IBM and Sinper reach remarketing agreement for Sinper's On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) software.

WARREN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 1995--Sinper Corporation and IBM Corporation announced today that IBM will remarket a new breed of multidimensional database and spreadsheet integration software, classified as On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) software, from Sinper Corporation in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. IBM Corporation will also provide post-sales support and services.

Sinper's TM/1 Perspectives are the integration of the powerful TM/1 multidimensional database and Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. TM/1 enables the end-users to easily create effective and efficient decision support systems for tasks such as budgeting, consolidation, ad-hoc analysis, sales and marketing analysis, and preparing scheduled and ad hoc reports. In general, OLAP products provide users easy access to data in any combination, sequence, or perspective. Sinper's OLAP software distinguishes itself from other OLAP products with its "dynamism" -- the ability to immediately update changes made by any user throughout all levels of consolidated data, such that all users have access to the most up-to-date and consistent data all the time; the ability for users to do real-time "what if" analysis at any level of detail or consolidation; and the ability to do consolidations on-the-fly, without the need for scheduled batch processing. Dr. E.F. Codd, a former IBMer and the father of RDBMS technology, stated in his product evaluation, "Since its initial appearance, TM/1 has evolved to become one of the most robust OLAP products in the marketplace."

"IBM represents a major expansion of our sales and marketing capability," says Richard Hu, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Sinper Corporation, "and will enable Sinper to compete more aggressively in the fast-growing OLAP and decision support systems arena." Jay McGinley, vice president of Strategic Business Development at Sinper Corporation, stated, "The partnership with IBM will enable us to deliver the leading `dynamic' OLAP solution to the rapidly growing number of organizations looking for a better budgeting or financial planning, analysis and reporting solution."

For more information, call Richard Hu at 908/755-9880.

(see following text for background information)

Background Information

About The Company

Founded in 1984, Sinper Corporation develops multidimensional database and spreadsheet integration software, classified as On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) software, that provides an unparalleled level of performance and a quantum reduction in total system costs. Sinper products are developed to fully satisfy the needs of decision support tasks, such as budgeting, consolidation, ad hoc analysis, modeling, sales and marketing analysis, and preparing scheduled and ad hoc reports.

Widely praised in reviews by computer and financial industry publications, Sinper's software products are used by 10,000 users in over 1,200 corporations worldwide, including AT&T, Hewlett Packard, BMW, Barclay's Bank, Bristol Myers Squibb, Exxon, Frito Lay, GTE, Pepsi Cola, Salomon Brothers and The Equitable.

Sinper's products are distributed in over 20 countries worldwide, including U.S., Germany, U.K., Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, etc.

About The Products

TM/1 Perspectives and TM/1 Spreadsheet Connector Heart of High Performance, Cost Effective Decision Support Systems(TM)

TM/1 PERSPECTIVES and TM/1 Server (collectively referred to as TM/1) are the integration of the powerful TM/1 multidimensional database to Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet environment. TM/1 enables the end-user to easily create effective and efficient decision support systems for tasks such as budgeting, consolidation, ad-hoc analysis, sales and marketing analysis, and preparing scheduled and ad hoc reports.

TM/1 achieves the highest performance through instant and minimal-calculations, and eliminates the need of batch run common to other OLAP products. It also provides unparalleled flexibility in presenting the data in any combination, sequence, or perspective for the purpose of analysis, planning, or reporting.

Through advanced algorithms, TM/1 typically requires less than one tenth of the memory, disk and processor speed requirements of other OLAP products. Thus making the total decision support system affordable to most knowledge workers.

Differences between TM/1 and the other multidimensional and OLAP products: TM/1 puts Instant Calculation in OLAP(TM)

Instant Calculation - Among the multidimensional and OLAP products in the marketplace, only TM/1 provides the Instant Calculation:

o the ability to immediately see changes made by any user at any level of consolidated data, such that all users have access to the most up-to-date and consistent data all the time;

o the ability for users to do real-time "what if" analysis at any level of detail or consolidation;

o the ability to perform consolidation on-the-fly and minimal-calculation, thus eliminates the batch update delays that prevent creative analysis;

o the ability to consolidate data faster than typical OLAP databases by one to two orders of magnitude.

With Instant Calculation, the total start to finish time is reduced by order of magnitude.

Ability to handle a large amount of multidimensional data at a fraction of hardware cost - With the most advanced hypersparse data management and the ability to perform consolidation on demand, TM/1 eliminates the need for storing incremental consolidations. Thus TM/1 can handle the largest amounts of multidimensional data among the available OLAP products on a comparable hardware platform.

Maximum flexibility in the presentation of the business data - With a few clicks of the mouse, TM/1 provides users with a complete and comprehensive set of functions to present the business data in any desired combination, sequence or perspectives. Partial examples include:

"drill-down" to see detailed data.

"roll-up" to see summary data.

"slice-and-dice" to get any perspectives of the data.

"collapse and expand" to see quarterly or monthly data.

"pivot and rotate" to arrange data by rows or by columns.

"drag and drop" to easily move data from row to column and vise

versa

"zero suppression" to display only non-zero data.

"dimension stacking" to show multiple criteria per row or

column.

"dimensional subset" to define a preset selection of data

"query" to select data that meet the desired criteria.

Standalone and Networked Usage - TM/1 can be used in a networked environment, as well as on a laptop for maximum mobility. Full TM/1 capability is available on both standalone and networked products.

Supports distributed computing on multiple servers - TM/1 can distribute multidimensional tables onto multiple servers to enhance performance. The distributed computing on multiple servers is transparent to the end users and does not affect the way users work with TM/1 at all.

Full Integration With the Macro Programming Language of the Host Spreadsheet - Every TM/1 menu command and function is completely integrated into the macro programming language of the host spreadsheet program. This allows experienced spreadsheet users to program complex systems using the macro programming language of the host spreadsheet.

Full Database Update Capability - With its seamless integration in the spreadsheet program, TM/1 lets the user enter data into the database simply by typing numbers into their spreadsheet. Numbers entered into the spreadsheet flow automatically to the database without the user having to run an update procedure.

Access security definable to individual data point - TM/1 provides a full security system including user groups and password encryption that allows the user to define data access rights (read, write, none) down to the individual data point or spreadsheet cell.

Full audit trail/recovery capabilities - TM/1 maintains a full audit trail of all changes made to the multidimensional database. While most other multidimensional databases maintain an audit trail, TM/1 allows changes made at any time to be fully reversible, based upon any criterion (User, time, dimension element). The audit trail ensures that full recovery of data is possible in the event of a server crash.

Complete Flexibility in Data Structure - TM/1 makes no presumptions about your data model. The dimensions are defined as required by the user. THere are no requirements as to the order of dimensions and TM/1 does not require the use of certain predefined dimensions (such as time or currency). The only presumption that TM/1 makes is that the end user knows his/her business best and is the best person to structure the data model.

Multiple multidimensional data tables - In order to organize business in the most intuitive manner to the users, TM/1 supports multiple multidimensional data tables, each with a different dimension, or data-structure, that is ideally organized for the particular business division or reporting entity. At the corporate headquarters or other logical consolidation level, a single spreadsheet worksheet can still simultaneously access data from all the tables.

Support both string and numeric data - TM/1 multidimensional database supports both string and numeric data.

TM/1 has a complete multidimensional modeling language that permits the advanced users to literally do anything they want. The following are a few examples:

Full Multidimensional Modeling Language - TM/1 supports all arithmetical functions, logical functions, and a number of financial, trigonometric, and lookup functions. Calculations can be defined intra-dimensionally, across dimensions and across data tables.

Inter-tabular relationships (multidimensional joins) - TM/1 multidimensional modeling language allows the user to define relationships between tables (analogous to relational joins). For example, a user might structure a table that shows data in both Local Currency and Home Office Currency. He/she can build a separate table containing exchange rates by country over time and then write one simple formula that defines home office currency as the product of local currency times the appropriate exchange rate from the exchange rate table.

CONTACT: Marlena Villafane, 212/260-0800

or

marlenav(at symbol)pipeline.com