GemStone leverages object application server scalability to capture $4.5 million deal; Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, Canada, selects GemStone; Plans delivery of Next-Generation Insurance Systems Via WWW.

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 1996--GemStone(R) Systems Inc. announced today the largest license agreement in the company's history, a $4.5 million (U.S.), five-year enterprise agreement with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC).

GemStone's object application server will provide the persistent application execution environment for ICBC's Next Generation Insurance System (NGIS). The NGIS application will be used by independent insurance agents throughout the province to provide automobile coverage and, through ICBC, vehicle registration and licensing for the government of British Columbia.

NGIS, a key component of ICBC's business process re-engineering initiative, is an object-oriented application that is being developed in GemStone Smalltalk. To cost-effectively and efficiently meet the needs of its independent insurance agents, each with their own varied hardware systems, ICBC decided to leverage GemStone via a World Wide Web (WWW)-based intranet to provide universal application delivery thus avoiding costly hardware upgrades.

"We chose GemStone because of its superior fit and its ability to scale to meet the needs of the NGIS application," said Richard Nelson, vice president, information services at ICBC. "As we continue to focus on our customers, and as our market becomes increasingly more competitive, we need to be able to rapidly enhance our applications to meet changing customer demands and market conditions. The GemStone environment provides that for us."

When deployed, the NGIS will service approximately 4,500 users throughout the course of a business day and handle about 1,000 concurrent users at peak utilization. It will maintain information on the 2.5 million British Columbia drivers and vehicle owners served by ICBC. The application has storage capacity requirements exceeding 30 gigabytes.

"As more and more companies explore the use of Smalltalk for their business-critical applications, I think they will find, as ICBC has, that GemStone can provide excellent value in terms of reliability and scalability," said Bryan Grummon, GemStone president and CEO. "ICBC has set out a comprehensive, well thought-out initiative to maintain its competitiveness and control operating expenses. We are excited to be a part of it."

The enterprise license agreement, signed by GemStone and ICBC, provides for an initial payment of more than $2 million and will total $4.5 million over five years including software, training and consulting. The agreement allows ICBC to use GemStone for all current and future application development. For example, ICBC intends to use GemStone to re-engineer other applications in its portfolio.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is a Crown Corporation. Canada's largest property and casualty insurer, ICBC is the provider of mandatory minimum vehicle/driver insurance throughout the province. Minimum coverage includes no-fault accident benefits, third-party legal liability, underinsured motorist protection, hit and run coverage and inverse liability coverage.

In addition, ICBC competes with private insurance companies to provide optional coverage such as third-party extension, collision, comprehensive and specified perils.

GemStone Systems Inc. provides Smalltalk-based business object server technology for Fortune 1000-class corporations involved in business re-engineering efforts based on object technology. The GemStone business object server supports the demanding requirements of business-critical, enterprisewide application environments and provides seamless co-existence with existing relational and legacy systems.

GemStone Systems Inc. is located at 15400 NW Greenbrier Parkway, Suite 280, Beaverton, Ore. 97006. Phone: [phone]; Facsimile: 503/629-8556; Toll-free: 800/243-9369; website: http://www.gemstone.com; e-mail: [e-mail].

CONTACT: GemStone Systems Inc.

Brian Edwards, 503/531-2577, [e-mail]

or

KVO Public Relations

Ann Dupuis or Erika Houge, 503/221-1551

[e-mail]

or

ICBC

Brian Geary, 604/443-4650, [e-mail]

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email addresses noted in this

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-- brian AND gemstone.com

-- ann_dupuis AND kvo.com

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