Pinnacle Decision Systems Introduces PinnPoint Plus 3.0 Utility Tool for Maintaining, Updating 4GL Applications.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1999--

Market-leading Y2K tool for FOCUS Is Extended For Migrating Systems to

New Environments

Pinnacle Decision Systems today announced a utility tool enabling users to manage and maintain existing FOCUS applications and, when appropriate, migrate them to new languages and environments. The new product, PinnPoint Plus 3.0, is an advance on earlier Pinnacle products for resolving year2000 problems in Focus systems.

PinnPoint Plus 3.0 can be used to maintain applications in various phases, including: documenting system architecture through a visual "family tree;" migrating current systems to newer technologies; and debugging. The new version also retains both the remediation and auditing capabilities that have made PinnPoint the leading y2k solution for Focus.

In fact, Pinnacle's success resolving hundreds of year2000 systems prepared them for adapting PinnPoint's data analysis engine to new processes, new data fields, even new architectures. Pinnacle CEO Stephen Brown said, "Migrating these business systems to client/server or Internet environments leverages both our business experience and the PinnPoint tool."

The Focus language is especially popular in the financial services industry, where Pinnacle already does a great deal of consulting work with banks and insurance companies. "During the course of this work, customers have told us that they need to move to new environments such as client/server and the web, for current systems as well as the applications they are developing beyond the year 2000," said Brown.

Pinnacle's y2k experience brought customers' data-quality issues to the forefront, he added. "The insurance industry is a prime example. Business professionals outside the IT departments often use 4GLs to build claims-history systems. Tracking the patterns of accidents helps these analysts determine risks, or even root-out fraud. Obviously, date arithmetic must be unquestionably accurate, or data quality just won't be there."

Migrating from 4GLs

Migrating to a new environment such as a SQL database requires several discrete steps, accomplished by a combination of technology and consulting. Having worked with Focus and newer technologies for nearly 13 years, creating a market-leading utility in the process, Pinnacle is uniquely positioned to help the large community of Focus users transform their systems.

For example, as customers finish their y2k work, many discover that some of these systems no longer fit their companies' business model. Pinnacle consultants help these companies determine the new business model, and produce a work proposal, which typically involves a license for PinnPoint Plus.

Only then can the technology decisions be broached. Getting to a new environment with a "fork-lift" migration, represented by an attitude of "Don't touch it, don't add anything new, just move it," doesn't work, Brown said. "It doesn't accommodate changes that have gone on in the customer organization. And just having a browser, which is some company's answer to modernizing a system, doesn't help integrate other products," Brown explained.

"That's where the combination of Pinnacle's business and technology experience comes into play."

Although Pinnacle designed PinnPoint for end-users analyzing their own code, technical experts also use it for analyzing corporate production systems. PinnPoint Plus 3.0 is compatible with all major source-operating platforms. Code to be scanned is consolidated on the host platform-- MVS/TSO, VMS, VM/CMS, UNIX and PC-- and then ported to the PC. All types of control programs, such as CLISTs, JCL, and EXEC can be downloaded and processed.

Initial pricing is $5,000 per seat. Additional information on PinnPoint Plus and other Pinnacle products and services is available at www.pinndec.com.

Established in 1987, Pinnacle Decision Systems, Inc. is a privately held professional services and software development company that provides complete, creative solutions for information management needs. The company has two major divisions, which use the latest technologies to design and develop information systems, including client/server, Internet, and data warehousing applications. The Consulting Division creates custom solutions for Fortune 1000 companies, universities, and government agencies; the Software Development Division designs, develops and markets software products, including the PinnPoint family, the only independent utility tool for users of the FOCUS language. FOCUS is a product of Information Builders Inc.

Pinnacle Decision Systems is headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut, with additional offices in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and an expanding global presence.

PinnPoint and PinnPoint Plus are registered trademarks of Pinnacle Decision Systems, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners, and are used for identification purposes only.