Datawatch First to Offer Web Report Bursting.

WILMINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 1999--Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ:DWCH), a leading provider of Enterprise Reporting and Support Center software, today responded to a January 20 press release by Actuate Software Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTU) in which Actuate claimed to be the first Enterprise Reporting vendor to offer Web report bursting. In fact, Datawatch has offered report bursting in its Monarch/ES Enterprise Reporting product since March 1998 and has offered Web report bursting since October 1998.

Report bursting makes it possible to distribute discrete sections of a report to individual users based on their unique privileges. For example, a payroll report might be burst into departmental subsections that can be viewed independently by department managers with appropriate access rights.

Monarch/ES offers strong bursting capabilities. Reports can be burst at any sort level and can be further narrowed to include only information that meets a filter expression. In addition, report sections burst from multiple reports can be re-aggregated to create a new report.

"Report bursting is a desirable feature in any Enterprise Reporting system," said Bruce Gardner, President and CEO of Datawatch. "Bursting has been a cornerstone of our application from the start. We certainly respect Actuate as the most visible player in the Enterprise Reporting market. We believe we deserve credit, however, for important features pioneered by Datawatch that put Monarch/ES ahead of the competition."

Monarch/ES is unique among Enterprise Reporting products in its ability to transform existing reports into interactive report objects. Competing products force users to develop new reports from scratch. Only Monarch/ES effectively leverages and extends the life of a company's existing reporting systems.

In a January 1999 white paper entitled "Leveraging Enterprise Reporting Assets", analyst firm Hurwitz Group says, "The ability to transform existing reports into interactive report objects is an important differentiator versus competing enterprise reporting solutions...The traditional report building process usually requires a sophisticated, expensive development environment that only a professional programmer can use. Monarch/ES delivers a visual development environment rather than a programmatic environment. Using a visual model builder, the report designer can define a model that is applied to an existing report file. This model defines the extraction, transformation, and format logic used to transform the source report [and] eliminates the need for a specialized report definition language."

Equifax, a leading provider of card processing services, uses Monarch/ES to electronically distribute approximately four million report pages per month to more than 5,000 financial institutions. "In an industry where you're only as good as your information, it's a real competitive advantage," says Paul Krienke, Director of Systems at Equifax Card Services. Prior to implementing Monarch/ES, mainframe reports were printed and shipped to customers via courier. With Monarch/ES, the same reports are captured in ASCII print file format, burst and transformed into interactive report objects that are delivered electronically. The report objects are encrypted and password-protected to ensure security.

"We invite comparison with Actuate and other Enterprise Reporting solutions," said Gardner. "Our breadth of features, market-leading analytical capabilities and ability to leverage legacy reports make Monarch/ES the best choice for many customers."

About Enterprise Reporting

Enterprise Reporting is an emerging software category of that seeks to overcome problems with traditional paper-based reporting systems. Reports are delivered electronically and presented on screen rather than on paper. Reports are stored electronically in a secure repository rather than in file cabinets or on microfiche. And reports are brought to life electronically, so users can search, filter, sort and summarize report information on screen. By implementing an Enterprise Reporting system, companies can save paper, reduce storage and delivery costs, and empower users with the information they need to do their jobs.

About Monarch/ES

Monarch/ES is a scalable Enterprise Reporting solution that leverages existing reports and reporting systems. Monarch/ES fully delivers on the promise of Enterprise Reporting without requiring a big investment in new reporting infrastructure.

Monarch/ES Web, introduced in October 1998, extends the Monarch/ES base system to support Web-based report retrieval via the Internet. Monarch/ES Report Publisher, also introduced in October 1998, supports automated delivery of reports via MAPI-compliant email.

About Datawatch

Datawatch Corporation, headquartered in Wilmington, Mass., is a leading provider of Enterprise Reporting and Support Center solutions that help organizations increase productivity, reduce costs and gain competitive advantage. Datawatch products are used in more than 20,000 companies, institutions and government agencies worldwide.

Datawatch is best known for its desktop report mining application called Monarch. More than 200,000 copies of Monarch have been sold, with localized versions in English, French, German and Japanese. Monarch lets users extract and manipulate data from ASCII report files produced on any mainframe, midrange, client/server or PC system.

Datawatch entered the market for Enterprise Reporting software in March 1998 with the introduction of Monarch/ES. Datawatch entered the market for data replication and migration software in August 1998 with the introduction of Monarch Data Pump. This product offers a shortcut for populating and refreshing data marts and data warehouses, and for migrating legacy data into new applications.

Datawatch also participates in the market for Support Center software. The Company's Quetzal help desk and asset management software is a market leader in Europe, with the largest installed base among products that compete in the internal help desk market. Quetzal is recognized for its advanced service level management capabilities, integrated change management features, business process automation tools and unique user-interface that promotes ease-of-use and ease-of-learning. Customers include the British Broadcasting Corporation, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise Service and Toronto Dominion Bank.

Quetzal/SC, introduced in December 1998, is a major new release of the Company's Quetzal software. Quetzal/SC's advanced architecture gives it strong performance and scalability. Quetzal/SC integrates with popular network management tools such as Unicenter TNG, Tivoli Management Edition and BMC Patrol, and employs Monarch to provide market-leading data analysis and reporting capabilities.

Datawatch works with VARs, integrators, consultants and independent software vendors who sell and support Datawatch products. In addition, Datawatch works with OEM customers who embed Datawatch components and technologies in their own solutions. The corporate address for Datawatch is 234 Ballardvale Street, Wilmington, MA 01887; telephone [phone], fax [phone]; http://www.datawatch.com.

Monarch, Monarch/ES, Monarch Data Pump, Monarch/ES Web, Monarch/ES Report Publisher, Redwing, Quetzal and Quetzal/SC are trademarks of Datawatch Corporation.