Sagent Demos Tight Interoperability With Microsoft's Data Warehouse Repository; Sagent Chosen to Present At Microsoft's Data Warehousing Workshop.

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 1998--Sagent Technology, Inc., provider of the leading turnkey solution for bringing data marts to the Web, demonstrated today the close interoperability of its data movement and data access technologies with the Microsoft Repository and Data Transformation Services.

Microsoft will deliver these technologies later this year as part of SQL Server 7.0. Sagent's featured participation at the Microsoft Repository Data Warehousing Workshop underscores its close relationship with Microsoft in its efforts to provide customers with the easiest, most cost-effective way to develop Web-enabled data marts.

"Sagent has always leveraged Microsoft technologies to give its customers the best data mart solution, and we will continue to do so as we deliver functionality that will complement all of the different capabilities in SQL Server 7.0," said Ken Gardner, Sagent's president and CEO. "Microsoft is going to establish a powerful data warehousing platform, and we will be right there with them to embrace and extend their technology where it makes sense for customers implementing data marts."

"Sagent offers an excellent upgrade path from the Data Transformation Services (DTS), included with SQL Server 7.0, for users that need to create complex transformation processes or build star schemas," said Steve Murchie, data warehousing product manager at Microsoft. "Committed third-party vendors like Sagent are critical to our strategy of making the Microsoft Data Warehousing Framework an open industry standard by providing SQL Server customers with a wide range of options when designing their data warehouse or data mart."

Sagent Leverages the Microsoft Repository and DTS

Sagent demonstrated integration with the Microsoft Repository which allows users to easily leverage both product sets to deliver a cost-effective and timely data mart solution. This integration gives users the ability to share data warehousing or data mart metadata and convert Microsoft's Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages into Sagent Data Flow plans.

Sagent users can import and export metadata between the Sagent Repository and the Microsoft Repository from within Sagent Design Studio, Sagent's visual environment for building and providing access to data marts. This metadata can include descriptive information about data sources and targets as well as information about transformation processes. An open exchange of metadata promotes easy interoperability between different vendors' data warehousing products. Users can leverage this interoperability to create unique solutions for their data mart implementations.

The value of this interoperability is demonstrated by the Sagent Data Mart Solution's ability to complement Microsoft's DTS, their transformation product. Users can easily bring a basic DTS package into Sagent and then extend it with Sagent's powerful transformation capabilities. With a transformation environment that combines pre-built functionality and sophisticated customization options, Sagent's data movement technology is ideal for SQL Server users that require more complex transformations, such as the loading of star schema-based data marts. Sagent simplifies common loading tasks such as synthetic key generation, key lookup to confirm fact and dimension table data integrity, and time dimension creation.

Sagent's Microsoft Heritage

From its inception, Sagent has let organizations take maximum advantage of the price/performance benefits of the Microsoft platforms when deploying data marts. Sagent's client products support Windows 95 and Windows NT, and the Sagent application server runs on Windows NT. In June 1995, Sagent was selected as one of the initial vendors to license Visual Basic for Applications, and in May 1997, Sagent was chosen to be a member of Microsoft's Alliance for Data Warehousing.

About Sagent Technology

Sagent Technology was founded in June 1995 to make business data more usable by bringing it closer to decision-makers. The Sagent solution lets organizations bring data marts to the Web quickly and cost-effectively with a turnkey offering that includes best-of-breed products and comprehensive professional services.

Sagent is a privately-owned company that was co-founded by Ken Gardner and John Zicker. Its customers include BellSouth, Cellstar, JP Morgan and Mastercard, and the company has strategic relationships with Oracle Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and Ralph Kimball Associates. Sagent is funded by Crosspoint Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Greylock Limited Partnerships and U.S. Venture partners. -0-

Note to Editors: Sagent's web site is located at www.sagenttech.com.

Sagent and Information Studio are registered trademarks of Sagent Technology, Inc. Sagent Design Studio and the Sagent logo are trademarks of Sagent Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sagent Technology, Inc.

Perry Mizota, 650/496-3109

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or

Evans Communications

Cathy Wright, 650/595-1871

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