DataFlux Unveils Blue Fusion(TM) CS -Data Quality Tool for Real-Time Applications; The Sportsman's Guide Uses Blue Fusion CS to streamline Customer Resource Management.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2001

DataFlux Corporation, a SAS Company and leader in the development of data quality control tools that increase the accuracy and usability of corporate database assets, today announced the release of Blue Fusion CS (Client/Server).

Blue Fusion CS is targeted at organizations that want to integrate seamless data quality functions into their own real-time Web-based or other concurrent user applications.

These applications include intranet, extranet and Internet web applications, client/server data-entry and reporting systems, CRM applications, data warehousing, call centers, applications requiring fuzzy search capabilities, ETL, and other complex environments.

Blue Fusion CS enables corporations to control the accuracy and usability of their data at point of entry - or at any point of data exchange/sharing between enterprise applications, databases and data warehouses.

Blue Fusion CS makes it easy to develop and integrate DataFlux technology into any data-driven application. Developers can integrate the technology using the native development environment of their application rather than writing "wrapper" calls to a foreign development environment.

Blue Fusion CS currently supports client libraries for the Perl, ASP, Java, COM, PHP, and C development environments. The Blue Fusion CS Client Library is platform-independent and can run on any of the major web server platforms including Linux, Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows NT, IBM AIX and FreeBSD.

The technology's multi-threaded, server architecture allows for concurrent user requests and responses necessary in a web environment.

An early adopter of Blue Fusion CS is The Sportsman's Guide (Nasdaq:SGDE), a leading marketer of value priced outdoor gear and general merchandise, with a special emphasis on outdoor clothing, equipment and footwear.

Dale Monson, Vice President Information Systems and Chief Information Officer for The Sportsman's Guide, was looking for a way to reduce product and catalogue returns by implementing a real-time call center solution that would allow telemarketers to check and verify the address they were being given against their USPS database immediately, even before processing the order.

A key requirement of the implementation was that the speed of the application performing the data cleansing and verification could not impact talk time.

Blue Fusion CS also enabled Monson to standardize and verify the address in their database of catalogue mailing lists, a task that was previously outsourced. The Sportsman's Guide has been very impressed with the speed and ease of implementation. The seamless integration into their existing call flow and the very fast response times have ensured the success of this implementation.

The Sportsman's Guide has implemented this technology into their main call solution system and is working towards implementing the new release into their web sites www.sportsmansguide.com and www.bargainoutfitters.com.

Regarding the selection of the DataFlux solutions, Dale Monson stated, "DataFlux provided The Sportsman's Guide with an affordable suite of solutions that we were able to easily implement and maintain. When a customer calls us today, we are able to do real-time matching and data cleansing so we know we have cleansed and correct shipping information. This saves us a significant amount of money on returns."

Tony Fisher, president of DataFlux said, "Blue Fusion CS is an ideal solution for enhancing a company's critical data assets across the enterprise. By embedding Blue Fusion CS functionality into your website, you'll have the ability to cleanse and verify data for any number of hits at one time. Our product gives developers the flexibility to use whichever language they are most familiar with."

Blue Fusion CS Highlights

Blue Fusion CS encompasses the DataFlux tradition of data management solutions far beyond standard name and address cleanup. Blue Fusion CS consists of Blue Fusion Base, a core set of libraries, and additional FusionPack libraries, including Blue Fusion Match and Blue Fusion Verify.

-- Parse - The Parsing libraries include functions that parse free form data
elements into separate name or address elements.

-- Standardization - The Standardization libraries include functionsthat enable
users to standardize data.

-- Gender Analysis - Functions included with Gender Analysis libraries attempt
to determine the gender of input names.

-- Entity Analysis - Entity Analysis libraries attempt to determine if a data
value/string represents an individual or an organization.

-- Capitalization - The Capitalization libraries include lowercase, uppercase
and proper case functions.

-- Customization - The Customization functions allow users to edit the DataFlux
internal knowledge base for vendor preference.

-- Blue Fusion Match - Matching libraries consist of a series of functions that
generate and store a coded representation for specific data strings, a match
code. Once created, these match codes are able to identify duplicates and more
importantly, near-duplicate data values.

-- Blue Fusion Verify - Verify libraries ensure the accuracy, completeness, and
effectiveness of critical addresses in your corporate databases. This
FusionPack library facilitates the USPS CASS-certification of data sets.

DataFlux's Blue Fusion CS technology uses similarity searching and fuzzy logic to find and recognize similar data patterns in databases and data sets.

DataFlux technology can be applied to many different types of data, including name and address data as well as non-name and address information (such as product or brand names, geographical data, generic text or data fields).

Pricing & Availability

Blue Fusion CS is generally available for shipment. Typically, Blue Fusion CS will range in price from $30,000 to $100,000 depending on the size and scope of the implementation and user configurations. To learn more about Blue Fusion CS or any of the other solutions available from DataFlux, visit our website: www.dataflux.com.

About DataFlux Corporation

Founded in 1996, DataFlux is a North Carolina-based software company that provides leading edge, award-winning technology for data cleansing, data augmentation, data consolidation and conversion and data scrubbing.

The versatile DataFlux products are designed to significantly improve the accuracy, consistency and usability of an organization's critical data, enhancing the effectiveness of data-driven applications and initiatives such as data warehousing, e-commerce systems, data mining, customer information systems, sales force automation, marketing databases, customer/prospect profiling and list management.

Some of the companies currently using DataFlux solutions include Bank of America, US Patent and Trademark Office, and Wells Fargo. DataFlux is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS Institute, the leader in decision support and data warehousing, providing integrated enterprise information-delivery solutions and e-business solutions. For more on DataFlux, visit: http://www.dataflux.com.

DataFlux and all other DataFlux Corporation product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of, or licensed to, DataFlux Corporation in the USA and other countries. (R) indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.