's proven products make customers' integration projects much easier and less expensive than competitive approaches."

Contivo's Vocabulary Management System (CVMS) is a repository-driven system that automates data transformation for application integration. CVMS provides runtime support via existing integration platforms such as TIBCO, IBM, BEA and webMethods, as well as standard Java and XML/XSLT middleware systems. The Contivo system supports a centralized approach to integration, which helps enterprises quickly realize the benefits of a streamlined, consistent model for coordinating information across applications, business units and supply-chain partners.

Contivo's matrix view helps users more readily work with the reusable data elements stored in the Contivo repository, improving the speed of development and maintenance of integrations. Using the matrix view makes it easier to understand the relationships among interfaces, messages and fields, helping users inspect, modify and troubleshoot the transformations that must be applied to data format and contents.

About Contivo

Contivo provides solutions that enable enterprises to dramatically reduce implementation and maintenance costs of enterprise-wide integration projects. Contivo provides integration architects and developers with a centrally managed repository and tools that dramatically increase leverage and bring repeatability and parallelism to a task that was previously one-off, serial and manual. Contivo was founded in 1998 and has forged strategic relationships with customers and partners including Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Bearing Point and CGEY. Investors include industry leaders BEA Systems, TIBCO Software and webMethods, and investment bankers BA Venture Partners, Voyager Capital and MSD Capital LP. Contivo is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information, go to http://www.contivo.com.

Trademarks: Contivo and Contivo Analyst are registered trademarks, and Contivo CVMS is a trademark of Contivo, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.