Skytide Reveals Hidden Details Behind KPIs.

Next-Generation Analytics Technology Draws Intelligence From Traditional and Non-Traditional Data Sources to Deliver Unprecedented Insight Into Key Drivers of Business Performance

SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Skytide, a leading provider of next-generation analytical solutions, today announced general availability of Skytide Analytical Platform Version 2.0, the first business intelligence software that links traditional and non-traditional data sources to uncover the hidden details behind a company's key business metrics. Skytide software concurrently analyzes and correlates unstructured, semi-structured and structured data to provide an unprecedented view of what is driving business performance.

While companies have found that monitoring and measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provides a high-level picture of how the company is performing, many are eager to delve deeper into their KPIs to understand the factors influencing particular metrics. For example, if a call center's average call handling time (AHT) is increasing, this could be caused by slow agents, poor training, or flawed call routing. However, AHT could also be increasing because agents are spending more time up-selling customers or having longer conversations that lead to improved customer satisfaction.

Skytide Analytical Platform 2.0 allows companies to understand the root causes behind these changes in key business metrics. By using Skytide to generate insights that are correlated across different sources of information, business analysts can understand how decisions will impact interdependent business metrics, such as Web site traffic and call volume. These insights enable companies to reduce exposure to hidden risks, ensure compliance, optimize business processes and increase profitability.

"Skytide customers are seeing tangible results from our technology in a fraction of the cost and time of existing tools on the market. Better insights lead to better operational decisions, reduced risk and more effective workers, which is what every operating group within a major corporation needs," said Keith Feingold, chief executive officer of Skytide.

Breakthrough Technology Unlocks Value of New Information Channels

According to the Gartner Group, nearly 80% of today's data is unstructured, and new information channels such as e-mail, voice-over-IP, cellular and wireless networks, instant messaging, text messaging, and video- on-demand are rapidly creating huge stores of non-traditional data. While most businesses are eager to turn this new data into useful information, many find that their current BI technology, designed for a simpler data landscape, cannot deliver robust and thorough analysis of unstructured or semi-structured data.

Skytide's breakthrough technology was designed from the ground up to concurrently address traditional and non-traditional sources of data. By using XML as a common layer to tie together different pieces of the BI stack into an integrated, "virtual" technology stack, Skytide dramatically reduces system complexity while offering advanced functionality that cannot be achieved by traditional BI technology:

-- Correlated analysis of structured and unstructured data from any source;

-- Unique types of analysis, such as hierarchy, path and traffic and entity matching analysis;

-- Ability to operate on data where it resides, with no movement or restructuring of data required;

-- Automatic generation of analytical models, offering faster time to insight and little involvement from IT.

"Traditional BI systems were designed for a much simpler data analysis landscape than the one faced by many of today's companies," said Joseph Rozenfeld, Skytide co-founder and vice president of products. "The Skytide Analytical Platform uses the power of XML to turn disparate sources of mission-critical corporate data of any size and format into powerful analyses and reports. Analytical solutions built on our platform work where traditional BI either fails or is prohibitively expensive and slow."

Skytide also announced today general availability of Skytide Insight for Genesys, the first in a series of industry-specific analytics solutions being developed by Skytide for organizations that generate significant amounts of unstructured and semi-structured data, such as Web site traffic logs, contracts, emails and call center records.

"Through extensive research and conversations with customers, we have identified certain business areas where the ability to analyze both structured and unstructured data is imperative to the business," added Feingold. "By building a series of vertical solutions that include pre-defined analyses, we hope to accelerate the adoption of Skytide technology where it is most urgently needed."

About Skytide

Skytide is a leading provider of next-generation analytical solutions that provide an unprecedented view into what is driving business performance. Skytide's breakthrough technology uses XML as a common layer to dramatically reduce system complexity while offering advanced functionality that cannot be achieved by traditional BI technology. Application areas for Skytide technology include contact centers, risk and security management, compliance, and other areas of business that generate significant volumes of mission- critical unstructured and semi-structured data. Skytide partners include IBM, Sun Microsystems and Inxight. Based in San Mateo, Calif., Skytide is a privately held company funded by Granite Ventures and El Dorado Ventures. For more information about Skytide, please visit http://www.skytide.com/.

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CONTACT: Leyl Master Black of Marketing Alchemist [phone], or [e-mail], for Skytide

Web site: http://www.skytide.com/